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Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr. (T.D. Jakes) has created a name for himself as a gospel preacher and motivational speaker for over 30 years, ministering to hundreds of houses on issues such as forgiveness, hope, relationships, and prosperity.
In Dallas, Texas, he started The Potter’s House (TPH), a non-denominational, multicultural church and global humanitarian organization. Today, the church has 30,000 members and more than 50 ministries to help people from all walks of life. Furthermore, TPH maintains campuses in Frisco, Fort Worth, and Denver, Texas, as well as Denver, Colorado. He has been assisting ex-offenders in effectively reintegrating into society.
He announced in March that he was launching his next enterprise to improve underprivileged communities and offer them with economic opportunity. He is doing it through T.D. Jakes Real Estate Ventures, according to Forbes. He purchased Capella Park and plans to develop 400-plus acres of affordable homes for ethnic populations. He accomplished this through the Metroplex Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit organization he formed “to bridge economic voids in urban America.”
According to Jakes, the necessary procedures have been made for the project’s seamless functioning, which includes mixed-income amenities.
“We started building houses on the land; we had to put in everything, infrastructure, road development, and lay out a plan for mixed-income facilities. [However] we didn’t get mixed-use in there, it’s all residential, except for a $15 million school that we built, that started as a private school, and now has become a charter school,” he told the outlet recently.
“We did that because education is important for the development of any healthy community, and we did it because we knew there would be young families coming in there who needed to drop their kids off at school. They could walk up the street and go to school; we have done that, and it has worked well. The community has been sustained; it looks brand new,” he continued.
The bishop also recently purchased 94.5 acres of land near downtown Atlanta at Fort McPherson to provide a “pathway to homeownership” for underprivileged people.
Jakes was born in South Charleston, West Virginia, on June 9, 1957. He grew up in Vandalia, West Virginia. At the age of 25, he became a pastor at the Greater Emanuel Temple of Faith, a storefront church in Smithers, West Virginia, with only ten members.
He became a member of the Christian denomination Higher Ground Always Abounding Assemblies before relocating to South Charleston, West Virginia, and establishing The Potter’s House.
