Bishop T.D. Jakes suffered a medical emergency during a sermon broadcast Sunday, according to Potter’s House of Dallas, the Texas megachurch where he serves as pastor. According to Potter’s House, he was recovering Monday.
Jakes, 67, was speaking to churchgoers Sunday when he sat down and began trembling as several people gathered around him, with one person asking for prayers.
Jakes’ daughter, Sarah Jakes Roberts and her husband, Touré Roberts, said in a social media video late Sunday that Jakes was improving. “Bishop is doing well. He’s recovering well. He’s under medical care. He’s strong,” Touré Roberts said.
The couple did not say where Jakes was taken and a message left with the church Monday morning was not immediately returned.
In a social media statement released Sunday, Potter’s House wrote, “During today’s service, Bishop T.D. Jakes experienced a slight health incident and received immediate medical attention following his powerful hourlong message. Bishop Jakes is stable and under the care of medical professionals. The entire Potter’s House family is grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers and support from the community.”
“Bishop Jakes is a global figure, not just to the Black Church but to the Church at large in Christendom,” said Pastor Jamal H. Bryant of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest. He said when people learned of the incident they “immediately went into prayer” for Jakes.
Bishop Jakes said Bryant has been pillar in his life and also at New Birth, having preached at the dedication of the sanctuary and delivering the first sermon after COVID-19. As a 29-year-old preacher, Bryant was invited to speak at MegaFest in Atlanta, which was the biggest stage for the Baltimore native at that time.
Jakes has long been a fixture in the African American and Christian communities, leading a church with more than 50 ministries and roughly 30,000 members, according to his website. His sermons from The Potter’s House of Dallas are broadcast and his ministries have hosted several annual conferences, including the revival MegaFest, the women’s conference “Woman Thou Art Loosed” and the men’s conference “ManPower.”
The last “Woman, Thou Art Loosed” religious and empowerment conference was held in Atlanta in 2022 at the Georgia World Congress Center, where Jakes announced it would be his last. The hugely popular conference launched in 1996.
In Atlanta, Jakes is also a real estate mogul. In 2023, he announced plans for redevelopment of a portion of Fort McPherson, a former Army post in southwest Atlanta. The Fort Mac Village is a subset of T.D. Jakes Real Estate Ventures and was planned to include more than 900 apartments, 200 townhomes, 181 detached houses, a charter school, a senior living facility and commercial and office space.
In February, the T.D. Jakes Foundation announced that, in collaboration with Wells Fargo, it would be making a philanthropic investment of $9 million in grants to 16 community-based organizations across the U.S. Those organizations include the Community Foundation of Central Savannah River Area, which was to get $500,000 to establish a grocer in the Laney Walker neighborhood of Augusta, and $500,000 to Westside Future Fund in Atlanta.
According to his ministries website, Jakes was called “America’s Best Preacher” by Time Magazine. He received the NAACP’s President’s Award in 2004 and in 2016 was listed on Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 list of influential minds.
Jakes has written more than two dozen books, including multiple New York Times bestsellers “Destiny: Step Into Your Purpose” and “Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive.” Other titles include “Nothing Just Happens,” “Reposition Yourself” and “Don’t Drop the Mic.”
He’s also credited as an actor and producer in some films. In 2004, he appeared as himself in the film based on his book, “Woman, Thou Art Loosed,” and in 2009 he played the character Allen in the movie “Not Easily Broken,” based on another of his novels. He’s produced several movies for the Lifetime Movie Network, including “Sparkle,” “Heaven is for Real” and the romantic comedy “Jumping the Broom.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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