In a recent trip to Branson, I found you can take the boy out of tele-evangelistism, but you can’t take the tele-evangelism out of the boy. At least that’s the story for ex PTL Club superstar, Jim Bakker.
Branson, Missouri is an amazing place. And while I grew up appreciating the rise and metamorphosis of this wonderful vacation destination, perhaps I didn’t fully realize how it may be the last place left in America where the American dream cans still thrive with a little hard work, determination and a never say die spirit. Jim Bakker may just be the poster child for that.
For those of you too young to have been privy to the drama and scandal of the Praise the Lord Club of the 1980’s, lemme give you a brief background on the shocking and stupefying rise and fall from grace of Jim Bakker.
Jim and his wife, Tammy Faye, built huge tele-evangelist church through the “Praise the Lord” network. He also built a theme park and made lots and lots of money, through the donations of his followers. It all came crashing down, when Jessica Hahn, a woman with whom he claimed he was having an affair blew the whistle on him and his financial malfeasance. Bakker went to prison and served only 5 years of a 45 year sentence. Tammy Faye divorced Jim, while in prison, and is now deceased.
So, from the pages of “Where are they now?” Bakker is remarried, has moved to the Branson, Missouri region (Blue Eye, MO to be exact) and seemingly, turned lemons into lemonade. He’s back on TV and pushing survival supplies in anticipation for the end of the world.
His new 700 acre Christian retreat is called Morningside and it from there he broadcasts his new TV show.
Sixteen years to the date that Pastor Jim made the last broadcast from PTL, he and Lori launched their new television ministry from Branson, Missouri. With the help of PTL Partners Jerry and Dee Crawford the ministry staff converted a restaurant into a café/television studio and called it Studio City Café. Together, Pastor Jim and Lori established The Jim Bakker Show continuing to host a one-hour, daily TV program that is shown throughout the United States and around the world.
In January, 2008 they moved the ministry and the daily program to a new location called “Morningside” in Blue Eye, Missouri. God is blessing this ministry as people are being saved and healed from this beautiful 700 acres in the Ozark Hills.
The Jim Bakker Show is broadcast from a new Christian Retreat Center called “Morningside” located 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 multiple other LIVE broadcasts.
Like a lot of other entrepreneurs, Bakker is making a fortune in Branson real estate. You are welcomed at the Morningside retreat, anytime. Attend services, get a spa treatment or catch a movie on Grace Street. If camping at the campground or RV park isn’t your thing, you can rent or buy a condo, on the property.
The centerpiece building of Morningside, and official home of The Jim Bakker Show, is the beautiful Grace Street Studio Building.
Inside Grace Street you will find our Old-World European Styled Main Street. Most of the buildings were inspired by actual oil paintings from France and England. This street looks like a Hollywood backlot but it is actually a living village with stores and condominiums overlooking our live daily television broadcasts.
Inside this building is everything our visitors would need including The Fireside Cafe Restaurant, Grace Chapel, Morningside Beauty Salon & Spa, and a General Store carrying groceries, sundries, books, and beautiful gifts.
You can catch a movie every Wednesday evening in the Grace Street Cinema beginning at 6pm. Grace Street also offers a workout room featuring treadmills, weight machines and more to help you stay in shape.
Make no mistake. The Bakkers have remained tuned in to the latest trends in emotional alarmism. And then there is Branson Mill. It’s their version of the property gift shop, with some interesting and unusual products. You’ll find bibles, as expected, cards, jewelry, and also emergency survival products along with sustainable farming products. Get your organic gardening products there so you can propagate a crop in the event of a catastrophe.
Methods of bringing people to Jesus sure has come a long way. No longer do you look to churches to deliver messages of morality and divinity and Bakker has capitalized on that. It’s a one stop shop for soul and body salvation. You gotta hand it to the guy. He certainly knows how to do the phoenix rising from the ashes thing, or at least resurrect a tele-evangelist career. But isn’t it amazing how people will forgive anything as long as you show remorse, and follow?