Bishop T.D. Jakes gestures as he responds to a question posed by Gleaner Religion Editor Mark Dawes (left). Bishop Jakes shared his perspectives on a range of issues as he vacationed at a Montego Bay resort last weekend. Jakes is the main speaker at 'The Way Forward' conference scheduled to take place tonight and tomorrow night at the National Stadium. - Claudia Gardner photo

Internationally acclaimed preacher Bishop T.D. Jakes, 51, will be the main speaker at 'The Way Forward' conference which has been organised by Pastors In Action - a group of local clergy led by well-known Pentecostal/ Charismatic Renewal leaders Pastor Merrick 'Al' Miller, Bishop Herro Blair and Bishop C. Everton Thomas.

Bishop Jakes arrived in Jamaica last week for a brief holiday before fulfilling engagements associated with the conference. Bishop Jakes will speak at public meetings to be held at the National Stadium, today and tomorrow. Both events will begin at 6 p.m. On Thursday, he will address specially invited pastors and their spouses at a meeting scheduled for the National Indoor Sports Centre.

Bishop Jakes last weekend, while vacationing in Montego Bay, shared his perspectives with The Gleaner on a number of issues. Below is part two of that interview. Part one was carried yesterday on page B6.

Dawes: How often do you find the time to do the rudimentary things that pastors do, such as visit the sick, conduct weddings, and funerals?

JAKES: It is almost impossible to do them for 30,000 people. I have 30,000 members at my church. That's why I serve more as a bishop than as a pastor. I have got 11 pastors at my church. I have 400 ministers at my church. And we do all the services that a small church does; it's just that we go about it differently. If you are a member of our church and you get sick, we have teams of ministers that come to the hospital to visit you. We have bereavement committees and so on.

We have 400 funerals in a year. It would not be possible for one person to do that. So what I used to provide as an individual service, I provide now through a system of services. I serve as the bishop and they serve as the pastor.That's how we get the job done.

But every now you get involved in the hurly burly of pastoral life, of counselling and funerals?

I generally handle cases that the pastors come back to me and say this is a severe case... Those drastic cases where someone with 32 years of experience is needed to handle -then I try I focus that experience on that level of touch.

Bishop, you know of ministries and pastors who have fallen for one reason or another. How do you protect yourself and your ministry? What accountability systems do you work with that helps to keep your character and your ministry buoyant?

There are several things I try to do. First of all, nobody is above making a mistake. The Bible says "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall". So I don't think anyone is above sin. One of the things that it is very important for ministers to do is to handle their business with integrity and with professionalism.

Generally, most ministers either fall because of misappropriation of funds, or misappropriation of sexuality. That is why my first answer to you was focused around the family. To have a strong relationship with your spouse is very, very important. And to work on that relationship so that it is satisfying and fulfilling is a commitment not only of the minister but of the minister's wife. I think that I am kept through both things, not just because of my own strength but also my wife's commitment to making sure our home is secure and safe.

I think that is very, very important. And then, I have people that I can talk to, and that I can go to without the 'quick-willy help', to be able to find guidance, and prayer and encouragement. Most ministers destruct not because they are wicked. There is a difference between wickedness and weakness. It is very easy to fall prey to weakness. And when that does begin to happen, there is only a small window of time before a problem overtakes you. I think having someone to talk to is vitally important.

Do you go to seek help routinely even when you perceive nothing wrong with you?

Absolutely. I surround myself with a small group of people that I can open up to, that I can talk to. And I have been a confidante to a lot of ministers - those who haven't fallen and those who have. I think it is a mistake to throw people away because they have failed. We are the only army that shoots our wounded. I think it is a grave mistake to throw people away because we discover something about them that often we ourselves struggle with.

How should we rehabilitate people who have fallen?

Now that is a really a great question. I am disappointed that the Church as a whole does not have systems in place to accommodate fallen pastors and preachers. In the corporate world, when the CEO is in trouble, he goes to a Betty Ford Clinic, or a rehabilitation centre. Sometimes it is not only ministers who are in crisis, but their families are also in crisis.

Then it breaks you down. You can't ignore that, for if the family is facing crisis long enough, the minister ends up in crisis too. And he doesn't have any place to go because everybody in his life is drawing from him. One of the things I would like to do in the latter years of my life, I would like to be a part of a board or a team of people that provides a place for ministers to come and heal. Wouldn't it be terrible if doctors could not be treated in the same hospital they worked in? And yet we (ministers) are in a predicament where we provide a service that we cannot benefit from.

The tragedy is that the doctor is no more exempt from the flu than the person he treats. Because he knows medicine does not mean that he is not vulnerable to the same conditions. I think we need to provide a place where ministers can come and receive the same grace that we offer to our parishioners because we are made of the same material that our members are made of.

How does First Lady Serita complement your ministry?

She oversees our women's department at the church. She has served in a number of roles down through the years. She has been president of the usher board, she has been human resources director when we first started out. She continues to serve as our women's director for all of our women's affairs - nationally and internationally. But her most vital service to the church, I think, is to be my wife and to be my friend, and to be an encouragement to me.

Tell me a little bit about your children?

I have five children and they are not children anymore. They are all grown now. I have got a daughter, Sarah, for one of my for-profit companies. She works in the movie development area. Incidentally, I have a film coming out called Not Easily Broken, through a contract I have with Sony Pictures. She is my liaison between Sony Pictures and T.D. Jakes Enterprises.

My oldest son, Jamar, is the general manager at the church and he manages the staff at the church. The younger of my twins, Jermaine, works in the ministry in product development - duplicating the tapes and that sort of thing. My daughter Cora works in the children's ministry at the church. My youngest son is still in school, he is Thomas Dexter Jakes Jr. He is named after me.

Your activities in the recent past have been focused on Africa. What are you hoping to do on that continent and how successful have you been so far?

First of all, I love Africa at a very deep, personal and cultural level. There was a 2006 PBS special (African American Lives) where Henry Louis Gates Jr, did DNA testing of Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones and several others. I was the only one that they tested that was purely African. There is no other blood in me. Maybe in some ways that explains my personal infatuation with Africa. The African people are very spiritual people.

But how to use that spirituality to move themselves up, is an area where I think I can have an impact. There is a gradual transformation going on in the continent of Africa. I am encouraging people throughout the African diaspora not to become detached from our roots. I believe that Africa is to people of African descent, what Israel is to the Jews. We have to be concerned about our brothers because we are a bit like Joseph. We have been sold into slavery and raised in other parts of the world. There is something that happens when we reconnect, which is mutually and reciprocally beneficial. In some ways they are far stronger than we are, in terms of understanding who they are and whose they are.

They are strong on identity issues. I think they can bring much to the table that can fortify us as it relates to who we are as a people. The other thing that happens is that we can bring much to them in terms of technology, resources and being a voice to our government concerning the ills that they face today - HIV/AIDS, poverty, lack of clean water. Malaria is killing almost as many people as HIV/AIDS.

We have done quite a bit in terms of digging wells in the area. We have worked in Washington DC to be a voice for some of the crises going on in Darfur. We have been a voice encouraging our government to become more involved with HIV/AIDS.

We have been a voice to the Kenyans, encouraging them to seek tourism and trade and businesses. I am concerned when any people continue to grow spiritually but don't grow practically. I don't want spirituality to become some anaesthesia that black people are given to anaesthetise the fact that you are not developing as a people. I am really concerned about that, not just there, but everywhere. We are wonderful at having church. We do poorly at having life. I don't think that we should have to choose between one or the other. We can have them both.

To be continued.

Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com