His Dallas-based Potter's House Church -- which has a congregation of more than 30,000 -- is considered to be one of the nation's largest, most influential churches.
Bishop T.D. Jakes' massive, near-fatal heart attack in November -- during a church service -- was a solemn reminder of the "thin line" between life and death, he says.
"It just reinforced the fact that none of us knows if we'll see the light of day tomorrow," Jakes tells PEOPLE from his home office in Dallas as he describes how doctors told him he was "five minutes" away from death. "We just don't know."
For Jakes, the health scare while he was delivering a sermon at his non-denominational Potter's House Church was also a wake-up call. And it helped spur the 69-year-old charismatic preacher and motivational speaker to make a decision that will undoubtedly impact the lives of his 30,000-member congregation and the more than 50,000 viewers who regularly stream his sermons online.
As of Sunday, July 6, Jakes will be passing the torch of his church, which he launched in 1996 and which now has campuses in Fort Worth, Texas, and Los Angeles, to his daughter and son-in-law, pastors Sarah Jakes Roberts and Touré Roberts.
"After my health incident, I didn't want the church left struggling, trying to figure out where do we go from here," Jakes explains. "I didn't want that to happen. I've seen a lot of people keep things so long that they built and then ended up killing it."
The move, admits Sarah, 36, is a bit "terrifying" when she ponders the reality of what it means to take the helm of one of the nation's largest, most influential churches.
"I don't think anyone could step into this role and not feel a little bit of trepidation," she says. "It's been exciting to work through all the different emotions. And it's going to be exciting to see what next looks like."
Adds Touré: "The weight of responsibility of leading an incredible ministry founded by an incredible man is a balance between exciting and sobriety."
Jakes describes the move as a "changing of the guard," insisting, "they haven't totally gotten rid of me. I'm still going to preach; I'm still going to minister; I'm still the chairman of the board; but the day-to-day pastoring and all those responsibilities" will be in the hands of Sarah and Touré.
The seeds for the transfer were planted years ago.
"This isn't a sudden decision or overnight move," says Jakes, noting how the couple began taking a more active role in the church four years ago, allowing Sarah and Touré to 'get to know the culture and nuances' of an organization that employs 350 people and runs a wide array of community service projects around the nation."
"The best way to train somebody is let them watch you do it, then let them do it with you and, finally, to let them do it while you watch," Jakes says. "We're at that third stage now of letting them do it while I watch."
The path to the pulpit has been a circuitous journey for the couple, who were married in 2014 and have a blended family of six kids.
"Faith didn't come easy to me," admits Sarah, who gave birth to her first child at just 14. "I just kind of accepted that it wasn't for me."
But in 2010, while in the midst of a divorce from her first husband, Sarah began to find her way back to the church while blogging about the ups and downs of her life -- and people began reaching out to say that her words were helping them put their lives into perspective.
That's when a lightbulb went off. "I felt like if I had to be in ministry, I could do it this way where I can be authentic about who I am, who I'm not, and meet people where they are, as opposed to maybe sitting on this high horse and saying that I've already arrived," she says.
Touré -- who grew up in L.A.'s Watts neighborhood and worked as a tech entrepreneur -- also never imagined that he would one day be leading a megachurch.
"I really started getting serious about God [in my mid 20s], got touched by God in the church and began to tell everybody around me how amazing it was," says the 52-year-old, who created One Church International in L.A. in 2004, which quickly grew to 7,000 members and has more than a million subscribers on YouTube.
Part of what makes the couple so "relatable" as pastors, Touré says, is their back story: "People," he says, "will listen to someone who has some scars."
After decades as a major religious leader, Jakes knows all about scars.
In December he filed a defamation lawsuit against a Pennsylvania man, Duane Youngblood, who claimed on a YouTube talk show that Jakes tried to groom and sexually assault him in the 1980s.
"We sued this man for defamation in order to set the record straight and hold him accountable for his lies," Jakes' attorney Dustin Pusch says.
For Jakes, the ongoing legal drama is just one of the potential risks that comes with the job.
"You are constantly in the middle of situations of disparity and crisis, working with inmates and felons and all types of people," he says. "It's a lot more than preaching -- that's the easy part of your week. It can wear you down."
"And I've told [Sarah and Touré] not to let the stress of the job or the people become overwhelming," he continues,"because I've learned that what gets on your heart can end up in your heart."