Updated on: April 27, 2025 / 3:43 PM CDT / CBS Texas

After 30 years, Bishop T.D. Jakes has announced that the position of senior pastor of the Potter’s House in Dallas will be transferred to his daughter, Sarah Jakes Roberts, and son-in-law. 

The announcement came during Sunday morning’s service. Jakes, along with his wife Serita Jakes by his side, named Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts and Sarah’s husband, Pastor Touré Roberts, as the new senior pastors of the church. The couple will begin their new roles in July. Jakes will remain on the Potter’s House Board of Directors. 

The move signifies the mega-church is evolving its ministry into the future, uplifting a new generation. 

“As your pastor-elect, co-senior pastor elect, I’m grateful, I’m honored as your daughter,” Jakes Roberts said, fighting through tears as she embraced her father. 

T.D. Jakes’ 2024 “health incident”

In November 2024, Jakes suffered a heart attack during a morning service at Potter’s House, which was captured live on video. It was questioned whether he’d return. 

“I cannot afford, especially after November, to risk something happening to me, and you be sheep without a shepherd,” Jakes said during the announcement Sunday.

A spokesperson for the Potter’s House told CBS News Texas that the plan for Jakes Roberts to take over has been in the works for years.

Following the announcement to the congregation Sunday, the Jakes family sent out the following letter: 

“Today we shared with the world our long-held plans of purposeful evolution for The Potter’s House and our global church family.

Preparing for this announcement over the past several years has allowed us as a family and a global church family to carefully balance the needs of our community worldwide and the pace at which we performed each step of our plan.

When members of our family moved from LA to Dallas, it was to be more active in the evolution of this growing ministry. In 2022, a handshake between generations took place as we said farewell to Woman, Thou Art Loosed and hello to Woman Evolve. And when we installed our two new assistant pastors in 2023, we continued to forge ahead in the vision we set long ago.

Today marks the continuation of our willingness to evolve as a church and step into broader roles to make certain we continue to meet the needs of this sensitive moment in our collective history.”

As we look across our great nation and survey the unyielding economic, societal and spiritual needs visiting our communities, it’s clear that we can’t afford to squander the potential of our youth or the elders who have paved the way. The hardships of first-time home ownership, the dire need to invest in the growing entrepreneurial landscape and a younger generation needing a home for their faith walk in the midst of increasing skepticism; these issues we face are not a tale of despair; they are a clarion call for change.

And together we will tackle these challenges and the need for this change in each of our unique ways.

As Pastors Touré & Sarah take another step up to further accept the mantle of daily ministry duties at The Potter’s House of Dallas ushering in a new movement and calling, the work of the T.D. Jakes Group to bolster job creation and 21st century workforce readiness, investing in the infrastructure of communities nationwide, lifting communities up from the margins to the center and working alongside like-minded partners to create thriving neighborhoods will be able to accelerate rapidly.

Together, we shall unite for the betterment of this generation and the ones that follow.”

Who is Bishop T.D. Jakes? 

Jakes founded the non-denominational, multi-cultural church in South Dallas in 1996. It now has surpassed 30,000 members and has expanded across North Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denver. According to its website, the Potter’s House is consistently ranked as one of the largest and most influential churches in the nation. 

Jakes is not only a world-renowned faith leader, but he also heads TDJ Enterprises, which is known for producing both motion pictures and book publishing. He is the leader of the T.D. Jakes Foundation — which promotes community outreach to improve education and housing. 

Briauna BrownBriauna Brown is a digital content producer for CBS Texas. A longtime and versatile journalist, Briauna writes, edits and produces social media content for all CBS Texas digital platforms.