Bishop T.D. Jakes' Potter's House Church Becomes a Multi-Site Church

Churchgoers are meeting at the Fort Worth Convention Center and receive Jakes' fiery sermons via satellite.

"We are going to round up this city for the glory of God," an exuberant Jakes declared Sunday as more than 1,000 congregants cheered and shouted "Hallelujah."

The Potter's House of Fort Worth has rented part of the convention center for two months and expects to buy a building in the Woodhaven area soon, Jakes said Sunday.

"We've found a facility and are almost closing on it. We are almost there," he said. His message was televised on a screen split between views of the Dallas and Fort Worth congregations.

Later, he led a special offering in both congregations to finance a permanent home for the Fort Worth campus.

The property is at Boca Raton and Woodhaven boulevards, according to minutes from the Feb. 10 meeting of the Woodhaven Community Development Inc. executive committee.

Jakes said the church is targeting the Woodhaven area -- about six miles east of downtown, near East Loop 820 and Interstate 30 -- because of the needs there.

"I didn't start a church in Fort Worth because I'm after other people's members," he said. "I'm after folks on the street who are lost, troubled and filled with confusion."

On Feb. 6, about 1,200 Potter's House members, arriving in 12 buses, went door to door in Woodhaven, seeking converts and telling about the new campus.

Jakes, an internationally acclaimed pastor who has been on the cover of Time magazine and is a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama, was among those going to door to door.

"That's his heart," said the Rev. Derick Faison, campus pastor of the Fort Worth Potter's House. "He wants to be among the people."

Jakes, who has a home in east Fort Worth, has prayed about the campus for two years, Faison said.

"We've done demographic studies, and I've gone to various agencies and organizations," Faison said. "We didn't want to assume we knew what the needs were in Fort Worth."

Jakes' weekly television program, The Potter's Touch, is carried in the United States, Africa, Europe, Australia and the Caribbean.

He was already a much-read author, through books such as Woman, Thou Art Loosed, when he founded The Potter's House 14 years ago in southwest Dallas.

Potter's House programs help those seeking jobs, those addicted to alcohol or drugs, and those seeking a better lifestyle -- rich and poor alike, Faison said. Its prison ministry, called Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative, aims to keep ex-offenders from going back to prison.

On Sunday, 150 ex-offenders will graduate from the program during ceremonies at The Potter's House of Dallas.

One reason Fort Worth was picked as the first satellite campus is that 2,000 members of The Potter's House of Dallas live there, Faison said.

Calvin Crosby of Fort Worth, a deacon at the Dallas campus, is volunteer coordinator of deacons for the Fort Worth one.

"This is a great experience for me," Crosby said. "I've been traveling to Dallas for seven years. We have a lot of members traveling from Fort Worth to Dallas just to be under his [Jakes'] ministry. Now we have a place here close to home."

Crosby said the new campus lets Fort Worth members of The Potter's House serve their own community.

He said apartment managers and neighborhood police officers in Woodhaven have been cooperative and welcoming.

"We're just coming as helpers," Crosby said. "A lot of people in Fort Worth are unsaved and don't have anybody reaching out to them. We hope we can help."

In addition, Jakes announced Sunday that a Potter's House campus is being organized in Denver.

Jakes said the emergence of satellite technology is an opportunity to spread Christianity.

"By extending our message by satellite, we have not only found a way to meet the needs of the people, we are able to reach more people and win more souls," he said.