Ghost Megachurches: The Potter’s House Denver

Touré and Sarah Jakes Roberts are the latest example of the growing prevalence of Ghost Megachurches in the United States. In November, Evangelical Dark Web exposed how FBC Orlando, the home of SBC elite David Uth, is a shadow of its pre-lockdown self. This was not because of their liberal or worldly leanings but more likely because they adopted Branch Covidianism. In this article we will dive into The Potter’s House Denver and how their adoption of Branch Covidianism resulted in a steep decline in revenues resulting in the closure of their campus.

The Potter’s House Denver is part of the pseudo-denomination of of TD Jakes Potter’s House Ministry and has a sister campus in Los Angeles that is unimpacted by the events in this article. Sarah Jakes Roberts is his daughter and Touré Roberts his son-in-law. This church has 641K subscribers on YouTube and Sarah Jakes Roberts has 565K subscribers on YouTube. The churches videos can easily amass 20000 views for any given sermon.

The church is now in the process of selling its $12.2 million property to be turned into a park and residential neighborhood, and consolidating to being an online ministry.

According to the Denver Post:

Potter’s House Pastor Touré Roberts said the pandemic, with its government shutdown of religious services, led the church to ultimately abandon its physical footprint in the Four Square Mile neighborhood.

“COVID-19 forced every church in America to rethink how to best serve their parishioners and the broader community,” Roberts said. “Due to the inability to gather and the economic instability of the pandemic, our church, like many other churches in the nation, experienced declining donations.”

Instead of trying to do upkeep on an “old building that needed significant repairs,” he said, Potter’s House decided to remain fully virtual.

“We decided that the best way forward would be to sell the property, continue our online offering that had proven a successful alternative and maintain our hands-on community outreach operations, which includes our food bank that feeds thousands of families per year,” Roberts said.

Analysis

The Potter’s House would be keeping with the trend of Black churches who are not returning in person, a racial disparity that Big Eva does not care about.

However, a complete shutdown of a physical location is more telling of the church environment. No one is attending Touré and Sarah Jakes Roberts’ church because of good theology and a ripe understanding of the gospel. This is a flashy church benefitting off of the brand of TD Jakes, someone with a wavering view of the Trinity. Additionally, the move to shut the location down is a very fiscal decision to abandon the function of a church. They preferred this to repenting of Branch Covidianism and proclaiming Christ as the head of their church over their governor. They prefer to continue operating their successful YouTube channel to even downsizing to a smaller location that is not dilapidated in Denver. Meanwhile they will maintain the physical in-person Los Angeles campus. May The Potter’s House continue to decrease.