The Potter's House in Dallas, Texas is one of the fastest growing churches in the United States. This congregation of almost 30,000 members is pastored by the Bishop T.D. Jakes, whom Time Magazine, in 2001, described as the next Billy Graham, Is he?
"No." says Bishop Jakes, "There will never be another Billy Graham. There will never be another Fred Price. There will never be another Kenneth Copeland. There will never be another Pat Robertson. God never duplicates men. We are one of a kind and that is why we ought to treasure people while they live because there will never be another one of us ever again in eternity. I never set out to be the next
anybody. I just want to be the best T.D. Jakes that I can be."
Certainly there will never be another T.D. Jakes; Pastor, evangelist, counselor, author, businessman, playwright, moviemaker and the list goes on. But what about T.D. Jakes the man, how did he discover his calling in life and when?
Bishop Jakes says he "Grew up preaching in the woods, preaching to trees and animals, in the woods behind my house. I grew up in the mountains of West Virginia and playing as a child, I'd just walk up and down the path preaching to myself. I was always pulled toward preaching, called toward it, but I didn't know to call it "called" at the time. When God calls a man, He doesn't call him from the point The man says "yes," He calls him from his mother's womb. Innately those tendencies existed in me all of my life."
When was the turning point in TD Jakes' life, when he came to know Jesus as his personal Lord and savior?
"I grew up in a Christian environment, so I was always influenced by the church all of my life," Jakes said. "But, after my father died, when I was 16 years old, it was a very traumatic period in my life and I ended up coming to the Lord at 17. I turned my life over to Him. I tell people I got saved in church, and some of the ways from church. I went over to a little church to participate in the service, but I was really seeking something to hold onto, something from God."
"I went to that little service filled with a lot of tradition and religion and ideas, but not much relationship with God. When the service was over I found myself on the altar weeping and seeking God's face. I turned my life over to Him and it's been an amazing journey, just an
amazing journey."
Growing up, did Bishop Jakes have the slightest idea that he would have this much success later on in life?
Bishop Jakes says, "I knew I was supposed to do something, but I didn't know what. I didn't measure it as success. I measured it in terms of calling; that there was some purpose for which I was created and I always knew that. I had no measurement as to the size or the scope or the quantity of it, I didn't know, but the quality of it I knew, I wanted it to be qualitative."
When Bishop Jakes began preaching in 1979, he dug ditches to make a living. Years later, what lessons would he say he drew from those solitary moments in the trenches?
"I think that I had to prove to God the same question that existed in the life of Job. The enemy said to God, "Does Job serve You for naught?" He said, I guess the implication is, the only reason that Job is serving You is because of the things You give him."
And God said, "Remove the hedge around him. Take anything you want. Job is still going to serve Me."
I had to go through a period of total desolation, so that there would never be any question between God and I, as to what was the motive for my serving Him. I'm very, very glad that I served Him through poverty, because as He began to bless me and give me more opportunities, that was never the motivation of my service. My service was proven by how vigilant I was, while I had nothing at all."
Less than 10 years ago, Bishop Jakes moved his church from West Virginia to Dallas, Texas with 50 families. Today, the church numbers almost 30,000 members. At a time when churches are declining almost all over the United States, why has The Potter's House become a magnet for so many?
"People are not looking for a religion. People are turned off, particularly in this country and but I think many others, by religion. They are looking for a relationship; a relationship with God, a relationship with their church," Jakes said. "Its a very important thing that we repackage our faith because our faith often has been packaged in a way that its not palatable to intelligent people. It needs to be
packaged in such a way that people can understand that this is the Jesus that we can touch, that we can feel, that we can experience, whose message is relevant to me, that its not just historical, that its not just prophetic, but its relevant to the current tense of my life, the present tense
of my life.
"I think that is what causes people to come to church" Bishop Jakes continues. "If they know that what you are talking about is going to affect them now, they are much more apt to respond affirmatively."
Bishop Jakes has been called the "shepherd to the shattered." in the process he has reached out to single mothers, prostitutes, drug addicts and prison inmates. People ask, what is it about the down-trodden and the oppressed and the persecution that seems to draw him to them and vice versa?
Bishop Jakes cites Isaiah 61, "the spirit of the Lord God has anointed me to bind up with wounds of the broken-hearted," that has been a major call in my life. I feel like that is what Christ would do if He were here. He would minister to people who needed Him. Jesus said, 'They that are not sick don't need a physician.'
On a personal level, I need to be needed. I like to be where I have the security of knowing that there is an appetite for what God has given me."
