T.D. Jakes has retired from leading The Potter’s House megachurch. But this isn’t the end

The news that Bishop Thomas Dexter Jakes (more commonly known as T.D. Jakes) is stepping down from his role as Senior Pastor of the Texas-based megachurch The Potter’s House has elicited the sort of social media frenzy usually reserved for a dead Pope or an Archbishop of Canterbury resigning. 

Given Jakes’s standing among African Americans (and, by extension, black people worldwide), that is hardly surprising. Jakes has been a key figure in black life in America – Christian or otherwise – since the 1990s. His television shows alone have an audience of millions. He was a spiritual adviser to both George W Bush and Barack Obama, and he spoke at the funerals of both Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin. Calling him a “celebrity pastor” (as the press often does) is a massive understatement.  

I distinctly remember the first time I heard his name mentioned. It was 1995, and months before Premier Christian Radio began broadcasting, a group of Christians in south London were awarded a restricted service license to run a Christian radio station for 28 days. I had a graveyard shift on the station; before we started broadcasting, the whole team had a meeting to get to know each other. One of my fellow DJs – a pastor, no less – introduced himself not by telling us about himself, but rather by talking about someone else. 

“You know T.D. Jakes?” he asked. “I have the exclusive license to sell his products in the UK.” 

At the time, I was struck by the word “products”. The idea of preachers having something to sell wasn’t new to me (almost everyone who visited my church back then had a book or album to flog); I’d just not heard them referred to in such cold marketing terms before. This man had products. He must be special. 

Books, tapes and big business

As I got to know more about T.D. Jakes over the years, the list of products with his name on seemed to have no end. There were the books, of course, and the obligatory radio and television shows; the sermons on cassette, which were on rotation on many black Christians’ personal ones and/or car stereos long before the word “podcast” was invented. Then came the record label. Films. Clothing. Festivals. A Bible school. Real estate development.

Not a Christian and looking for some inspiration without the God-bothering? Don’t worry; you could just follow him as a motivational speaker. In 2005, Time magazine famously published a list of America’s 25 most influential evangelicals. The only black person on the list was T.D Jakes. “Even in a profession peopled with multitaskers,” Time observed, “Bishop Thomas Dexter (T.D.) Jakes stands out.” 

Jakes was born in South Charleston, West Virginia in 1957, the youngest of three children. His father Ernest was a cleaner with an entrepreneurial streak - going on to build a successful business that employed 52 people. His mother Odith taught Home Economics. The young Jakes had a speech impediment and was repeatedly told that he would never be a preacher because of it (ironically, he was also nicknamed “Bible Boy” by friends and family because of his spiritual fervour).

He overcame that obstacle to preach his first sermon in 1976. Three years later, he was ordained and took to the road. It was on one of these preaching trips that he met a young lady by the name of Serita Ann Jamison when he was a guest minister at the church she attended. They got married in 1981. Today, they live in Dallas with their five children and two grandchildren. 

From West Virginia to Texas

Jakes founded the Temple of Faith Church in Montgomery, West Virginia, in 1980. It began with just ten members. He later gained a BA, then MA then PhD in Biblical Studies.

The 1990s saw Jakes venture into televangelism and West Virginia eventually became too small to contain Jakes’ ever-growing ministry. And so in 1996, Jakes moved his family and his church team (an employed staff of about 50) to Texas. Settling in Dallas, Jakes established the Potter’s House. Their first service pulled in over 2,000 people; today, the congregation is 30,000 and counting.

Woman, Thou Art Loosed, a sermon Jakes first preached in 1992 addressing sexual abuse and trauma in women, spawned a hugely successful self-help book and became the basis for his first film in 2004.

In 1997, after embarking on a strict diet and losing over 45kg, Jakes published Lay Aside the Weight. Reposition Yourself (2007) and Making Great Decisions (2008) were both New York Times bestsellers.

Jakes’s other film productions include Jumping the Broom (2011), which starred Oscar winning actress Angela Bassett, and Not Easily Broken (2009), whose cast included the popular comedian Kevin Hart. Like Stan Lee in the Marvel films, Jakes would often pop up in cameo roles in the films he produced, usually playing a pastor. 

Criticisms 

Jakes has always had his critics. Predictably for any preacher who says anything about wealth creation, he’s been accused of preaching the prosperity gospel. He also received a lot of criticism for preaching what some described as a “oneness” view of the Trinity – a stance he later moved away from.

More recently, some parties have tried to tarnish Jakes’s reputation using the guilt-by-association that now hangs over anyone who has ever had a connection to Sean Combs, aka Diddy, the music mogul charged with sex trafficking and racketeering (which he denies). In Jakes’ case, the connection is that since 2021, he has hosted a sermon series on Revolt, the black-oriented TV channel and multimedia platform that Combs founded but is now no longer involved in.

The next chapter

One Sunday morning last November, Jakes was concluding his sermon when he suddenly started to shudder and become incoherent. The video of church members rushing to his aid onstage went viral. At the time, it was described simply as a “health incident”. But the church later confirmed that Jakes had suffered a heart attack. This is what led to the announcement on 27 April that Jakes is to step down as Senior Pastor of the Potter’s House, with his son-in-law and daughter, Touré and Sarah Roberts, taking over from him in the role.

In a press release announcing the decision, Jakes said: “For nearly 50 years, I’ve had the honour of connecting with and serving the local and global community as a pastor, global faith leader and unwavering truth teller. As I enter my 50th year in the public spotlight, I recognize the urgent need to address more challenges of our time, particularly the looming threat of a disappearing middle class, social unrest and closing opportunity gaps. This pivotal moment calls me to focus on a legacy of economic empowerment, serving as a bridge between community, culture, and corporate alliances to help position our nation for a stronger future.”

T.D. Jakes’s story is far from finished. Yes, he’s stepping down from pastoring the church he founded three decades ago. But he will be staying on as their Chairman of the Board. He’s also gone into partnership with the American radio giant iHeartMedia to launch a slate of podcasts, the first of which is titled ’My Next Chapter’. This retirement announcement is therefore more a sideways step than a step back.