All right, folks. You heard us just talking about Bishop TD Jake making the announcement that he is stepping down as senior pastor of the Potter's House in Dallas. This is yesterday's announcement.
We we you all know for years I have been talking about it. It may not work out the way I plan it, but but I get on my knees and pray and I plan my life in decades. How many of you remember me saying that not days but but decades because major moves take time.
It may look like it was suddenly but you don't know what the background work was about. Six years ago, I started talking to Pastor Tore and Pastor Sarah because I did not want all that I had spent my life and your life and our lives building to get old and go with us. This is a generational and even though she was busy doing woman evolve and he was busy pastoring one LA about four years ago they moved out here just in time for God has a sense of humor.
He throws you in the water and then says swim. So for the last four years they have been swimming. I talked to the board because I was concerned.
I have seen too many men build something and stay so long that they kill what they build. What you got to understand is it's not so important that you just know when to grab a hold. It's knowing when to let go.
Now, there's some other things that I'm assigned to do both here and and outside, but I cannot afford, especially after November, to risk something happening to me. And you be sheep without a shepherd. I cannot afford to let all the work of all the saints living and dead to hold this so tight so long that I wither away.
So I'm suggesting to you, I'm recommending to you that you receive. Pastor Tore and Pastor Sarah. Come on.
Come on. Come on. Come on.
Come on. Come on. This is legacy.
Not because they're kin, but because they're they're the kind. They've immersed themselves into the DNA of this church. for years, sit quiet, preach.
What you didn't know from November forward, they've been running the church. Anyway, folks, uh that was Bishop TD Jake making the announcement yesterday uh that uh his son-in-law, Pastor Ter, and his daughter, uh Ser would be taking over at Senior Pastors. Um uh I'm going to go to I'll start with you, Kelly.
Uh this here is a significant announcement. We're talking about this is a worldwide ministry. The Potter's House is not just a Dallas-based ministry.
Bishop Jake moving there more than 30 years ago, coming from West Virginia uh to to uh setting up shop there in Dallas. Uh national ministry, international ministry, uh traveling all across uh the world. Look, he's 67 years old.
Uh he he's he has talked about that heart attack that he suffered from the pulpit um in November. Uh and that was a huge scare. He did he he said later he didn't even realize that he had he was he was suffering a heart attack.
Uh and um and and look and and look almost uh almost did not come back from that. And so um this really is significant. It really is uh it important and I do hope uh it is a lesson uh not just for preachers but also folk business owners and others to understand that when you've built something monumental um how do how does it how does it keep going?
Uh that's one of the issues that we've seen in a lot of lot of blackowned businesses where they built it up and and very rarely sons and daughters take it over and so all of that work all of that time all that energy uh just simply goes for not uh and that to me uh is quite unfortunate. You you Yes. Yes, you are correct in that.
that I want to note and really highlight the significance of this from a woman's perspective in the church. It is rare, incredibly rare for a woman to take over a church of this magnitude. Um, like you said, this has been in the make.
Potter's house in general has been in the making for 30 years. And in those 30 years and before those 30 years, during those 30 years, and certainly after these 30 years, there has been attacks on women leading congregants. Not because they're not able, not because they haven't studied themsel approved, but because there is toxic patriarchy within the Christian community, within Christian leadership, and it runs rampant.
Doesn't matter what your denomination is, doesn't matter what your race is. It doesn't matter in in the religion itself there has been certainly within western Christianity a a a an undercurrent of toxic patriarchy such that women have not been able to lead in the way that they could and should. So for Bishop TD Jake Jakes to not only recognize that, but to flip it on its head and trust his daughter who has more than studied herself approved, who has more than shown herself overqualified for this position to bestow something so precious and so needed in the black community, needed in black church community to a woman.
That speaks volumes. And I don't know if enough people are going to talk about that point, but that is what I took away from this that he trusted a woman, not just his daughter, not somebody who he has mentored, just somebody who is he has mentored, but a woman to lead a church of this magnitude. Like you said, this is a global church and a woman is going to be the head of it.
And that that's incredible to me. Um, I think back on the Congo to uh to the point that Kelly makes there um Billy Graham uh Reverend Billy Graham uh and leaves the ministry to his son uh Franklin Graham. But the real but the real preacher in the family is Annne Lutz.
the the person who really and and if if if Annne Lutz was a if Annne Lutz was a man, oh no, that she blows Franklin out of the water. Franklin ain't even an actual preacher. Okay, so the real person, the real person who truly follows in the footsteps of Billy Graham is his daughter Ann Lutz, but she's a woman.
Uh and that's how Franklin Graham was able uh to uh take the mantle of uh his father's ministry. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And when you look at something like that, like a potter's house, I mean, you're talking about a church that started with a man who, you know, would pick up people to drive them to church, preach to them, and then drive them home.
I mean, you want to talk about starting from the bottom and building an international organization. And so, on two levels, you know, I see something amazing. Number one, the fact that what you and Kelly are talking about as well, passing this over to to a woman to to lead this.
And like you said, you know, she and her husband have been running it ever since, you know, the the heart attack happened. That's powerful. And I think it's also powerful to show that yes, this is a church that we're talking about.
And you talked about businesses, but there also I'm thinking about the the legacy civil rights organizations as well and people not seeing the the handoff take place. And unfortunately, sometimes things don't happen until somebody dies. his documents.
People are claiming this and that and this and that. He made it all official. He made it public for everybody to see.
Doesn't matter what anybody says, this is what's going down. And that's really important. And so I think in addition to other churches, in addition to businesses, other uh leadership and legacy organizations also could learn from this example.
So in this this brief moment that he has uh put out to the world, it was actually something that was very monumental and could be actually consequential if more of us would follow that example who lead these other churches, organizations and businesses as well. Oh, absolutely. Uh and uh and Derek, uh it is um again I hope other people learn from it.
Uh and um and you heard Jake say in terms of what's been built up, what he also impressively he announced, he talked about things that he wants to do. He really wants to now focus his energy on creating economic opportunities for African-Americans uh and others. He has his organization in good soil.
Uh he's so he's really about he really wants to be focused on uh the economic piece uh with now that his time will be freed up not no longer being the senior pastor of the Potter's House. Yeah, you're exactly right, Roland. And you know, I want to just build upon uh what what uh Dr McCamo and and Kelly um when you think about a mega church, it is a it's a mega business.
When you think about a congregation of 20,000 people or more, um the responsibility goes well beyond just delivering powerful sermons, you know, on a weekly basis. uh when you think about uh the role and responsibility uh that his daughter is about to step in, she's more than capable not just in preaching and teaching but talking about making sure that payroll is met and and you know the the thing about this story rolling for me uh it highlights the most important thing and that's succession planning. We as blacks do not do succession planning as much as we should.
Uh I can only think about, you know, uh Pretta Scott King. Uh she was thrusted into um you know with her role uh after Dr King was assassinated. um she you know and it demonstrates that to Kelly's point that a woman has the capability and the capacity to get things done.
We have the Dr King federal holiday because of Ketta Scott King. Um and so when you think about uh TD Jake um uh passing over the rings over to his daughter and his son-in-law, it makes sense. We got to do more succession planning in all aspects of our lives in the family as well as politics and the likes.
And so I I agree that um this 67year-old icon giant um felt the need to pass over the uh what he has built over three decades to his daughter and then as the congregation roll in and say I need you all to support this um decision because it's the right decision to be had. Yeah. Uh and again folks uh so our law third is wrong.
J is not resigning from the church. He is retiring as senior pastor. And so that language is is actually the distinction is really important.
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