"How quickly we forget God's great deliverances in our lives. How easily we take for granted the miracles he performed in our past." -- David Wilkerson
David Wilkerson (born May 19, 1931 in Hammond, Indiana) is an America Christian evangelist, most well-known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He is also the founder of Times Square Church in New York, a non-denominational church.
Wilkerson's widely distributed sermons, such as "A Call to Anguish," are known for being direct and frank. He emphasizes such Christian beliefs as God's holiness and righteousness, God's love toward humans and especially Christian views of Jesus. Wilkerson tries to avoid categorizing Christians into distinct groups according to the denomination they belong to, and as such he is an evangelist with broad appeal.
"A final word: I am not knowledgeable about the internet. I do not have a computer. I guess that at 74 years of age, I don't have the patience to learn.""Also, I preached to gangs on the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx - and miracles began to happen.""America is a giving nation and very compassionate.""As I look back over fifty years of ministry, I recall innumerable tests, trials and times of crushing pain. But through it all, the Lord has proven faithful, loving, and totally true to all his promises.""Both of our daughters, Debbie and Bonnie, are also cancer survivors.""Christ died to save this lost world; he did not come to destroy, maim or pour out wrath.""Eighteen years ago, the Holy Spirit led me to establish a church in the heart of Times Square.""Every Teen Challenge ministry is responsible for raising its own finances, but we assist these works with finances, prayer and counseling, especially overseas in areas such as Siberia, Africa, South America.""From the beginning, this has been a faith-based ministry.""God has never, in the history of mankind, allowed his name to go long offended.""Gwen and I have four children and ten grandchildren.""I am not officially involved now in the direction of the Teen Challenge ministry, but I rejoice that God permits me to be the father of these ministries.""I believe in walking in the Spirit.""I have no ghost writers. I personally write every message and every piece of published mail.""In these times, God's people must trust him for rest of body and soul.""Likewise today, some Christians are content to merely exist until they die. They don't want to risk anything, to believe God, to grow or mature. They refuse to believe his Word, and have become hardened in their unbelief. Now they're living just to die.""Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.""Many of those who once were so passionately in love with Christ now run about pursuing their own interests. They're burdened down with stress and problems, chasing after riches and the things of this world.""My oldest son, Gary, is a seasoned minister and travels with me for ministers' conferences.""Our ministry also supports orphanages in the U.S. and overseas, thousands of poor children in Latin America, drug centers for addicted men, and a drug center in Israel.""Our ministry is debt free and we have not had to beg or plead for finances.""Our ministry is supported entirely by faith, through the missions gifts of readers who receive my messages every three weeks. We seldom mention money, and we never burden supporters.""Our nation is being led astray by ungodly judges, mayors and governors, who are given to change, defying the Constitution and substituting their own wicked agendas.""Riches and the things that are necessary in life are not evil in themselves. And all of us face cares and troubles in this life. The sin comes in the time and energy we spend in pursuing these things, at the expense of neglecting Christ.""The greatest fear that haunts this city is a suitcase bomb, nuclear or germ. Many people carry small gas masks. The masses here seem to be resigned to the inevitable, believing an attack of major proportions will happen.""The Teen Challenge ministry was born out of those humble early days of ministry. It now includes over 500 drug and alcohol rehab centers around the world, even in Muslim countries. These include homes for girls and women addicts and alcoholics, all which are reaching many.""The Teen Challenge Training Center on Pennsylvania farmland houses over 200 men in rehab. Other farms and centers have been birthed out of this ministry all over the world."
Wilkerson served as a pastor in small churches in Scottdale and Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, until he saw a photograph in Life Magazine in 1958 of seven New York City teenagers charged with murder. He later wrote that as he felt the Holy Spirit move him with compassion, he was drawn to go to New York in February 1958. It was then that he began his street ministry.
Wilkerson is well-known for these early years of his ministry to young drug addicts and gang members in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. He co-authored a book with John and Elizabeth Sherrill about his work with the New York drug addicts, The Cross and the Switchblade, which became a best-seller. Included in the book is the story of the conversion of gang member Nicky Cruz, who later wrote the autobiographical Run Baby Run about his own life. The Cross and the Switchblade has sold over 50 million copies in over thirty languages since it was published in 1963. In 1970, a Hollywood movie based on the book starred Pat Boone as Wilkerson and Erik Estrada as Cruz. The book was included among the 100 most important Christian books of the 20th century.
