Biography
Bishop T.D. Jakes, widely regarded as one of America’s leading Christian preachers and a top-selling writer who issued more than a dozen books during the opening five years of his literary output, launched his recording work in 1997 through a concert edition of his landmark title Woman, Thou Art Loosed!. Born in West Virginia in 1957 and raised Baptist, Jakes gained a clear vocational direction after an encounter at a small Apostolic storefront church, prompting him to champion unity across the fragmented Christian landscape of the United States on matters of denomination, race, and sexuality. He enrolled at West Virginia State University to study psychology and later completed both a master’s degree and a doctorate in ministry. After his 1980 marriage and several years at Union Carbide, he entered full-time ministry by establishing Charleston’s Temple of Faith in 1986. His national profile rose through the remainder of the decade via prominent speaking appearances, among them a Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship convention that drew 45,000 listeners. By 1993 he had turned to writing Christian books, and Woman, Thou Art Loosed! ranked as the year’s second-best-selling title in that category in 1995. Early in 1996 Jakes purchased W.V. Grant’s sizable Eagle’s Nest Family Church in Dallas, acquiring the building and its media infrastructure, which soon attracted weekly audiences above 5,000. Sacred Love Songs appeared in 1999, followed two years later by Storm Is Over.
Albums
