SC Rep. Wendell Jones approaches life and leadership as a teacher and a student

When people see South Carolina House of Representative Wendell Jones, they see a man who wears many hats — an entrepreneur, a pastor, and a politician.

But Jones, 52, sees himself as a person who’s overcome struggles, ones out of his control, through his early life and upbringing, and internal ones he’s faced that have almost held him back from success.

With Upstate roots, Jones was born in Spartanburg. He moved to Florida as a preschooler before returning to the Upstate six years later. In that time, Jones was an only child to a single mother and grew up in poverty. Jones said he and his mother shared a room that was a quarter of the size of the office he works in now. But he said the adversity helped him become the person he is today.

"It was tough," Jones said. "My mom’s first job down there was a janitorial job. We couldn't afford a full apartment, so we lived in a rooming house. That experience absolutely shaped me, because I know what it feels like to want and know what it feels like to not have enough."

While in high school Jones excelled on the football field and in the classroom. In 1989, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal named Jones as an All-Academic Selection player. That same year, he committed to Wofford on a football scholarship.

In 1993, Jones graduated from Wofford with a degree in finance and got a job in the banking industry right after as a small business manager with Wachovia Banking.

Over the years, Jones has elevated to leadership positions with multiple ventures.

He’s the pastor of Change Your Mind Ministries in Greenville and founder of the Jones Leadership Institute, a small business coaching and leadership program where he also is an instructor. Most recently he was elected in Nov. 2022 to the SC House of Representatives for District 25 which serves areas in western Greenville County.

But being in leadership roles wasn’t always something Jones pursued, he said. He had to push through clouds of doubt to propel himself to where he is today.

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Jones didn’t have an interest in becoming a politician originally. He described politics as a messy landscape, and he didn’t want to touch it.

There were moments where Jones noticed problems could be fixed through policy changes and people in his life told him he should step into that world. Still, he always turned the idea of being a politician away because he viewed politics as a "nasty arena."

"I didn't want to find myself entangled in that (politics) while I was trying to do good, but then I just reached a point where the good I was doing was fine," Jones said. "I realized, there are more lives that we could impact through politics."

The turning point came in 2021 when members of his church and family floated the idea of him running for the District 25 seat when his predecessor, Leola Robinson-Simpson, announced that she would not run again. Robinson-Simpson even came to Jones' office to speak to him directly about the idea of running, he said.

But Jones said the driving force that turned him to politics was his son, Wendell Jones Jr, who is a legislative correspondent for the U.S. House of Representatives. He said having his son in the political world, constantly urging the elder Jones to enter it himself, was the final push.

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Today, as a new player in the Upstate’s political arena, Jones said he is trying to make an impact by learning, being teachable and quickly growing into the new space he now occupies.

"I'm a student, I don't mind learning, I don't mind that at all. I don't mind looking bad doing it in the beginning until I gain some true know-how," Jones said.

Policies he tends to focus on at the statehouse focus on issues in education, housing and employment. He thinks those areas are the keys to uplifting his community.

"If you check my record, the bills that I have in committee, they'll fall into one of those three things. That’s how I want us to earn our way out of this sense of dependency," Jones said.

One of the bills he’s introduced during his tenure, the Religious Institutions Affordable Housing Act, seeks to allow churches to use their property to build affordable housing without them losing their tax-exempt status. Another bill he introduced would provide income tax credits for companies that hire employees who are either within a one-mile radius or are on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. He said the pieces of legislation would help give housing and employment opportunities to those who need them.

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One of the first things Jones said he learned as a new politician is how to communicate with those on the other side of the aisle. Jones, a Democrat, said that many politicians have a "zero-sum game" mentality where things are all or nothing. But to get things done, he said, you must have dialogue and compromise.

"What I've learned in my short period of time is that you got to find out what the opposition's hang up is," Jones said. "Oftentimes, you might discover that I can address what your hang up is and still also address the same bill. It takes patience, it takes listening. You need to have the debate, the pushback, some compromise, and some give and take."

Jones said what he always tries to bring with him while the statehouse is in session are his leadership skills, something he had to grow into throughout the years.

The call to found Change Your Mind Ministries

Jones said he is a teacher at heart. His lessons extend to his church, Changing Your Mind Ministries, where he’s watched his congregation grow throughout the years.

In 2007, Jones founded Change Your Mind Ministries and began running the church out of a hotel before moving to a building in Taylors. In 2015, his congregation moved to their current place of worship in Greenville at 9 Beth Dr.

Jones admitted that he reluctantly opened the church, as he was comfortable being an assistant pastor and minister at Valley Brook Outreach Baptist Church in southern Greenville County.

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"I watched us grow at my old church and I was the number two guy, very comfortable. God kept telling me 'I need you to do something, this way, your way,'" Jones said.  "I had honor and respect for my pastor, so I didn't want to push against his vision, but there was something in me that was churning to do something different."

In the beginning, Jones didn’t have much of an expectation for what his church and congregation could be. He said even in his conversations with God, he admitted that he initially lacked belief in how the church would grow under his leadership.

"I stepped out with an attitude. I told God 'okay, I'll have this little storefront church forever, and I'm only going to have about 10 members, but I’ll do what you said,'" Jones said. "He (God) blew my mind with it, and I was surprised how many people wanted to genuinely be taught."

Jones said seeing Change Your Mind Ministries thrive for over a decade has been a blessing to him. A big reason why the church has lasted is because his congregation has watched him mature and grow up as a pastor over the years, he said.

The church now has multiple different ministry groups, serving various ages and demographics of people who attend.

Having the church is just another opportunity to fuel his passion for teaching in the Greenville community, he said.

Roots in banking industry led to role as a mentor in entrepreneurship

After years as an entrepreneur where he pursued multiple ventures, Jones segued into another mentor avenue as an educator for small business leaders.

After leaving Wachovia Banking in 2005, Jones wanted to get out of the banking industry all together. He prayed for new opportunities to come, he said. As he prayed, Jones said he received a phone call that came out of nowhere. The call was from a friend who told him a Nationwide Insurance franchise was up for sale in Spartanburg.

Jones acquired the franchise that same year and opened a second office a year later in Mauldin.

While running the offices, he noticed that much of what he learned about entrepreneurship while in the banking industry was abstract theories instead of tangible skills and guidance. He said that when he realized this, he was inspired to find ways to coach other entrepreneurs on more actionable expertise. In 2014, Jones decided to go to the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo. to become certified in entrepreneurial coaching.

"I started thinking to myself, 'Man, I know a lot of different things, I know finances, all that good stuff and I'm struggling. I know other folks got to be struggling,'" Jones said.

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He used that knowledge to open the Wendell Jones Leadership Institute in 2014 where he teaches and trains others on how to become entrepreneurs.

The institute has courses on leadership skills, how to grow a company, and small business training that teaches people about hiring and staffing strategies.

The same principles Jones uses as a teacher help him in any arena that he’s in, he said. Whether it is entrepreneurial ventures, politics, or in his church as a pastor, he always has the same mentality in mind.

"At my core, I'm a teacher. I want to arm them (people) with information. I really believe that we are dangerous people when we get some insight," Jones said about equipping the community with knowledge. "Ignorance is our killer, you teach us how to do a thing, we excel at it."

Terry Benjamin II covers public safety and breaking news for The Greenville News and can be reached at tbenjamin@gannett.com or on X @Terrybenji2.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC Rep. Wendell Jones on life and leadership as a teacher and student