David Wilkerson

For over eighty years, Reverend David Wilkerson's evangelistic ministry has included preaching, teaching and writing. He is the author of over thirty books and best known for his early ministry to teen drug addicts and gang members in New York City. The story of his ministry is outlined in his co-authored book, The Cross and the Switchblade, which has since been read by over fifty million people and was made into a motion picture. Wilkerson was born in Hammond, Indiana on May 19, 1931. He married his wife, Gwen Carosso, in 1953 and they served small pastorates in Pennsylvania until David Wilkerson was moved by a magazine photograph of New York City teenagers charged with murder. That year, Wilkerson founded Teen Challenge in Brooklyn, which endeavored to reach youth and adults with life-controlling problems. The ministry uses a biblically based recovery program for drug addicts. The United States government's National Institute of Drug Abuse estimated Teen Challenge's cure rate at eighty-six percent. In 1967 Wilkerson founded The David Wilkerson Youth Crusade, which reached out to restless middle-class kids in an effort to keep them off the streets. Out of this ministry stemmed the Collegiate Urban Renewal Effort (CURE). CURE harnessed the idealism of young Believers to further Christ-centered projects. In 1971, Wilkerson moved his headquarters to Texas where he founded World Challenge, Inc. to serve as a corporate umbrella for his various ministries and conferences. However, his direct ministry to New York City did not end there. In 1986, Wilkerson received a call from God to raise up a church in Times Square. The church opened its doors in October 1987, starting in rented auditoriums but eventually moving to the historic Mark Hellinger Theater. The congregation numbers approximately eight thousand Wilkerson continues to direct his efforts toward those most in need. He often walks through the streets of New York City to the most desperate areas, seeking the lost and addicted and telling them how to be set free.