Bishop John J. Tatum is a Gospel Soul pianist, singer, songwriter and producer, and pastor of Building Your Faith Worship Center in the Chicago area. His anthem is Judah Wake Up. His new site is a place you walk through, led by the Lion of Judah himself.
Client
Bishop John J. Tatum
Industry
Gospel Soul & Ministry
Timeline
1 week
Status
Recorded on the live site in portrait, as his audience will see it on a phone, and cut to the beat of the remix that plays when the lion wakes.
His old site was a dated page with one portrait and decades of music behind it. His biggest audience lives on TikTok, his congregation meets at The Ark, and his songs are scripture set to Gospel Soul. None of that came through.
The Lion of Judah is on his church’s seal and in his anthem. The brief was to put the lion at the center and make a site people would remember and share.
We built the site as a single walk. The seal wakes the lion. He climbs the stairs ahead of you past his albums, lit as oil lamps, through the city gate and into the light. The walk ends in the Ark, where his music, his hymnal, his ministry and his films each have a place in the room.
Everything is shaped by his faith: Hebraic spellings, a menorah that keeps the Sabbath, a hymnal bound like an old Hebrew book, and a wall where visitors leave prayers for him.
The site opens on his church’s seal, the crowned Lion of Judah, ringed with Genesis 49:9. One touch kindles it: the lion wakes on the stairs and roars, and his anthem, Judah Wake Up (Gospel Soul House Remix), comes in on the roar.
Scroll and the lion climbs the stairs ahead of you, finishing each flight and turning at the landings. Scroll back and he turns and walks back down. Touch him and a crown of light rises behind his head.
Each release is a clay oil lamp on the steps with its cover pressed into the top. The lamps catch as he passes, and the one you reach names its year and title. The full catalogue plays from the page.
The whole world is painted for morning, afternoon, evening and night, and shows the hour you visit. The Sabbath comes in on its real time, Friday sundown to Saturday sundown in Chicago, and the lamps catch for it.
His songs bound as an old hymnal: tooled boards, gilt edges, Psalm 150 set as micrography round each page. Every song is a spread, its opening line engraved in notation beside the words, with a play button for the recording.
Take a seat at the Ark’s piano and every key you touch plays the next note of a hymn’s opening line, lighting the painted key and the word as it sounds.
Write a prayer on a slip and it folds, rolls into a scroll and flies into a crack in the stone wall. It goes to Bishop Tatum privately and is never shown on the site; the wall only keeps count.
Light the menorah and it catches cup by cup, or blow it out and the smoke rises. Part the veil and the curtain gathers back on its cord to show his films: music videos, live sets and Kenya.
Every scene, lamp and flame was made for this site. Nothing here is a template or stock.
johntatum.net launched in November 2026, a week after kickoff, with his catalogue playing from the page, his hymnal open, his films behind the veil, prayers reaching him privately, and mail to hello@johntatum.net landing in his inbox.
It is built to be shown: the walkthrough above was recorded on the live site for his audience on TikTok.