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After more than eight years in the Missouri mountains near Branson, Jim and Lori Bakker are building now more than ever on the new land named Morningside.
Having ourselves been Heritage USA/PTL Lifetime Partners (Laurie and I began in 1985, with a total of three lifetime memberships) on the former Fort Mill, SC property, it is exciting to see Jim being fully restored, raised up and now building once again. As he has given himself to the Lord's plans and purposes, we can see the Lord Jesus honoring him and making a way for others to follow.
Thank you Jim and Lori for your commitment to the eternal plans and purpose of our Lord. It is exciting to see what the Lord is doing in your midst. We commend you!
Shalom and love,
Steve & Laurie Martin
Love For His People, Inc. P.S. We are current members of MorningStar Church, which was able to obtain and restore 52 acres of the former Heritage Grand Hotel, just south of Charlotte, NC where we live. Founded by Rick Joyner, MorningStar and Heritage International Ministries are both based on that property. The Lord has restored the widow's mite that was given sacrificially by so many. At least six other ministries also reside on the former Heritage USA land, including Antioch International Church (Peter Wyns), All Nations Church (Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda), The Movement (Lathan Wood), Fresh Fire USA (Todd Bentley) and The Upper Room (James Russell). The Lord always honors those whom are His. And He is in the redeeming and restoration business, for all who will come to Jesus (Yeshua) for salvation.
As Jim speaks to his staff, they listen closely.
"Team work makes the dream work" - Jim Bakker
Some of the staff builders
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and Rick Joyner - guests on the Jim Bakker Show
Jim Bakker -Founder & Chancellor - a pioneer of Christian Television.
From humble beginning, he rose to build one of the largest ministries in the world. As a young man, Jim was called to “make Jesus real” to the world. During the golden era of television, he was divinely inspired on what medium he could use to do just that. He dreamed of a night-time Christian talk show-one that could display the format and quality of The Tonight Show hosted (at that time) by Johnny Carson.
In 1966, his dream came true. While hosting a children’s show on Pat Robertson’s fledgling Christian station in Virginia, Jim became the co-founder and host for the first Christian talk show – “The 700 Club”. Next, he co-founded TBN and then the PTL and Inspirational Television Networks.
Today, Jim hosts “The Jim Bakker Show” which is an hour-long daily broadcast seen throughout the United States, Canada, and the entire world through Direct TV, Dish Network and other worldwide satellites. His number one passion however, is to train the next generation of Christian television broadcasters by giving them the tools to dream and create media for their generation to continue in spreading the Gospel to all the world.
Jim’s show is broadcast from a new Christian Retreat Center called “Morningside” just outside Branson, Missouri. This 700-acre property is a thriving Christian community that also serves as the backlot for “The Jim Bakker Show” and “Generation NOW”, a syndicated television program produced solely by the Morningside Master’s Media Students.
I have known Jim Bakker since the heydays of PTL in the late 1970s. I wrote a Charismacover story about him in May 1983 after traveling to the relatively new Heritage USA to get a behind-the-scenes look at what was then an increasingly controversial ministry.
Readers might remember that things spun out of control only four years later for PTL and Jim Bakker. This downward spiral came after allegations of financial wrongdoing—mostly "overselling" so-called timeshares—and after his denomination defrocked him when a short-lived extra-marital affair hit the newspapers.
If that wasn't bad enough, PTL eventually went bankrupt and Jim's wife, Tammy Faye, divorced him and married his best friend. Jim went to prison for five years.
In short, Jim Bakker lost everything.
But unlike many high-profile people who become caught up in a public scandal or spend time incarcerated, Jim found humility. His famous book about his ordeal sums up his journey in its three-word title: I Was Wrong. While in prison, the job of the man who had met with U.S. presidents and had run one of the largest non-profit ministries in the nation was to clean toilets. But, he used whatever spare time he had to diligently study the Word. That's what really changed him.
The miracle is that, after all this, Jim Bakker has rebounded. I saw this firsthand when I visited him at his new facilities near Branson, Missouri this week.
As a Christian journalist, I have covered Jim Bakker for many years. I knew many people from his PTL ministry. I knew Tammy Faye—who has since passed away—and her new husband. Even so, I could never be counted among his inner circle of friends. However, I did consider him a friend.
After his release from prison, Jim and I went to dinner once when he visited Orlando. It was my way of reaching out to a broken man. His fortunes were so low that the dinner invitation took him by surprise.
He slowly began to put his life back together. He lived in a one-room apartment at the Pastor Tommy Barnett-founded L.A. Dream Center. I visited the Dream Center in the early days and wrote about it. I remember meeting Bakker there and meeting his lovely new wife, Lori Graham Bakker. We did a story on her life where she admitted to having five abortions and about how God had healed her and used her testimony for good.
Jim has now built a new ministry near Branson called Morningside. It has a hotel and condominiums, campgrounds, a media school, television studios and many other amenities. Everything is done with excellence and Bakker has assembled a top-notch team.
I couldn't help but draw parallels to what Bakker did at PTL. Only this time, everything is paid for. And while everything is nice, no one can call what he's done opulent (a word often used to describe things at PTL).
For me, however, the amazing thing is that Jim Bakker has rebounded. He is now 75 and he works 16-hour days. He seems to have more energy than men half his age. Most people who experience the enormous loss Jim Bakker has experienced would have given up and rotted away somewhere out of sight. Not Jim Bakker. He learned whatever lesson he needed to learn, and believed God that he could dream again.
Historians will spend decades dissecting the life of Jim Bakker. He is a very complex man, yet he's also a great man. Maybe he went too far at PTL. Maybe he wasn't accountable. Obviously, he made some big mistakes. Yet in my opinion he did no more wrong (and a whole lot less) than hundreds of other leaders who either didn't get caught or had only a minor setback. However, Jim Bakker lost everything.
To some, his name still exemplifies the worst in flamboyant Pentecostal preachers. He has been criticized for his focus on end-time prophecy and encouraging people to prepare for hard times by storing food or having backup generators. He's not a perfect man and he's the first to admit it (but then who among us is perfect?).
But he's not a quitter. He has come back after he lost everything except his life. And that should be an encouragement to everyone who reads this or who watches him on TV. That's because all of us will face loss of some sort—even loved ones. Some might face an unhappy marriage or deal with wayward children. Some might lose a job, struggle through a bankruptcy or face serious illness like cancer.
While your loss might not be as bad as Jim Bakker's, it probably will hurt as much as his loss did him! At your lowest point, take comfort that God can give back your dream and help you rebuild your life as he did with Jim Bakker.
We recorded a couple of television programs while I visited Morningside. The first is scheduled to air Monday, October 19. I hope you will watch.
At the end of the program, Jim Bakker stood and looked at the camera and said something that's not cliche—it's something he knows from the depth of his soul: "God loves you—He really does!"
Steve Strangis the founder of Charisma and CEO of Charisma Media. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
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