T.D. Jakes Wanted More Black Folks to Be Home Owners, So He Bought 95 Acres in Atlanta
The number of Black homeowners in America hovers at 45 percent, compared to 75 percent of white homeowners—a more than 25+ point gap that has persisted since 1960. Renowned minister and author Bishop T.D. Jakes wants to help close that gap. He launched a new initiative pooling together his wealth and resources to make the dream of homeownership a reality for more of us.
T.D. Jakes Real Estate Ventures, LLC. (TDJ REV) aims to make housing more attainable for the Black community. His interest in real estate came from watching his mother, Odith, invest in real estate in his home state of West Virginia. From that moment on, housing affordability and accessibility has been on his radar. Eventually, he said, his mother’s business ventures led to a street being named after her.
“This is organic to me. It’s a part of my DNA and it’s a part of things that I’ve always done. Beyond the communities that we built prior to TDJ REV, it gave me some experience and equity in understanding the crisis that we’re facing,” he said.
Increasing Accessibility
Access to affordable housing is a crisis in our communities. Rent has become unaffordable and, though the housing market has seen a significant decline, inflation has driven up mortgages, per Forbes. TDJ REV plans to build its own development for lease and sale, which will guarantee affordability to people who need housing and desire to own their own home.
The program will offer mixed income housing which Bishop Jakes has found produces the best results in community development. But community development extends well beyond the scope of just building houses and running credit. Jakes tells The Root the program has gathered retail constituents to help build grocery stores and hospitals and ensure that the community isn’t just existing, but living healthily.
“We wanted to create living spaces that included green spaces, biking trails, access to healthier foods and covenants in our properties that protected us from a loan sharks and things that have been as pervasive as cancers eating into the fabric of African American Community,” said Jakes.
The goal is to make the resources we’ve been separated from – due to redlining, segregation and gentrification – available at fingertip level, Jakes said. With the skyrocketing cost of living and stagnant minimum wage, TDJ REV aims to help people support their lifestyles and supply their basic needs.
Eliminating The Fear of Home Ownership
A stigma looms over the idea of homeownership for Black youth, especially given the financial burdens they face coming out of college and entering the workforce. It’s too expensive, seemingly unattainable or most often brings the question, “What am I going to do with a whole house?”
Bishop Jakes provided a simple suggestion: financial literacy.
“Financial education is helpful – it includes understanding the stock market, passive and aggressive streams of income but also understanding that homeownership is the beginning of building generational wealth. One of the things that young people don’t realize – There’s so many things you can do when you own that you can’t do when you rent.”’
Jakes offered the example of owning an Airbnb property to rent out, selling a house for equity or even investing in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) where you can allocate a percentage of your rent toward owning a building or facility. He said often government or corporate programs fail to reach our community with information on these opportunities. Now, he’s working to deliver the information himself.
“I’m really trying to leverage my entire platform to be a conduit so that we are knowledgeable about what’s out there and we are not afraid of what’s out there. Information moves away fear.”
TDJ REV understands that not all business owners have the financial statements to acquire credit. They also understand not all people in the workforce have a roof over their heads because of similar credit related obstacles. To meet people where they are, TDJ REV is creating a Community Development Financial Institution Fund called “Global Village” to offer resources to people who don’t have perfect credit and relieve Black people of the idea that you have to have perfect credit just to get started.
Breaking Ground
One of the most exciting parts of this program is the TDJ REV’s plans for construction. Bishop Jakes is eyeing to break ground in Atlanta later this year. Specifically, he’s looking to construct on 95 acres of land adjacent to Tyler Perry Studios. These buildings will include single family homes, townhouses and apartments. Jakes said he looks forward to using the development as a model that can be duplicated in other cities.
“We’re due those opportunities and we’re due those chances. We’re also acquiring some pre-existing Malta income facilities (no annual property tax) where it’s feasible to make sure there is a hand up for workforce and underemployed people to have access to adequate living – as well as people who are gainfully employed.”
Bishop Jakes refuses to limit his leadership of Black people within the walls of The Potter’s House Church. He sees a need to elevate people in all areas of life from education to business and uses the knowledge he’s attained to fight against the racial disparities that have set us up to fail.
“We might have a great church service, but we’re not having a great community and we’re not having a great life. Ultimately, my vision is to stand at the epicenter of ministry and marketplace in such a way that not only are we ministering to your spiritual needs but we’re also ministry to your natural needs by forming [partnerships] within marketplace for the upward mobility of people of color,” he said.
On Feb. 8, Benjamin Crump was honored by St. Thomas University in Florida with the Benjamin L. Crump College of Law — marking the first law school in the U.S. named after a practicing Black attorney — according to CBS News Miami.
Crump’s honor came equipped with huge support from several people in his circle.
Celebrating Ben Crump
TMZ reports that Will Smith, George Clinton, and Bishop T.D. Jakes all joined forces to raise $10 million for the new institution.
“Ben has been an absolutely spectacular friend and guide. And that’s why it is important for me to be here with him today. There are very, very few people in the world with a heart like this,” said Smith during the naming ceremony. “So it is my deepest honor and my deepest pleasure to be here to support and show some love and congratulations on this historic honor.”
During the celebratory event, Crump addressed the crowd with deep gratitude.
“I want you all to know that I feel like I’m the most blessed man on the face of the Earth today,” said Crump.
The Civil Rights Attorney’s Work
The renowned civil rights leader has been known for his recent work in representing the families of victims of police brutality, including George Floyd, Michael Brown, and more recently Tyre Nichols.
Additionally, Crump has continued to be an advocate for civil rights for Black people across the nation through continuously lending his support to families like those of the late Trayvon Martin, whose mother was in attendance at the ceremony.
“I just came to salute him,” said Sybrina Fulton, according to WSVN. “And let him know that I’m proud of him for the work that he not only did for the Trayvon Martin Foundation but that he did for so many other families.”
She added: “I’m very proud of him.”
As a follow up to T.D. Jakes’ seven deadly sins movie anthology, Lifetime is now gearing up to premiere the next title, Pride: A Seven Deadly Sins Story. Executive produced by Jakes, Derrick Williams and Shaun Robinson, the film stars Grammy-winner Stephanie Mills, Thomas “Nephew Tommy” Miles, and Keeya King.
According to the synopsis, the sin of pride is put on display in the story of “a famous bakery owner and reality TV star Birdie Moore (Mills) whose past secrets threaten the enormous success she has achieved.” When Birdie’s family secrets are exposed, her world starts to crumble — like the cookies found in her famous bakery.
It continues, “To salvage her legacy, Birdie must let go of the pride that estranged her from her daughter.”
Birdie’s pride also blinds her from her thieving son Gabe Moore (Miles) and her misguided granddaughter Ella Boudreaux (King), who is “just a lost twenty-something trying to build up her life after some missteps.”
Pride follows Jakes’ original movies Lust, Envy, Wrath and Greed which all premiered between 2021 and 2022. Stars who have taken on roles in those films include Keri Hilson, Tobias Truvillion, Tank, LisaRaye McCoy, Eric Benét, Michelle Williams, Tina Knowles, Romeo Miller, Serayah, Kandi Burruss, Da Brat, DC Young Fly, Clifton Powell and many others. Each title is based on books written by Christian fiction writer, Victoria Christopher Murray.
In 2021, Derrick Williams spoke on directing the movie anthology Envy.
“When looking at this, it’s a provocative subject matter that is happening everyday,” he said in a 2021 interview. “People are dealing with envy. We thought that this is a deadly sin that we could also help people with, because T.D. Jakes’ brand is also about helping people deal with everyday things and how these things could apply to your every day life.”
He added, “I think everyone can identify with having some envy in your life with some things you’re looking at, or that your envious of someone — but again, not knowing what’s on the other side of that, and only looking at it from one perspective.”
In addition to the aforementioned actors, Pride also features Grammy-Award winning Gospel singer Erica Campbell as Pastor Trey, Lucia Walters as Shanice, and Jaime M. Callica as Khalil.
Pride: A Seven Deadly Sins Story premieres on Saturday, April 8 at 8/7c on Lifetime.
Even though 38 percent of the population in the U.S. are eligible to donate blood, less than 10 percent do so each year. Moreover, these donors are disproportionately White. People of color have historically donated blood at lower levels. But a partnership between The Potter’s House Church, the American Red Cross, and United MegaCare is looking to change that.
A study from the National Institutes of Health found that among nearly 400,000 blood donations reported by donors aged 16-69 years old, 77 percent of the collections were from White people. Black people donated at a rate of 16.3 percent, Hispanic people at 2.3 percent, and Asians at 2.2 percent. The country is only 59 percent White.
Why is a diverse blood supply important? Because blood type is inherited, a patient that needs blood is more likely to find a blood match from their own ethnic group. Sickle cell patients are especially likely to benefit. In the United States, Sickle Cell patients are overwhelmingly Black and may need a transfusion of as many as 100 units of blood a year to prevent the disease’s symptoms, like anemia and organ damage. The disease impacts one in 365 Black Americans, according to the CDC. If more people of color donate, the patients’ chances of having enough blood for their transfusions increases.
In Dallas, the United MegaCare Sickle Cell Blood Drives began in May with the goal of educating the Black community about sickle cell disease.
“Partnering with United MegaCare and The Potter’s House helps educate Black communities about the need for blood and encourages them to become active blood donors. It also ensures that blood donation opportunities are reflective of the diverse communities the Red Cross serves and held at convenient locations that help bring donation opportunities closer to home,” said American Red Cross communications representative Doyle Rader.
There have been five drives in North Texas, including Dallas, Frisco, the Fort Worth Potter’s House, and the Dallas Potter’s House campus, incentivizing donors with Amazon gift cards. The partnership also offers courses on sickle cell disease to increase engagement and motivate the Black community to donate blood.
“Education for sickle cell is focused on the background of the disease, the populations it affects, how the sickle cell affects the body, why donors of African descent are needed, the impact it has on the individuals and families, treatment through blood transfusion and impact donors can have by donating blood, as well as, how organizations can help by encouraging the communities they serve to get involved,” Rader said.
Sickle cell disease is a red blood cell disorder where they have abnormal hemoglobins that cause the red blood cells to become sticky and hard, killing those cells creating a red cell deficit in the body, and even blocking blood flow leading to an array of other health problems such as strokes, infections, and brief episodes of pain.
The drives are hosted as welcoming events in a familiar venue to lower the stigma surrounding giving blood by gathering experts and people living with the disease so the community can see firsthand what their efforts are contributing.
“Again, education is the cornerstone,” Doyle said. “Simply put, the Black community has not been made aware of just how important their blood donation is to patients with sickle cell disease. The education component is coupled with an actual blood drive. Typically, the blood drive is in conjunction with some other event; for example, for our first blood drive on May 1, 2022, Lady Serita Jakes hosted a Coffee & Conversations virtual live event that featured a sickle cell warrior.”
Rader says the partnership has been a success, and the partners have plans to expand the locations it offers these blood drives and establish more community partnerships.
“Building effective partnerships with major community stakeholders helps to better address the health, emergency, and social needs of communities,” Rader said. “Through the American Red Cross/United MegaCare, Inc and The Potter’s House partnership, we aim to build healthier communities.”
DALLAS (KDAF) — We love shouting out organizations across North Texas when they help out the community.
T.D. Jakes Foundation is a team dedicated to building bridges to opportunities across the nation.
It recently partners with the Dallas Mavericks and Goldman Sachs to reward winners of the “Hack-A-Thon” S.T.E.A.M. camp. They also treated the winners to a night of food, drinks and box seats at a Dallas Mavericks home game.
“The Hack-A-Thon competition engaged students from DFW to around the world since it was also virtual and was a unique way to teach kids outside the classroom,” Hattie Hill, President and CEO of T.D. Jakes Foundation, said in a news release. “The looks on the winner’s faces was worth the work– for many of them it was their first time to attend an NBA game.”
The winners also got to meet Cynt Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks and the first African American woman to lead an NBA Team.
“Goldman Sachs is thrilled to celebrate these students who worked so hard applying a software engineering mindset to design an app and program to support teenagers’ mental health,” Goldman Sachs Managing Director Ramanathan Narayanan said in a news release. “Seeing them cast a vision and implement what they learned from our engineers to impact their generation is very rewarding and exactly why we are committed to this partnership with the T.D. Jakes Foundation and Dallas Mavericks. We look forward to the 2023 STEAM Academy Hackathon and continuing to help foster the talent of the future.”
Learn more about the foundation by clicking here.
Bishop T.D. Jakes is leading a new effort to help the growing housing crisis in the nation. He joins Symone D. Sanders-Townsend to discuss his plans for more affordable housing, food security and building generational wealth in underserved communities.
One of the country’s foremost faith leaders is teaming up with a titan in music.
Per a news release, Bishop T.D. Jakes has struck a distribution deal with Roc Nation whereby his record label Dexterity Sounds.
“The team at Roc Nation have been a global force in shaping the music industry and telling stories through life music,” said T.D. Jakes, CEO of T.D. Jakes Enterprises in a news release. “Finally Loosed is an album meant to provide hope, encouragement, and inspiration to people who need to be lifted up. The distribution of our album by Roc Nation helps expand the popularity of inspirational music backed by the global reach of streaming and digital media.”
The album is the accompaniment to Jakes’ wildly popular long-running women’s conference Woman Thou Art Loosed (WTAL) founded in 1992.
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“Through the years, Bishop Jakes has “loosed” multitudes of women from the shackles of abandonment, low self-esteem, addiction, and more to become victorious, secure women,” the conference’s website says. “Woman, Thou Art Loosed! held its first conference in 1996 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA. Now, a quarter-century later, WTAL comes home to that original location for its triumphant grand finale.” Over time, the conference has housed millions of attendees and has grown into one of the foremost faith-based events in the country.
MegaFest, an amalgamation of WTAL and three other conferences, has featured Oprah Winfrey, Joel Osteen and other notable figures over the years.
The latest conference was held September 22-24, 2022, in Atlanta and was recently taken over by T.D. Jakes’ daughter and fellow paster Sarah Jakes Roberts.
The album gospel album will include contributions from Timbaland, Sheila E., Tamar Braxton, Isreal Houghton, Fred Jerkins, Maranda Curtis and others. It will also be available in retail stores, a Collector’s Edition Vinyl for pre-order, and on all streaming and digital platforms.
Bishop T.D. Jakes has announced that for the first-time ever his inspiring messages will be available to audiences worldwide to stream through Amazon services.
Jakes is the first faith leader to have a dedicated space on the streaming app that will make his ministry and his teachings available free-of-charge to viewers.
The T.D. Jakes FAST Channel will be available for customers in the U.S. to stream on the Freevee app and within Prime Video starting in early 2023.
The two-year deal will also make Jakes’ content available in both the United Kingdom and Germany and it will allow viewers access to 300 hours of content.
“The launch of our channel with Amazon Freevee signals a major step forward in providing a protected and trusted space for audiences’ emotional and spiritual fortitude,” added Jakes. “As Amazon continues to innovate and offer audiences meaningful content, I’m proud to illustrate to the world how ministry and philanthropy can be done in an ever-evolving culture.”
“Though what we’ve been able to achieve with this launch is unprecedented, our mission to positively affect lives by reducing limitations on how people can be ministered to remains our North Star,” he continued. “I look forward to taking more big, meaningful leaps with Amazon.”
Jakes is the founder and has served as the lead pastor over The Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas for more than 40 years. He is known worldwide for his animated preaching style and in 2001 he was named “America’s Best Preacher” by TIME magazine.
Freevee customers will not only have access to some of Jakes’ timeless sermons, but will be able to view content that addresses subjects like emotional well-being, leadership, and business.
“Through his powerful and dynamic sermons and wide-ranging community outreach, Bishop Jakes has been a source of wisdom and guidance to millions around the world,” said Lauren Anderson, head of AVOD Original content and programming at Amazon Studios. “At Freevee, our steadfast mission is to deliver our broad audience a diverse selection of compelling, personally resonant content.
“As we build our faith-based offerings alongside our entertainment selection, we are honored to be the exclusive video streaming home for Bishop Jakes’ decades-long ministry, and proud to be a destination for viewers to find an ongoing source of spiritual inspiration,” she continued.
Jakes announced the launch of his channel during the final “Women Thou Art Loosed’ conference Friday in Atlanta, Ga.
As CBN News has reported, this year’s meeting will be the final gathering of the premiere Christian women’s conference that launched in 1996.
“Woman Thou Art Loosed has been a global movement of empowerment for women for over two whole decades. Our vision for this conference in particular, like others, is to create a platform for women to feel seen, heard and to free themselves of whatever’s holding them back,” Frank Dyer, Chief Operating Officer of T.D. Jakes Ministries told CBN News.
The lineup of speakers includes Bishop T.D. Jakes, First Lady Serita Jakes, Pastor Cora Jakes, Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts, Carolyn D. Showell, and Priscilla Shirer. Roughly 20,000 women are expected to attend this weekend’s event.
Bishop T.D. Jakes is expanding his faith-based media empire into streaming television.
According to Variety, the noted preacher, inspirational speaker and author has signed a deal with Amazon Freevee to launch a free, ad-supported, streaming channel (FAST) and on-demand service that features 300 hours of his content.
Beginning Thursday, Dec. 1, sermons, interviews and unscripted programming will be available on-demand, while the streaming channel is scheduled to launch in early 2023. The deal exposes Jakes to an international audience, with rights in the U.S., U.K. and Germany, as well as T.D. Jakes on The Road episodes from Australia, London, and Africa.
“It’s unprecedented for both of us,” Jakes told Variety. “It’s the first time that [Amazon has] ever gone into that type of content before. And while we do scripted shows, and I’ve done things for Sony and other people, they initially are not asking for anything like that. They’re wanting purely faith-based content, preaching sermons, messages, inspiration, to be available to stream on a dedicated FAST channel and free to watch. That’s a new thing for them and for us.”
The deal isn’t exclusive, so programming from The Potter’s House ministry leader could be available on other platforms. Many of the church’s events, along with live streams of weekly services are currently available on YouTube.
While we’ve seen major media deals for faith leaders before, it usually revolves around a white male preacher and is on a smaller, niche station. For a Black religious leader like T.D. Jakes to cement a deal with a platform like Amazon is a very big step. The tech and retail giant is directly acknowledging the power and importance of the Black church.
“This is where the first time a company like Amazon has treated us without discriminating about faith and be open to providing this type of content for a certain base of their constituency who find that type of content enjoyable,” Jakes said. “To me that is a very good thing. It won’t be for everybody. But for those people who really enjoy that type of ministry, which our numbers verify that there are millions of people who do, we can now provide those services through Amazon.”
The Crushing author has produced several films and TV series, including Lifetime’s Seven Deadly Sins anthology. While the initial Amazon Freevee plans only feature unscripted content, Jakes is open to working on scripted programming with the streamer.
“We’re also talking about the possibility of, down the road, doing scripted television shows and other types of content through Amazon, beyond preaching messages,” he said. “So, this this is just ground level zero of a relationship that is emerging between our organization and them.”
In case you’ve never heard of Amazon Freevee, it’s a free channel available on Prime Video. It has a lot of TV shows from the ‘80s and ‘90s, but also includes new series Leverage: Redemption, Bosch: Legacy and the British comedy Timemasters.
Amazon Freevee is getting into business with Bishop T.D. Jakes, signing a two-year deal with the spiritual figure to launch a FAST (free, ad-supported streaming) channel and provide on-demand access to 300 hours of Jakes’ content.
The deal, which launches Dec. 1 and covers rights in the U.S., UK and Germany, will include sermons, interviews and other unscripted, faith-based programming from Jakes’ library — which has been amassed over 45 years. While the programming will be available on demand at that time, the FAST channel will launch in early 2023 on Amazon Freevee and within Prime Video.
Michael Phillips, the chief operating officer of T.D. Jakes Enterprises, will oversee the programming output.
“It’s unprecedented for both of us,” Jakes said of the deal. “It’s the first time that [Amazon has] ever gone into that type of content before. And while we do scripted shows, and I’ve done things for Sony and other people, they initially are not asking for anything like that. They’re wanting purely faith-based content, preaching sermons, messages, inspiration, to be available to stream on a dedicated FAST channel and free to watch. That’s a new thing for them and for us.”
Other programming in the mix includes “T.D. Jakes on The Road” editions including Australia, London, and Africa, leadership and business talks and conversations with celebrities and political leaders.
“This is where the first time a company like Amazon has treated us without discriminating about faith and be open to providing this type of content for a certain base of their constituency who find that type of content enjoyable,” Jakes said. “To me that is a very good thing. It won’t be for everybody. But for those people who really enjoy that type of ministry, which our numbers verify that there are millions of people who do, we can now provide those services through Amazon.”
Jakes said the deal with Amazon isn’t exclusive, which means T.D. Jakes programming and channels would very well pop up on other AVOD distributors as well.
“We’re also talking about the possibility of, down the road, doing scripted television shows and other types of content through Amazon, beyond preaching messages,” said Jakes, whose producing credits include the films “Sparkle,” “Heaven Is for Real” and “A Dog’s Way Home.” “So, this this is just ground level zero of a relationship that is emerging between our organization and them.”
Said Lauren Anderson, head of AVOD original content and programming at Amazon Studios: “As we build our faith-based offerings alongside our entertainment selection, we are honored to be the exclusive video streaming home for Bishop Jakes’ decades-long ministry, and proud to be a destination for viewers to find an ongoing source of spiritual inspiration.”
