Fort Worth Dunbar grad Wilkins answers call to be Chicago Bears chaplain

The life of the Rev. Jonathan Wilkins has taken a 180-degree turn over the past year.

“At one point this time last year I was literally unemployed, broke, didn’t have any money, was running through my savings and was struggling in this economy,” Wilkins said. “I was struggling just to make ends meet.

“I have a [6-year old] son [named Jonathan Wilkins Jr.] that I was trying to support, and it was very difficult to support him when I didn’t have any money. But I just prayed, I sold my car, rode the train and just really watched my spending, and I moved in with a roommate and sacrificed a lot.”

Several months ago, the tide began to turn for Wilkins. First, he secured a job at Jones Lang LaSalle — a Chicago corporate real estate firm.

Then, two months ago the Bears hired Wilkins to be their chaplain. As it turns out, it’s a tailor-made job for Wilkins, who has an affinity for counseling and giving life-altering advice.

“I got a text message from my former youth pastor [Chris Hill] and he said the Chicago Bears were looking for someone,” Wilkins said. “He gave them a list and included my name, and they brought me in and one thing led to another and here I am.

“I moved [to Chicago] four years ago and had you told me I would have been the chaplain for the Chicago Bears I would have never guessed it. But it just goes to show you that A, God is faithful, B, the minute you change your mind is the moment God begins to change your life, and the minute you say I can do this in spite of what people say, in spite of circumstances, in spite of what society might suggest, if you believe it and you receive it within yourself, you can have it.”

Raised in the Stop Six section in southeast Fort Worth in a single-parent home by his mother, Cathy Wilkins-Moffitt, Wilkins was a drum major and student body president at Dunbar, where his grandmother, Earnestine Williams, served as a nurse.

In addition, Wilkins and some of his Dunbar classmates founded a peer-to-peer mentorship program in 1996 called Distinguished Gentlemen, which encourages students to pursue higher education. That program remains intact today at Dunbar.

“It was a small group of young men who got together and said, ‘We want to do better, we want to be better,’” Wilkins said. “I understand they’re still functionally well, so I’m very, very proud of those young men for keeping it going.”

“My mother believes strongly in education and she had me reading all these African-American history books and learning about key figures, because she felt like your father may not be in your life but that doesn’t keep you from understanding your history or being around mentors,” Wilkins said. “So books were my mentors, and she had friends at her job that actually went to Morehouse that mentored me.

“She told me if I wrote an essay that she’d take me to visit Morehouse. So she took me to visit when I was 12 and that visit changed my life. I walked around campus and I saw nothing but well-spoken, articulate African-American men. I said this is where I wanted to be, I said whatever I do I want to be clean, I want to be sharp, I want to be on-point and I want to be well-articulate.”

The 36-year-old Wilkins won over the Bears with what Jerry Butler describes as “divine intervention.” The director of player engagement for the Bears, Butler is the man who hired Wilkins and is also the man who was impressed with his unwavering inner spirit.

“He’s a great storyteller and he has just great people skills, and I love that about him. He’s a guy that can communicate to young men and to young people, and kind of understand the challenges that they have. I was very well impressed with his background and his commitment and love for the Lord, so those are all pluses that I think will help to build and create a foundation of our football team.”

Wilkins, who was recently nominated to be on the advisory board of the University of Chicago, subconsciously had been quietly preparing for just what the Bears need from him.

“I didn’t know any of that would prepare me to give a 15-minute lesson to the Chicago Bears. So everything happens for a reason, but you’ve got to be faithful when things don’t line up because when they do, that’s not the time to prepare, that’s the time to be who you already know who you are.”

With the Bears, Wilkins will lead the team’s chapel service and Bible study, and also be available to have conversations with players who might be struggling with certain issues in their life. It’s a journey Wilkins can certainly relate to.

“You’re talking about someone who grew up in a single family home that statistically I’m not supposed to be where I am now,” he said. “I remember talking to one of my classmates at Dunbar, and we had to have been 16-17 years old, and we said to each other that there has to be more to life than what we’re seeing right now in Fort Worth.

Butler is excited to have what he describes as a world-class chaplain with youthful enthusiasm. And his long-term plans are to have Wilkins “help to create a ministry program second to none” in the National Football League.

“Our primary objective is to have men to have a place that they know they can go to seek comfort, direction, truth, understanding and develop a strong foundation that they’re going to need as professional athletes, for one, in their current position,” Butler said. “And as they transition to their unlived life, they need that same foundation for the adversities that will come ahead of them and the foundation to be the fathers in their families, the husbands in their lives and also the pillars in their community.