The Senior Pastor of the Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, Bishop T.D. Jakes, has handed over the congregation leadership to his daughter and son-in-law.
Naija News reports that Jakes announced the decision on Sunday morning, April 27, 2025, weeks after suffering a massive heart attack while preaching at the church.
The Clergy admitted that getting hospitalised after suffering a massive heart attack on stage contributed to the decision.
T.D. Jakes, who founded The Potter’s House in 1996, confirmed that his daughter and son-in-law, pastors Sarah Jakes Roberts and Toure Roberts, will take over in July.
He said, “You have been faithful to God, and you have been faithful to me. “And I’m so grateful.
“I cannot afford, especially after November, to risk something happening to me and you be sheep without a shepherd.”
Sarah Jakes Roberts said, “I’m grateful, I’m honored, as your daughter.
“I’m so happy you’re going to get some rest.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with American broadcaster, Craig Melvin on the TODAY show, Jakes recounted the massive heart attack.
Jakes said he did not feel any symptoms of a cardiac arrest, but doctors later told him he was preaching with only half of his heart working.
He said, “I didn’t really realize what was happening to me onstage until I got to the hospital in an ambulance and fussing that it happened onstage, by the way, because I didn’t want it to happen, and the doctor leaned over my ear and said, ‘You had a massive heart attack.’
“The reason I didn’t realize it was because I had none of the symptoms that they say.
“No numbness, no sharp pain, no anything. I just kind of drifted off to sleep. I didn’t know what it was, but I almost died.
“(The doctor) said five minutes later, I’d have been dead on arrival.
“The right side of my heart had completely stopped getting blood at all.”
