BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Jason Williams was once acquainted with the cold walls of jail. He was arrested six times after being involved in gang violence and dealing drugs.
He once faced 60 years in jail.
However, after unsuccessfully searching for the meaning of life through sin, he said he placed his trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Williams is now the urban ministries pastor at Briarwood Presbyterian Church, where he works with urban youth in poor communities in Birmingham, including Fairfield.
“The Lord spoke to me,” Williams said. “It went like ‘I gave you all of those experiences because I’m going to send you back into those communities. Except this time, you’re not going with poison. I’m sending you back to do my work and to share the message of hope.’”
Williams grew up near Washington D.C., where he became sexually active at the age of 13, first used drugs at 14, and sold drugs by his freshman year of high school.
He was a high school all-American basketball player, and he continued his athletic career at George Mason University. He had a successful freshman year by making the all-conference team, but his grades suffered in the classroom.
By that point he had fathered a child and had another on the way, and he was selling $10,000 worth of drugs per week.
That summer he was arrested and charged with three drug-related felonies. He was then kicked out of school.
Williams was arrested five more times later that year.
However, the event that hit him the hardest was witnessing his best friend being murdered.
“It’s an incident that still plagues me to this day, because I look back and had no words to offer him in his final moments,” Williams said. “I had no hope. I had nothing to tell him. It was basically his life was coming to an end.”
Williams later transferred to Georgia State University, where he succeeded in basketball but “blew college off.”
He returned home to take summer classes, but he returned to the life he once lived.
“I felt like I resigned myself,” Williams said. “I felt like this is what I’m going to do the rest of my life. I know there’s consequences, but I’m smarter and I know what I’m doing.”
Georgia State called him that summer after realizing he had not gone to any classes. He quit school there because it would hinder his basketball career.
He moved to Alabama with two bags of clothes to play basketball at Birmingham-Southern College.
Within two weeks, he met his future wife.
“She was the first Christian I met who didn’t really shove Christianity down my throat,” Williams said. “There was also a conviction of sin and an awareness of a need for grace and mercy…”
Williams landed a job within six months of graduating, but was fired for threatening to kill somebody.
This was when he met God and was saved.
“It felt like hundred pound weights falling off my back,” Williams said. “Not religion, not Christianity, but a true relationship with God.”
Restoration Academy Spiritual Formation Director Ben Sciacca believes Williams’ background has prepared him for his role at Briarwood.
“I think he’s able to navigate in and out of different circles very fluidly because he knows the culture, he’s seen every aspect of the culture, and he was a product of the culture,” Sciacca said.
Williams believes his job is what he was called to do.
“What I’m doing, I don’t believe is sacrifice,” Williams said. “I believe that’s our responsibility. And I believe that’s any professing Christian’s responsibility.”