Bishop Jakes, Deion Sanders host TECO crusade

By Richard Ferrara
Special to the Daily News

When the Sept. 17 issue of Time Magazine arrived on newsstands bearing the countenance of Bishop Thomas D. Jakes and the headline "Is This Man the Next Billy Graham?" the growing reputation of the author, playwright and preacher reached a peak point.

Dubbed by the magazine as “Best Preacher" in its "America's Best" series, and referred to as "one of religion's most prodigious polymaths," T.D. Jakes has risen from the throes of poverty to financial success and national recognition. His charismatic speaking abilities have drawn comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Graham.

Jakes is at TECO Arena in Fort Myers for two days of crusades, accompanied by football Veteran and Fort Myers native Deion Sanders, who will be speaking with him.

Sanders, a two-time Super Bowl champion and seven-time Pro Bowl athlete, says he became a man of faith and jchanged his life back m 1996, when he came under Jakes' guidance.

"Sports was not able to give me what I felt like I was missing in life," Sanders recalled. "It's just thinking all those accompiishments can bring you what you want and it never could because there was always a place there empty that none of it could fill. Just a multitude of things really brought me to the calling. And I've been called to the ministry," Sanders said. "I've been called and I'm just studying up under him to enhance my calling. Any time you're in his presence you're gonna leam something."

Jakes has been teaching nearly all his life, although his fame didn't come until 1993, when he spent his own money to self-publish the book "Woman, Thou Art Loosed," which flashed through bookstores and eventually sold nearly 2 million copies.

"I preached the Bible in school, and they called me the Bible Boy or the Boy Preacher," Jakes told CNN. Services at Jakes' "Potter's House" church in Dallas, with its membership of 25,000 people, are a cross between Pentecostal preaching and self-help psychology (Jakes studied psychology as well as religion in his youth).

With a multi-million dollar TV studio installed in the church, his nondenominational sermons are beamed around the world, and any number of titles from his 28 books are visible in bookstores.

"His style of preaching, his words far surpass anything I've seen on television," said Sanders.

"He had a big influence on me. I call him 'Daddy,' that's how much of an affect he has on me. Some people call him Bishop, I don't call him Bishop. I don't call him by his name. I call him Daddy." Now Sanders is returning to his home hometown with the man he calls Daddy at TECO Arena. More than 9,000 people are expected to attend the crusade, which begins today and continues Saturday.

"'It always feels good to come back home, but to be cast in front of thousands of people hearing what God says through you, that's quite an honor,” said Sanders.