17 Facts About David Wilkerson

David Ray Wilkerson was an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade.

David Wilkerson was the founder of the addiction recovery program Teen Challenge, and founding pastor of the interdenominational Times Square Church in New York City.

David Wilkerson tried to avoid categorizing Christians into distinct groups according to the denomination to which they belong.

David Wilkerson was the second son of a family of Pentecostal Christian preachers, and he was raised in Barnesboro, Pennsylvania, in a house "full of Bibles".

The young David Wilkerson began to preach when he was about fourteen.

David Wilkerson felt a calling from God to minister to those gangs.

David Wilkerson later wrote that he felt the Holy Spirit move him with compassion and was drawn to go to New York, in order to preach to them.

On his arrival, David Wilkerson went to the court in which teenagers were being prosecuted.

David Wilkerson entered the room and asked the judge for permission to tell them something, but the judge ejected him.

David Wilkerson founded Teen Challenge in 1958, an evangelical Christian addiction recovery program in Brooklyn with a network of Christian social and evangelizing work centers.

David Wilkerson gained national recognition after he co-authored the book The Cross and the Switchblade in 1962 with John and Elizabeth Sherrill about his street ministry.

David Wilkerson's goal was to prevent them from becoming heavily involved with drugs, alcohol, or violence.

In 1971, David Wilkerson moved his ministry headquarters to Lindale, Texas.

David Wilkerson founded and became the pastor of Times Square Church, which opened its doors in October 1987.

David Wilkerson did not preach in the name of any specific denomination.

David Wilkerson was pronounced dead at the scene, less than a month from his 80th birthday.

Gwendolyn David Wilkerson died a year later, on July 5,2012, from cancer, at the age of 81.