It was February 28, 1958 when the 26-year-old Pentecostal preacher from rural
Pennsylvania disrupted a highly publicized murder trial in New York City. David
Wilkerson had made the eight-hour drive from his quiet mountain village to
downtown Manhattan for a simple reason: to speak to the seven accused gang
members about their salvation. In a grave attempt to share the love of God,
Wilkerson had rushed to the front of the courtroom at the close of trial
proceedings and pleaded publicly with the judge for permission to meet the
teenage defendants. News media were everywhere, and Wilkerson unwittingly made
himself the source of headline news throughout New York City. The judge had been
receiving death threats during the trial, and Wilkerson was almost arrested as a
presumed assailant. The judge later refused Wilkerson's request to see the boys
and ordered him never to return to his courtroom.
Today the one-time rural preacher is known as the founder of a international
drug rehabilitation program called Teen Challenge that has one of the highest
success rates anywhere in the world. Since it's first center opened in New York
in 1960, Teen Challenge has grown to over 170 centers in 48 states and nearly
250 centers in 80 countries. In Puerto Rico the organization is building an AIDS
hospital, the first of its kind. Wilkerson also founded a global evangelistic
ministry, World Challenge. Yet the Pentecostal preacher remains today what he
was 40 years ago-a man dedicated to preaching the gospel in the heart of New
York City. He pastors Times Square Church in Manhattan, which he founded in
1987. Wilkerson made more than the news back in 1958-five months after his
discouraging day in court, his compassion for teen-age gangs and drug addicts
make history.
A year later he established the first Teen Challenge center in one of the
roughest areas of Brooklyn. Addicts and other troubled youths poured into the
center and were delivered by God's power. One skeptical psychiatrist observing
the program remarked, "It seems to me you're just using Jesus as a crutch."
"Then give me two of them," a resident of the center responded. "What is the
program?" the psychiatrist asked. "God in the morning, Jesus in the afternoon
and the Holy Ghost at night," the resident replied. The good news spread
quickly, and Wilkerson was deluged with pleas for help with drug problems from
all over the country. "I raised funds for the first 10-12 centers that started,"
he said. Answering appeals got so demanding that he allowed the ministry to come
under the Home Missions department of the Assemblies of God. His brother Don
then took over as director of the center. Based on strong Christian principles,
the intensive program runs from 6 to 14 months. Residents come from the streets,
detoxification facilities, hospitals or jails. Some are referred by pastors and
counselors or court-ordered into treatment by judges. HIV-positive students are
normally accepted. Teen Challenge teaches that the key to abstinence from
substance abuse is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.