It's time for Americans to look and pray beyond their borders, Bishop T.D. Jakes said Thursday as he prepared to take a major step in that direction with a revival meeting in South Africa.
The superstar preacher, pastor of the Dallas megachurch The Potter's House and best-selling author was bringing his Megafest to a convention center near Soweto this weekend. It will be the first time since it debuted in Atlanta in 2004 that he has taken the event -- part religious festival, part self-help fair, part gospel concert -- outside the U.S, where it has drawn hundreds of thousands of people over the years.
He cited the current global economic meltdown sparked by America's credit crisis and the Sept. 11 terror strikes as examples of why Americans need to pay more attention to the world and their role in it.
"We can no longer live in corners and just care about ourselves," he said. "Americans are becoming increasingly global-minded. If there were anything positive that came out of 9-11, it's the realization that we are our brothers' keepers."
Jakes has preached outside the U.S. before, and South Africans at a news conference in Johannesburg Thursday quoted from his books. But he's never taken on anything so ambitious as staging a Megafest abroad. For the past year, more than 300 people have worked in the U.S. and South Africa to prepare for the event, in which he said his church had invested $7 million. Tickets were selling for just 25 rand, and Jakes said he hoped only to break even.
The U.S. has a tradition of superstar preachers. Jakes is among the best known of today's group, along with Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston.
Their appeal is testament to the power of two ideas: That spirituality can be a kind of self-help therapy, and that churches can be more than places to worship, but catalysts for community and political activism.
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When Jakes preaches that Jesus died to make us free, and `we are not truly free until we are economically free," he sounds distinctly American. But the sentiment is not foreign to South Africa, where religious leaders like retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu helped lead the fight against apartheid, and megachurches are blooming in Johannesburg suburbs.
Nkanyiso Bhengu, a popular South African actor, TV host and gospel singer, says young preachers across South Africa are copying Jakes approach and warm style after seeing his DVDs. Bhengu listens to Jakes CDs when he's on the road with his gospel group.
"He's very spiritual, but he understands the world that we live in," Bhengu said. "It makes Jesus tangible. It makes God tangible."
In addition to Jakes and other pastors, gospel stars Israel Houghton and Mary Mary were among those performing at Megafest. Participants will also be able to get free AIDS tests and advice on starting businesses. While he's been in the region, Jakes has built homes for AIDS orphans in the Johannesburg area and, working with the Christian aid group World Vision, opened a learning and feeding center for AIDS orphans in neighboring Swaziland.
Southern Africa suffers some of the highest AIDS rates in the world, but great stigma is associated with the sexually transmitted disease in conservative societies here.
The black church in the U.S. is also conservative, but Jakes has been a leader among black clergymen speaking out about the disease. He said having black celebrities like Magic Johnson come forward about their HIV status helped start an important conversation.
"We started losing people and somebody had to say something about it," he said. "We have not mastered the art of communicating on this, but we are learning."\
The usually ebullient Jakes at first seemed at a loss when asked why he chose Africa for his major international debut.
"I'm a very inspirational, impulsive person," he said. "I go where I feel led. I just felt this big passion to come to South Africa."
He brought along more than 1,000 supporters from the U.S. to attend the weekend festival, and said he expected other worshippers from Europe, Latin America and elsewhere in Africa. It was a chance for South Africa, preparing to host the soccer World Cup in 2010, to show off its infrastructure to the world, an angle not lost on the South African government tourism and economic development officials and business leaders who have endorsed Jakes's efforts.
Patrice Motsepe, one of South Africa's most prominent businessmen, appeared alongside him Thursday, called Jakes "an inspiration," and asked him to bring Megafest back soon.
