T. D. Jakes
American pastor
Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr. (born June 9, 1957) is an American non-denominational Christian evangelical pastor and motivational speaker. He was the senior pastor of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch in Dallas, Texas, from 1996 to 2025. Jakes' church services and evangelistic sermons are broadcast on The Potter's Touch. He is the author of many books and also produces films.
Early life
Thomas Dexter Jakes was born on June 9, 1957, in South Charleston, West Virginia, and grew up in the Vandalia neighborhood in Charleston, West Virginia.
Career
In 1982, at age 25, Jakes became the pastor of Greater Emanuel Temple of Faith, a storefront church in Smithers, West Virginia, with ten members. In 1988, he joined the denomination Higher Ground Always Abounding Assemblies, a Oneness Pentecostal ministerial fellowship founded by Bishop Sherman Watkins. In 1990, Jakes moved back to South Charleston, West Virginia, and his congregation grew to 300 members. In 1993, he moved to Cross Lanes, West Virginia.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q845288. VIAF identifies the subject as 267314490. The Library of Congress control number is no95022505. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1996, 2025 and 1982.
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This entry incorporates text from “T. D. Jakes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.