Bishop T.D. Jakes

Bishop T.D. Jakes

Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr., born June 9, 1957, in South Charleston, West Virginia, became one of the most visible American Christian evangelical pastors of the modern media age. He grew up in the Vandalia neighborhood of Charleston and began ministry far from the scale later associated with his name. In 1982, at age 25, he became pastor of Greater Emanuel Temple of Faith, a storefront church in Smithers, West Virginia, with ten members.

Jakes’s work grew steadily through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1988 he joined Higher Ground Always Abounding Assemblies, a Oneness Pentecostal ministerial fellowship founded by Bishop Sherman Watkins. In 1990 he moved back to South Charleston, where his congregation grew to 300 members, and in 1993 he moved to Cross Lanes, West Virginia. In 1995 he founded TDJ Enterprises to publish his books and produce his films. From 1995 to 1996, he hosted Get Ready, a weekly radio and television show distributed nationally through syndication.

In 1996, Jakes founded The Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, a non-denominational church on a 34-acre hilltop campus with a 5,000-seat auditorium and offices for staff. He served as its senior pastor from 1996 to 2025, while church services and evangelistic sermons were broadcast through The Potter’s Touch. On April 27, 2025, he announced that he was passing leadership of The Potter’s House to his daughter and son-in-law, Sarah Jakes Roberts and Touré Roberts.

Jakes also became widely known as an author, recording artist, and film producer. His selected writings include Before You Do: Making Great Decisions That You Won’t Regret, Let It Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven, Instinct, Destiny, Soar!, Crushing, and Disruptive Thinking. His film work includes Woman Thou Art Loosed, based on his novel of the same name, Not Easily Broken, Jumping the Broom, Sparkle, Heaven Is for Real, Miracles from Heaven, and Seven Deadly Sins. His discography includes Woman Thou Art Loosed, Live from the Potter’s House, and The Storm Is Over.

His beliefs and public voice were shaped by his roots in Pentecostal ministry, his later work in a non-denominational church setting, and his long presence in broadcast media. Though converted and ordained within Oneness Pentecostalism, he said in a 2012 interview with Mark Driscoll that he affirms the Trinity, while not affirming the eternality of the individual persons of the Trinity. He has advocated sexual abstinence on Good Morning America and Dr. Phil. In 2015, he said his views on homosexuality and LGBT rights were evolving, later stating that he did not support same-sex marriage but respected the rights afforded by the country to those who disagree.

Jakes’s public reach brought national recognition. PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly named him among America’s “Top 10 Religious Leaders,” and Time featured him on its September 17, 2001, cover with the question, “Is This Man the Next Billy Graham?” In 2003, his album A Wing and a Prayer won the Grammy Award for Best Gospel or Chorus Album, and in 2004 he received the NAACP’s President’s Award. His words still speak to readers because they are direct, practical, and aimed at pressure points in ordinary life, as in the reminder: “Never make a permanent decision about a temporary situation.”