Bishop T. D. Jakes, one of the most prominent ministers in the United States, plans to step down from his Dallas megachurch later this year, appointing his daughter and son-in-law as his successors.
Jakes shared the news on Sunday during an emotional service at The Potter’s House, the predominantly Black, 30,000-member nondenominational church he founded nearly three decades ago.
The announcement came a month after the fiery 67-year-old pastor disclosed he had suffered a heart attack while preaching a sermon in November. But plans for assistant pastors Sarah Jakes Roberts and Touré Roberts to step into leadership had been in the works for a few years, he said.
“I cannot afford, especially after November, to risk something happening to me,” Jakes told his congregation, “and that you be sheep without a shepherd.”
The Robertses are expected to take over as senior pastors in July, when the church celebrates its anniversary. Jakes said the couple has already been running things behind the scenes since early November.
“This is legacy,” he said, “not because they’re kin but because … they’ve immersed themselves into the DNA of this church for years.”
Jakes has long-standing relationships with celebrities like Tyler Perry and Oprah, and his influence has spanned beyond the Black church to the wider culture, helping produce movies like Miracles from Heaven, building out real estate and affordable-housing ventures, and investing in community development.
Though there were some budding Black megachurches before Jakes came along, his ministry in many ways represented a “paradigm shift,” said Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, associate professor of Christian Scriptures at Baylor University, where he also serves as director of the school’s Black Church Studies Program.
The Potter’s House flourished in the age of televangelism, and Jakes and his church became a model ministry that “captured the imaginations of many who would come after,” Hopkins said. “Ministries wanted to be like T. D. Jakes.”
A popular speaker and best-selling author spanning decades, Jakes has also navigated theological challenges around his teachings and lifestyle. Over the years, he has responded to questions over whether his messaging about healing and economic empowerment verged on prosperity gospel and over his decision to move away from Oneness Pentecostalism to affirm the Trinity.
When announcing the leadership transition on Sunday, Jakes talked about the importance of “letting go,” saying that he had seen too “many men build something and stay so long that they’ve killed what they’ve built.”
He said that amid all the changes in society, the church can benefit from fresh vision under the new pastors and that stepping back from his pastoral duties will give him the chance to focus on community work. Jakes will remain chairman of the church’s board.
The Robertses currently oversee another church location in Los Angeles, which was founded and led by Touré Roberts before it joined The Potter’s House. The couple, who together have six children, moved to Dallas three years ago to become more involved in the church’s main campus.
In 2022, T. D. Jakes passed the torch of his popular “Woman, Thou Art Loosed!” conference to his daughter, who now runs it as “Woman Evolve.” The following year, the Robertses were installed as assistant pastors of The Potter’s House.
Since entering ministry, Sarah Jakes Roberts, now 36, has accumulated a following among women, including Black Christian women drawn to her authenticity and testimony. Roberts describes the shame of becoming pregnant at 13 and going on to drop out of college and wait tables at a strip club. In 2012, still in her early 20s, she filed for divorce from her first marriage due to infidelity.
“Think we can all agree this isn’t how we saw my life playing out,” Roberts, now 36, said on Sunday as tears slipped down her face. “If I’m honest, I’ve been wondering if I have what it takes to do it the way you guys have done it or to take it even further. God then showed me you all didn’t know if you had what it took either. But God gave you the GPS to find what it took to [do] the assignment.”
“I believe the same God that has ordered your steps … is going to order our steps,” she said, telling her father that she is happy he will finally get some rest.
Meanwhile, Touré Roberts said the two will build on the foundation they’ve been given “with humility, with prayer, with integrity, with holiness and sacrifice.”
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