How did God use a small-town preacher to minister to some of New York City’s toughest gang members? David Wilkerson changed the lives of many young people from 1958 onward. He evolved into a world religious leader by his death in 2011. Some people he reached became evangelists themselves, carrying on Wilkerson’s legacy.
Where Was David Wilkerson Born?
David Ray Wilkerson was born May 19, 1931, in Hammond, Indiana. His father and grandfather were Pentecostal ministers. He followed the family tradition by studying at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, and becoming an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God denomination when he was 21.
His first church was in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania—a small mountain town. During his early ministry days, he held a daily two-hour prayer time. One day during this prayer time, Wilkerson read an article in Life magazine that changed his life (and would change countless others’ lives). He read about seven Egyptian Dragons gang members on trial for murder in New York City and felt called to minister to them. He read that the Egyptian Dragons were notorious in Brooklyn, feared by rival gangs and the police, but was convinced God was calling him to reach out to them.
Dan Graves’ article “Wilkerson Became a Fool for Christ in Public” (see the end of this article to read it) describes how after gaining tacit approval and financial support from his church community and his wife Gwen, Wilkerson traveled to the gang members’ court hearing in New York City.
His comments at the hearing were not appreciated: police handcuffed him and removed him from the courtroom. He was embarrassed to have this scene appear on national television. However, his actions did win him some respect and appreciation from gang members. His stance opened the door to forming relationships with young people who needed God’s love.
How Did David Wilkerson Start Doing Urban Ministry?
When Wilkerson returned to New York to work earnestly with the gang and street kid population, there was still tension between the young minister and lost youth. Teens burdened by violence, self-destruction, and addiction took their time accepting David Wilkerson and his Christian message. The resistance often became violent. Wilkerson continued, preaching that the Holy Spirit offered the greatest hope for his listeners’ release from worldly burdens.
God’s word wasn’t all the lost youth needed. Realizing shelter and services were needed to keep these people from drugs, alcohol, and violence, David Wilkerson opened the first Teen Challenge center on a shoestring budget in 1963. Other workers joined Wilkerson in evangelizing lost youth. Sixty years later, Teen Challenge still operates. It has become a national organization and spurred the formation of World Challenge, which has a global reach and provides many social services.
What Else Did David Wilkerson Do?
In addition to his street and residential ministries, Wilkerson founded Times Square Church in New York City in 1987. He faithfully led this non-denominational congregation with Bible-based sermons to “encourage righteous living and complete reliance on God.”
He became even more of an influential leader as he aged, founding the Summit International School of Ministry in 1999 and holding international leadership conferences until 2008.
Best Books by David Wilkerson
The Cross and the Switchblade is Wilkerson’s memoir, originally published in 1963. It is the story of Wilkerson’s earliest ministry in New York City. The memoir is a bestseller, with over 15 million copies distributed in 30 languages, reprinted multiple times, and popular among many age groups.
The memoir was adapted into a movie in 1970, starring Pat Boone as David Wilkerson and Eric Estrada as Nicky Cruz, a protégé who went from leading a gan to becoming a renowned evangelist in his own right. Run, Baby, Run is Nick Cruz’s memoir of how his life changed under Wilkerson’s prayerful influence.
David Wilkerson wrote over 30 books. Some prominent titles include:
1. It Is Finished (2000)
2. Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth (1974)
3. Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately? (1980)
4. America’s Last Call (1998)
5. Knowing God by Name (2003)
10 Inspiring Quotes by David Wilkerson
1. “I have questioned God sometimes whether prayers have gone unanswered. But answered prayer is still harder to believe.” — The Cross and the Switchblade
2. “Spiritual blindness is the last recognizable thing that happens to a child of God.” — “You’re Changing”
3. “Their logic was simple. The cops didn’t like me; the cops didn’t like them. We were in the same boat, and I was one of them. — The Cross and the Switchblade.
4. “You can come back to the faith at any time.” — “You Can Come Back to His Love”
5. “Faith in God’s love alone can salvage the hurt mind. The bruised and broken heart that suffers in silence can be healed only by a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, and nothing short of divine intervention really works.” — Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately?
6. “The greatest weapon against temptation and sin is to know and walk in the love of God.” — “You Can Come Back to His Love”
7. “God not only loves His children, He takes great pleasure in us.” — God is Faithful
8. “The worst kind of blasphemy is to think God is behind all your hurt and pain, that it is the heavenly Father disciplining you.” — Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately?
9. “There is something worse than a perverted gospel. Worse than a perverted gospel is a gospel of half-truths, a watered-down gospel. Such a gospel proclaims, ‘Just believe and get saved.’ It says nothing of repentance. Nothing of godly sorrow. Nothing of turning from your sins. Nothing about taking up your cross and following the Lord.” — Fire in His Bones
10. “The temptation is not in failing or in laying down the cross because of weakness. The real temptation is in trying to pick up that cross and carrying it on in our own strength.” — Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately?
What Is David Wilkerson’s Legacy?
The Cross and the Switchblade described how it all started when Wilkerson sold his TV set and started praying two hours a day. The prayer warrior heard God’s voice, telling him to read an article on dangerous New York City gang members on trial and then travel to meet them. A newlywed and a fledgling minister with much to lose, Wilkerson heeded God’s calling and took a risk.
Wilkerson spent his entire life ministering to people outside the mainstream, first on the streets of Brooklyn, then at Teen Challenge, and then at Times Square Church.
Though Wilkerson died in a car accident at age 79 on April 27, 2011, his son Gary Wilkerson and spiritual son Nicky Cruz continue to spread Wilkerson’s love of God to people with tough backgrounds.
Cruz was born in Puerto Rico in 1938, one of 19 children born to parents who practiced witchcraft. As a child, he experienced mental and physical abuse. As a teenager, he led the Mau Maus gang in Brooklyn. After meeting Wilkerson and accepting God’s love, Cruz became an evangelist. He has served God around the world for over 50 years. He has written 17 books and still travels, preaching to young, urban audiences with rap, hip-hop, theatre, and dance. His team also trains Christian leaders in local churches.
Gary Wilkerson is the president of World Challenge, an international mission organization founded by his father. His World Challenge work supports believers, encourages leaders, and cares for the poor. He also founded the Springs Church in 2009. His church and personal mission includes starting orphanages, clinics, and feeding programs among impoverished people worldwide.
David Wilkerson’s street ministry and journey to founding worldwide missions was a miracle of God. Like mumbling Moses or young shepherd David being called to leadership in God’s kingdom, he did not seem qualified for the task. With God’s guidance, a skinny mountain town minister became a voice to thousands needing God’s love and forgiveness.
Here is Dan Graves’ condensed look at David Wilkerson’s life and ministry.
Wilkerson Became a Fool for Christ in Public
Have you ever made a fool of yourself in public? What if you did it on national TV? On this day, February 28, 1958, Dave Wilkerson did just that—embarrassed himself for the Lord.
New York had seven gang members on trial for murder. Dave Wilkerson saw their story in Life magazine and was filled with compassion. The Lord seemed to be telling him to do something about it. Could it be true? Dave Wilkerson was a country preacher in the small town of Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania. What did New York have to do with him? And yet, he could not get the conviction out of his mind. So he spoke to his church leaders and went to the court hearing.
When he tried to speak up, however, policemen seized him, slapped him in cuffs and hustled him out of the court room. They feared courtroom violence. Wilkerson certainly had not succeeded in what he came to do. Had God really spoken to him? How could he explain this to his church back home?
Back in Pennsylvania, the Lord spoke again. Wilkerson knew he must do something. He traveled back to New York several times and walked the streets where he knew gangs operated. Then he recognized God’s wisdom in allowing his humiliation. His public arrest won him a measure of acceptance among the youth he had come to help. He sought to lead these young men and women to Christ and to the filling of the Holy Spirit as their best hope for breaking drug addiction and patterns of self-destruction and violence.
Convinced that the only way to keep many of the kids off heroin and out of violence was to give them a place to stay, Dave Wilkerson opened the first Teen Challenge center. Often he did not know where the money to pay the next bill would come from. But God blessed the work. A score of young workers joined him in an effort to evangelize New York’s toughest districts. They were threatened, beaten—even stabbed. Yet they persisted. Many teens turned to Christ. Teen Challenge became a national organization.
Reverend Dave Wilkerson told the story in The Cross and the Switchblade and several other books. Gateway Films made The Cross and the Switchblade into a movie which millions have seen.
Bibliography:
“David Wilkerson.” http://www.davidwilkerson.org/hislife/teenChallenge.html
Teen Challenge World Wide Network. http://www.teenchallenge.com/index.cfm
Wilkerson, David. The Cross and the Switchblade. Jove Books; Reissue edition, 1986.
Wilkerson, David Ray.” Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals. Edited by Timothy Larsen. Downers-Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2003.
Various internet articles.
Last updated May 2007.
(“Wilkerson Became a Fool for Christ in Public” by Dan Graves, MSL, published on Christianity.com on May 3, 2010)
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/BrianAJackson
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