MONTGOMERY, W.Va. -- Nineteen years ago, Lt. Joe Burrow of the Montgomery Police Department remembers being baptized by Bishop T.D. Jakes in his first church on Lee Street in Montgomery.

Midday Thursday, Burrow, 51, was back, not for another baptism, but to direct traffic. Cars piled up behind him as Jakes' worshippers toured the perimeter of his first church.

"It's an honor to be able to do this for the bishop, who baptized me," he said. "I think it's great for him to come back to Montgomery."

Fifty yards in front of him, worshippers filed out of a tour bus and stood in front of a nondescript storefront. They listened as the Potter's House social pastor, Lawrence Robinson, painted for them an image of a young Jakes cultivating his ministry.

"It's not just about what you see on TV," he said. "God is the same here as he is over the Potter's House."

Since then, the storefront has grayed with age, paint has chipped on the outside and the long garage door has lost some of its reflective letters. Jakes has moved on -- to his 30,000-member megachurch in Texas, the Potter's House.

Thursday was the first day of the Birthing Place conference, the first gathering Jakes has held in the land of his youth since he established the Potter's House. The "Small Beginnings" bus tour offered to worshippers twice on Thursday and again Friday. Tours were sold out Thursday.

The location of Jakes' first worship center was an inspiration to Timothy Lark, of Norfolk, Va. Lark is a pastor and starting his own ministry, called New Beginnings.

"It's awesome just to see. It gives me hope," he said. "That's where he started, and look where he's gone."

Eleta Donaldson, of Atlanta, kept snapping away at the storefront with her disposable camera.

"This is where the ministry began," she said with amazement.

Robinson gathered the worshippers around him outside of the storefront and pointed to a plaque, which was brought along to commemorate the beginning of Bishop Jakes' ministry.

MONTGOMERY, W.Va. -- Nineteen years ago, Lt. Joe Burrow of the Montgomery Police Department remembers being baptized by Bishop T.D. Jakes in his first church on Lee Street in Montgomery.

Midday Thursday, Burrow, 51, was back, not for another baptism, but to direct traffic. Cars piled up behind him as Jakes' worshippers toured the perimeter of his first church.

"It's an honor to be able to do this for the bishop, who baptized me," he said. "I think it's great for him to come back to Montgomery."

Fifty yards in front of him, worshippers filed out of a tour bus and stood in front of a nondescript storefront. They listened as the Potter's House social pastor, Lawrence Robinson, painted for them an image of a young Jakes cultivating his ministry.

"It's not just about what you see on TV," he said. "God is the same here as he is over the Potter's House."

Since then, the storefront has grayed with age, paint has chipped on the outside and the long garage door has lost some of its reflective letters. Jakes has moved on -- to his 30,000-member megachurch in Texas, the Potter's House.

Thursday was the first day of the Birthing Place conference, the first gathering Jakes has held in the land of his youth since he established the Potter's House. The "Small Beginnings" bus tour offered to worshippers twice on Thursday and again Friday. Tours were sold out Thursday.

The location of Jakes' first worship center was an inspiration to Timothy Lark, of Norfolk, Va. Lark is a pastor and starting his own ministry, called New Beginnings.

"It's awesome just to see. It gives me hope," he said. "That's where he started, and look where he's gone."

Eleta Donaldson, of Atlanta, kept snapping away at the storefront with her disposable camera.

"This is where the ministry began," she said with amazement.

Robinson gathered the worshippers around him outside of the storefront and pointed to a plaque, which was brought along to commemorate the beginning of Bishop Jakes' ministry.

After years at the location in Montgomery, Jakes took a leap of faith and purchased an old theater in Smithers, now the Bethel Church on Michigan Avenue. That was the tour's next stop.

Robinson explained, as he stood and spoke to the many worshippers sitting in the Bethel church pews, that this was where Jakes really came into his own.

He remembers when he first came with Jakes the night he purchased the old theater. He recalled the rotted floors, the fallen ceiling, large rats and the moon and stars shining down on the two of them as Jakes led him around with a flashlight.

"His vision [of the church] was so broad, but he already had it renovated in his mind," Robinson said to the crowd.

In the back pew, associate pastor Lowell Thomas was sitting with his wife.

He said there was talk that a tour may come to his church after Jakes announced his homecoming conference, but that Jakes' party was unsure who was in charge of the church since they'd left.

Thomas said he couldn't wait to tell them he was partly in charge of the church.

"I called him and said, 'The doors are open, come on in,'" he said.

The church itself was modest and welcoming, with Jakes' worshippers exploring every nook and cranny of the building. Many of them crowded around the outside of the prayer room made specifically for Jakes' mother.

Grace Nunamaker came from Michigan to Charleston via bus to see Jakes and take the tour. She's getting ready to travel back to her native Philippines to start preaching. She likened the buildup of her return to the Philippines as a birthing of spirituality, similar to Jakes' homecoming theme.

"I've been waiting for this for the past 11 years," she said.

Reach Jon Offredo at jonoffr...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5189.