Bishop T. D. Jakes

Pastor, author, artist, entrepreneur, philanthropist... international influence, Thomas Dexter "T.D." Jakes entered the ministry in 1979 when he and a congregation of ten people founded the Greater Emmanuel Temple of Faith in West Virginia.

More than 25 years later, Christianity Today magazine called Bishop Jakes' church in Dallas, The Potter's House, "one of America's fastest-growing megachurches." In 2001, a TIME magazine cover asked, "Is This Man the Next Billy Graham?" Multiracial and nondenominational, the Potter's House has 50-plus active outreach ministries, more than 30,000 members, and a full-time staff of 300.

Bishop Jakes was born in South Charleston, West Virginia, on June 9, 1957, the youngest of three children. His father, Ernest Jakes, Sr., was an entrepreneur; his mother, Odith Jakes, was an educator. Both parents' commitment to the community influenced their son, who was 14 when his father died of kidney failure.

Bishop Jakes is officially CEO of The Potter's House of Dallas, Inc., a nonprofit that has produced four major national conferences:

* PHIPA—Potter's House International Pastors Association--currently 500 pastors and church leaders
* ManPower—a conference to equip and encourage men to build strong marriages, grow in personal confidence, and assume community responsibility.
* "Woman, Thou Art Loosed" (WTAL)—the book that became a conference and a movie has also set national indoor attendance records when the 1999 WTAL conference in the Georgia Dome averaged 84,500 attendees each day.
* MegaFest—a three-day family event that combines ManPower and WTAL, then adds Mega Youth Experience (ages 13 to 21) and MegaKidz. In June 2004, Bishop Jakes broke his own Georgia Dome attendance record as MegaFest drew more than 140,000 people from 55 countries. Via satellite links, MegaFest reached another 314 million homes in 235 foreign countries and territories.

To address social and economic disparities, Bishop Jakes founded the Metroplex Economic Development Corporation, (MEDC), a nonprofit 501(c)(3), in 1998. The MEDC sponsors home ownership conferences and youth mentorship programs. In 2005, the MEDC launched an entrepreneurs' training institute.

In 2004, The Potter's House donated $107,000 to the City of Dallas to help relocate citizens evacuating a poor area also chemically contaminated.

In 1998, Bishop Jakes founded Clay Academy in honor of his mother, Odith Jakes. This world-class private college preparatory school currently serves pre-K3 through grade 8 and plans to extend through grade 12. The school is the centerpiece of the MEDC-driven Capella Park, a residential subdivision currently under development and featuring more than a thousand single-family homes ranging from $100,000 to $500,000.

Belize hospital. The Potter's House built a hospital in Belize, Central America, and regularly sends missionaries to Northern Mexico.
Kenyan water wells. In 2005, The Potter's House commissioned 10 new water wells in regions desperate for purified drinking water for people, and water for livestock and crops. Bishop Jakes personally visited Kenya in January '05, and again in October '05, to dedicate water wells.

Bishop Jakes second trip to Kenya included 400 African Americas, the largest single African-American mission contingent to Africa. Along with medical clinics and visits to Nairobi's infamous slums, Bishop Jakes spoke twice in two days to an estimated (combined) 1 million people. At those large outdoor meetings, The Potter's House choir recorded one half of a live album featuring African sounds and choirs.

Tsunami relief. In February 2005, on behalf of Clay Academy and The Potter's House, Bishop Jakes presented UNICEF with $100,606.11—the largest tsunami relief donation to UNICEF from a faith-based organization.

In its widespread and ambitious prison ministry, the Potter's House has invested more than half a million dollars in programs and services to equip, empower, support, and restore offenders, former offenders and their families, and correctional staff. Local churches also are trained to more quickly mainstream former offenders and help their families. The "Adopt-a-Prison" program's spiritual support, through a network of churches, significantly helps reduce recidivism. Every Potter's House conference, including "MegaFest", broadcasts live into prisons around the country.

The Potter's House new Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative (T.O.R.I) currently operates in Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston—Texas' five primary "reentry points," to help mainstream former offenders leaving Texas prisons. TORI offers substance abuse education, family and marriage counseling, pre-employment counseling, and helps low-income families enroll in state and federal support programs.

T.D. Jakes has published more than 30 books, many of which have appeared on best-seller lists. His top five nonFiction bestsellers:

* Maximize the Moment
* Woman, Thou Art Loosed
* The Lady, Her Lover and Her Lord
* The Great Investment: Faith, Family and Finance
* God's Leading Lady (#4 on the New York Times hardcover advice list)