David Wilkerson

Life

Wilkerson was born on May 19, 1931, in Indiana. He grew up in a family of ministers and is reported to have begun preaching as a teenager. After studying at a Bible school affiliated with the Assemblies of God, he became a minister in that denomination and pastored small churches in places such as Philipsburg, Pennsylvania.

In 1958 he read an article in Life magazine about the trial in a murder committed by a New York teenage gang. Prompted by this, he went to New York and began sharing the gospel with gang youth and drug addicts. In 1971 he moved his ministry headquarters to Lindale, Texas. In the late 1980s he returned to Manhattan, New York, and founded Times Square Church. He died in a car accident in East Texas on April 27, 2011, at the age of 79. His wife, Gwendolyn, who was riding with him, was also injured.

Ministry and Accomplishments

• The Cross and the Switchblade: An autobiographical account of his New York street ministry, written with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. Published in the early 1960s, it became a bestseller. The story of the conversion of gang member Nicky Cruz is especially well known, and the book was made into a 1970 film starring Pat Boone. It was included in the American evangelical magazine Christianity Today's list of fifty books that shaped evangelicals.
• Teen Challenge: A Bible-based recovery program for adolescents and young adults struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. Affiliated with the Assemblies of God, it spread to many countries beyond the United States. Its emphasis on the experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit as important for overcoming addiction reflects Wilkerson's Pentecostal background.
• Times Square Church: A nondenominational church that began with worship services held among homeless people, addicts, and others in a rented theater building on Broadway in Manhattan. English-language sources give its founding year as 1987, while Korean reports give 1986. Korean media have described it, along with Tim Keller's Redeemer Church and others, as one of New York's leading evangelical churches. After Wilkerson's death, Pastor Carter Conlon carried on the ministry.
• Wilkerson also founded World Challenge, an organization that distributes his sermons and writings. In 1967 he also began an evangelistic rally ministry aimed at middle-class youth.

Assessment

Wilkerson is regarded as a pioneer of street ministry and addiction recovery ministry who personally reached out to marginalized people such as addicts and gang youth. At the same time, his book The Vision, which recounts a vision he said he received in 1973, predicted that economic collapse and great disasters would come in the near future. Critics have pointed out that the prophecy proved inaccurate in both its timing and its content. Some readers maintain that the book should be read as a message of warning rather than as precise prediction. His sharp criticism of American society and the church is also said to have alienated some supporters and colleagues. In particular, he is known to have clashed with those who emphasized material blessing (prosperity theology).