UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (RNS) — On the stage of First Baptist Church of Glenarden International, Bishop T.D. Jakes didn’t spend much time preaching from the lectern at center stage of the megachurch.
Instead, the televangelist walked back and forth in his dark suit and striped tie, switching a handheld microphone from his left to his right hand, sometimes facing the predominantly Black congregation of thousands gathered for an annual revival at the start of the year, other times turned toward the clergy and the choir members sitting on the large stage.
“The Holy Spirit sent me all the way to the DMV to tell you this is your year to pivot,” the Dallas-based Pentecostal minister said to cheers and applause from the Washington, D.C.-area crowd, many on their feet on Jan. 5. “You have to surround yourself with people who can pivot because they’re following who you used to be. Now they’ve got to follow who you have become.”
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As he expounded on the biblical story of Joshua succeeding Moses, it was not readily apparent that two weeks before, rumors of the kind that might have led to his own succession had gone viral on social media. While some of his many ministries and businesses issued statements in response, Jakes appeared to be treating the rumors as a bit of turbulence rather than lasting turmoil.
The prosperity gospel preacher, entertainment executive and ministry entrepreneur has grown exponentially since his early days as a storefront pastor in West Virginia. Jakes moved to the Dallas area in 1996 and founded The Potter’s House, now a nondenominational megachurch with multiple locations and more than 30,000 members, according to the Dallas Morning News. In 2001, Time magazine featured the traveling evangelist on its cover, asking, “Is This Man The Next Billy Graham?” He now sits at the helm of numerous ministries and businesses and keeps the company of high-powered executives and A-list celebrities.
Bishop T.D. Jakes leads a revival on Jan. 5, 2024, at First Baptist Church of Glenarden International in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. (Photo by Lee Bonds, courtesy First Baptist Church of Glenarden)
But those connections have spawned criticism and prompted salacious rumors.
In May, University of Pennsylvania religious studies chair Anthea Butler used her MSNBC column to question Jakes’ new 10-year partnership with Wells Fargo & Company that he has said aims to reduce food deserts and increase affordable housing in Atlanta and other cities.
“(I)n working with a financial institution that’s been repeatedly accused of racist lending practices, Jakes will likely be hurting a Black community he says he wants to help,” Butler wrote shortly after the partnership was announced. “Indeed, his partnership with Wells Fargo is tantamount to his working with the fox to raid the henhouse.”
Kelley Cornish, who became the CEO of the T.D. Jakes Foundation in April after serving as an executive overseeing DEI at Wells Fargo, said the foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization separate from Jakes’ church, is hoping to build 300 affordable homes as part of a new development with retail stores and schools at the former site of Fort McPherson in Atlanta in addition to helping bring a grocery store to an area outside the city that has none.
