Bishop TD Jakes suffers medical emergency during church sermon

A celebrity bishop appeared to suffer a medical emergency mid-sermon at his megachurch in Dallas.

Bishop TD Jakes, 67, was filmed involuntarily shaking during the ordeal, at The Potter's House megachurch Sunday.

The place of worship has a capacity of about 8,000, and the crowd was seen reacting to Jakes' episode in real-time.

Commands to 'back up' and 'give him some space' are heard in clips now gaining traction online, as staffers were seen crowding the clergyman, who only moments before had unintentionally dropped his mic.

As the scary scene unfolded, a livestream of the sermon suddenly stopped - replaced by an off-camera voice telling those in attendance and those looking on from home to 'begin to pray.'

Shortly after, Jakes' team offered a brief explanation on the pastor's X page, while offering some insight on the senior's condition. 

'During today's service, Bishop TD Jakes experienced a slight health incident and received immediate medical attention following his powerful hour long message,' the statement read.

'Bishop Jakes is stable and under the care of medical professionals,' it went on to insist.

'The entire Potter's House family is grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers, and support from the community. 

'Thank you for your understanding and continued prayers.'

As of writing, the nature of the 'slight health incident' suffered by Jakes remains unknown. 

Updates surrounding his current condition were not immediately available Sunday afternoon.

'Oh Lord, my strength, my redeemer, let them go in peace,' Jakes is heard saying just as strength starts to leave his body - causing him to lose grip on his trademark microphone while falling uncharacteristically silent.

At that point, the priest is seen sitting in his seat in visible discomfort, seemingly trying to regain his composure.

A series of deep breaths and several seconds later, members of his team crowded around him to administer aid - while closing off the view from the recording camera.

The broadcast ended there, paving the way for a series of speculative comments about what had just occurred. 

'That's a stroke,' one person said, as the nature of Jake's admitted 'health incident' remained unknown.

'Bishop TD Jakes had a medical emergency during today’s service. Not sure if it was a stroke,' another added, pointing to the apparent loss of movement from the pastor.

'Thoughts and prayers out to him and his family,' someone else wrote, as others expressed surprise at how long it took for his team and members of the crowd to realize something was wrong.

Meanwhile, the televangelist is one of the most successful in the country, with its reported weekly attendance of 17,000 and capacity helping it rank 10th in a 2008 tabulation of largest congregations in the US.

A native of West Virginia, Jakes bought the church from disgraced TV preacher WV Grant in 1996, after the latter was found guilty of evading taxes on more than $300,000 of the church's income, when it was still called The Eagle's Nest Family Church. 

Jakes reportedly took home the more-than-100-year-old structure for a total of $3.2-million, and nearly three decades later, is still delivering sermons for all to see.

Several reports aired over the past year peg his net worth as being somewhere in the ballpark of $20million. He has more than a million followers on social media, where he bills himself as not only a man of God, but a 'motivational speaker.'

His massive church, according to its website, has more than 30,000 members, and provides a place for 'the down-and-out, the homeless and other walks of life to worship and serve together.'

Earlier this year, Jakes made headlines when he was mentioned in a lawsuit associating him with Sean 'Diddy' Combs. 

The suit, filed by music producer for Combs’ Bad Boy records Rodney "Lil Rod" Jones, claims Jones has 'irrefutable evidence' of Combs detailing how he planned to leverage his relationship with [Jakes] to soften the impact on his public image of Cassie Ventura’s lawsuit.'

An ex of Combs, Ventura's civil lawsuit is what led to the rapper being indicted on federal sex trafficking and racketeering earlier this year.

Jakes debuted a sermon series on Comb’s cable television network, Revolt Media in 2021. He is not named as a defendant in the ongoing civil suit. 

In addition to the Dallas branch, he has 58 other ministries scattered across the US.

As of Sunday, it remained unclear whether he was still hospitalized.