Bishop T.D. Jakes appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s “Next Chapter” on the OWN network this past Sunday and opened up with the talk show host about his preaching responsibilities, critics, and feelings on having an African-American president.
The iconic television host traveled to Dallas, Texas, for the interview with the influential Christian leader and visited his 30,000-member church, The Potter’s House.
The Christian Post reports that during the intimate interview, Winfrey posed candid questions about what it means for Jakes, whose sermons are broadcast both nationally and internationally, to preach to a large following and asked if the size of the crowd made a difference to him as a preacher.
Jakes responded by saying that the “weight and responsibility of sharing with people what you believe” is the same whether preaching in front of a crowd of seven or 7,000.”
“When I was speaking to the seven, I took it just as seriously,” Jakes said. “The job is still the same. I think that’s how you end up with thousands of people — is that you take small beginnings seriously.”
Jakes, who has achieved much success since starting his first congregation at the age of 19, lives with his family in a mansion in Dallas, has his own airplane, and drives expensive vehicles, which has drawn criticism.
“He (God) allows your cup to run over. I don’t think the issue of clergy is what you drive or where you live, its more how you got it,” Jakes said. “If you got it abusing and breaking the backs of people, that’s a bad thing. If you put yourself before the congregation, that’s a bad thing.”
Winfrey also asked Jakes, who had previously been quoted as saying that having a black president was “indescribably important” why he believed that the race of the current president is key to the nation.
“To recognize that leadership is not stereotypical, that it’s not all men, or all women, or all blacks, or all whites. To recognize the diversity that exists in the very underbelly of this country,” Jakes said before adding that he had “no words to describe” what it meant to him for the U.S. to have a black president in his lifetime.
Prior to the sit-down interview, Winfrey, Gayle King, and Tyler Perry attended a 90-minute sermon by the popular bishop. During the sermon Jakes discussed the importance of what he called “saving the scraps.”
“The miracle is not in what you lost. The miracle is not in what you have consumed previously. Your best days are not your yesterdays. Your miracle is in what you have left. If you discard it, ignore it, don’t use it, don’t value it, don’t learn from it, don’t understand it, you will lose the battle before you because you did not learn from the battle behind you,” Jakes told the crowd of over 7,000 worshippers.
“My thought this morning is save the scraps, the leftovers, the [remnants]. That which remains is more valuable than that which was lost,” The Potter’s House pastor added.
Following the inspirational and thought-provoking sermon Jakes sat down with an astonished Winfrey for the one-hour interview.
“I grew up in the church, joined the church when I was 8 years old. I heard a lot of preachers preach in my life. I’ve never heard, seen, or experienced anybody like you,” she told Jakes. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
