Bishop TD Jakes Gifted With Restored Trans Am for 60th Birthday at Potter's House Church

Gospel singer Fred Hammond with Bishop T.D. Jakes during the Gospel of Praise tour on November 20, 2016.

Bishop T.D. Jakes was in for a surprise when a custom vintage car was brought on stage at The Potter's House church in honor of his 60th birthday Sunday.


Gospel music singer-songwriter and producer Fred Hammond teamed up with his brother, Ray Hammond, to restore a '60s Trans Am they found in a junkyard to resemble the race car that Jakes had as a teenager. In a video package created by Hammond, the gospel singer who has a passion for restoring old cars explained the importance of taking on the task for Jakes.

"Bishop, I remember hearing vaguely about you preaching about a favorite car you used to have. It got wrecked or something happened to it and you didn't have it anymore," Hammond said in the video played at the Dallas, Texas-based church on Sunday. "I remember that you said you and your brother would race up and down the road. He had a certain car and you had a certain car. We went looking for that car."

In September the Hammond brothers found and began restoring the car that had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Hammond explained that restoring the vehicle with the help of unsolicited financial contributions of Jakes' friends, family and supporters was symbolic because of all of the souls that the Bishop has helped restore.

"When we started doing this job it was all rusted. It was piled up with garbage and we said, 'Pull it. We're going to make something different.' You know why?" an emotional Hammond asked Jakes when he appeared at his megachurch on Sunday. "Because our life would have been a wreck and this is what you do to us. Bishop, I came down here a wreck and you let me sit here and get healed."

He added, "You rebuilt us with the Word and now we've got all sorts of stuff that we didn't have before."

The musician previously sang Jakes' praises, insisting that he is a better man because of the preacher.

"Thank you @bishopjakes for your love, support and leadership over the years," he tweeted last year. "I'm a better man because of you."