Rev. Jonathan Wilkins M.Div. '01: I Have Only Just a Minute
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Posted By: HBCU CONNECT on February 14, 2022 Check out this video from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia! Rev. Jonathan Wilkins is an emerging voice, servant leader, minister, husband, father, trailblazer, and consummate business leader. Rev. Wilkins has followed a bi-vocational path in business and ministry. He currently serves as Pastor of the Smyrna Word of Life Baptist Church in Atlanta and Senior Consultant with Deloitte’s Leadership and Learning consulting practice where he is developing learning development strategies for Fortune 500 companies. Jonathan served five years as the Team Chaplain for the Chicago Bears preaching and teaching weekly and provided pastoral care/counseling to the players, coaches and staff. Rev. Wilkins has served on the Assistant Pastoral staff at New Life Christian Church (10,000 member church) and has served as Executive Pastor of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church a (5,000 member congregation). While at Fellowship, Rev. Wilkins served as the Director of Fellowship’s Educational and Economic Development Corp (FEED) where he managed the church’s expansion initiative: the Legacy Project. In 2012, Rev. Wilkins wrote a proposal which led the Green Family to purchase and donate the former Johnson Products distribution center located at 87th and the Dan Ryan. The donation was valued at nearly $8 million and was the largest donation on record to any African American church. Rev. Wilkins helped fundraise nearly $2 million for predevelopment fees and property management expenses. Prior to graduate school and ministry, Rev. Wilkins worked five years in the for-profit, not-for-profit, and quasi-government sectors focusing on community and economic development. Most notably, Rev. Wilkins Worked with the Managing Director in developing the western Central Business District of Atlanta through Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which funded eight urban redevelopment projects through bond proceeds worth $60 million in TIF funding. In 2003, while working at Allen AME Church he successfully proposed and won a $10 million grant for the church to develop an affordable housing multi-use building. Rev. Wilkins was ordained in 2008 with the Progressive National Baptist Convention, under the leadership of the Reverend Charles G. Adams, Senior Pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church and Professor of Christian Ethics and Ministry at the Harvard Divinity School. While in graduate school, he served as an Associate Minister at Union Baptist Church where he led the church's mission ministry to a local public housing project. In 2008, his final year of graduate school, Rev. Wilkins was elected Senior Pastor at Western Avenue Baptist Church in Cambridge, where he focused on preaching and teaching God's word, creating impactful outreach initiatives, and developing sustainable policies and procedures. During his three-year tenure, the church's membership nearly doubled. In 2009, while serving as Senior Pastor of WABC, he completed four years of graduate work at Harvard University becoming the only student to graduate with both a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Master of Divinity from the Harvard Divinity School all to the glory of God. Rev. Wilkins earned a Bachelor of Arts in General Management from Morehouse College in 2001, where he served as Freshman and Junior Class President, and founded the Brother-to-Brother peer group-mentoring program. Rev. Wilkins is a Dallas/Fort-Worth native and attended P. L. Dunbar High School where he founded a peer group-mentoring program still thriving 20 years later. He is married to the lovely Paris H. Wilkins (Master Personal Trainer and Indoor Spin Cyclist). Together they have three beautiful children Yuri Crenshaw (17), Jonathan Wilkins, Jr. (12) and Princeton Wilkins (2). If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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From Gahanna, OH Central State University class of 1995 Member Since June 1999 |
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