We were lucky to catch up with Jordan Dunbar recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jordan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

The kindest thing that anyone has ever done for me has to go back to my old high school coach, Coach Ron. When I was in high school, my only aspiration was to make my high school basketball team. The school that I played for had a history of “politics” when it came to their team. Essentially, if you don’t make the Freshman team or higher, you won’t ever make the team! When I was a sophomore, I tried out for the team, and I got cut. Disappointed, but motivated, I continued to practice the only way that I knew how, and that was by myself. Later that year, my family and me started going to a new church in our area. One Sunday, a man approached me and my mom and asked if I would be interested in playing for his basketball team. With the desire to want to get better and play high school ball, I agreed.

For three years, I played for Coach Ron and the Colorado Miners. Coach Ron pushed me incredibly hard during that time making me run suicide after suicide, push up after push up, and drill after drill to help make me a better player. Through the years I would continue to try out for my High School’s team, and I got cut my junior year as well. The day after tryouts, I called Coach Ron and told him that I had been cut, and he told me that I had one more year, and that making a team my senior year at the school I was going would be incredibly hard. He then proceeded to tell me that he would help me, and push me even harder to help me reach my goal. This looked like 4am Saturday practices with just me and him BEFORE our normal 8am practice every week. He would give me drills to work on during the week, and kept me playing in games during that year. I grew in leaps and bounds skill wise, and I saw the sacrifice that Coach Ron made on a weekly basis to help make me a better player.

Unfortunately, my senior year came, and again, I got cut. It was one of the hardest blows that I’ve ever felt in my life, as the coach at my school told me, “you are good enough to make this team…but we’re going with someone else.” Words that still haunt me at times to this day. I remember telling Coach Ron, and with tears in his eyes he said that he was super proud of me and he knows that I gave it everything that I had. To this day he continues to mentor me and be a light in my life.

Though him coaching me was one of the kindest things I’ve ever experienced, the real kindness was shown to me off of the court. When there were games that were too far for my mom to drive me, he would pick me up and drop me off. When my parents couldn’t afford to pay for my tournaments, he covered them IN FULL. When I was down and needed a pick me up, he was always there. He was a devout follower of Jesus, and it showed in everything that he did. There was never a moment where he didn’t talk about his love for Jesus, and how basketball would one day end, but our lives will be defined by the time we spend with people and with God. Those seeds that he planted helped to sprout the faith that I have today, and I thank the Lord for him! I didn’t do anything but play basketball for the guy, but he gave everything that he had for me, and that kindness I will never forget.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Jordan Dunbar and I am a Youth Pastor at Smoky Hill Vineyard. I got into this industry truly through what I believe to be a calling from God. I wanted nothing to do with kids, preaching, or church for a lot of my life, and even got a degree in Human Services and Counseling to show for it. However when the Pandemic hit, and my love for God grew, I found this desire to be a Youth Pastor, and thanks to my mentor Frankie Jones, I was able to.

Today, I serve the students of my church by teaching them who Jesus is, what He did for them, and what that means for them. My biggest desire in life is to lead every student that I come across to Jesus, and let Him do the rest. I’ve been in ministry for about 4 years now, but before that I worked in schools as a Paraprofessional, and educational assistant, and an Office Assistant. I also coached basketball for an organization called Kinglife Basketball Academy, and worked with kids as early as Kindergarten-High School. What all of these have in common, besides the fact that they are still youth, is that each of them have a heart and a journey that is so unique to them, and all are asking the question “what am I supposed to do?” My role in my professional life has been to walk with people in this amazing journey of the self. To stand in the gap for them, encouraging them when needed, being a shoulder to cry on, counseling them, and loving on them as well. Whether that is helping them wrestle through the reality of an invisible God and showing them that this God loves them, or just listening to them share their dreams and aspirations with me, my job is always to lead them back to the path that is set out for them.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I personally had to unlearn was “with hard work, you can accomplish anything.” That is simply not true. The problem with this proverb and this lesson that I, and many others, picked up is the misconception that your hard work only will change the trajectory of life, and that’s not true. What got me to where I am today (yes hard work played a role in it) was the relationships that I made. I am not saying that you should not work hard in life, quiet the opposite, but what makes things work is the strength of your team, the connections that you form with people, the amount of times you’re willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone to meet someone in theirs, that is what accomplishes things. My old basketball coach use to say “the strength of the wolf is the pack and the strength of the pack is the wolf.” IT’s not just about us, we are not the heroes of the story. When we realize that there truly is no “I” in hard work, and reach out to those to make the bigger dream grow, that is when we start to accomplish things.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

The most successful resource in my field is curiosity. I’ve met many people who have gone to seminary, had decades worth of experience in my field, but what I’ve seen that sets some apart is a curiosity that they have about God, about people, and about themselves. Curiosity shows others that we have not arrived. Too many people get degrees and think they know everything, and that’s when they stop learning and growing. Curiosity helps us to learn about the people, the world, and the circumstances around us, and when we show people that, they see that we care. My biggest goal is that I never lose that curiosity no matter how long I am in this field. I never want to feel like I know it all, that I’ve made it to the mountaintop, as long as I continue serving in this work, I will always look to be curious.

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