The History of Teen Challenge International

It was February 28, 1958 when the 26-year-old Pentecostal preacher from rural Pennsylvania disrupted a highly publicized murder trial in New York City. David Wilkerson had made the eight-hour drive from his quiet mountain village to downtown Manhattan for a simple reason: to speak to the seven accused gang members about their salvation. In a grave attempt to share the love of God, Wilkerson had rushed to the front of the courtroom at the close of trial proceedings and pleaded publicly with the judge for permission to meet the teenage defendants. News media were everywhere, and Wilkerson unwittingly made himself the source of headline news throughout New York City. The judge had been receiving death threats during the trial, and Wilkerson was almost arrested as a presumed assailant. The judge later refused Wilkerson's request to see the boys and ordered him never to return to his courtroom.

Today the one-time rural preacher is known as the founder of a international drug rehabilitation program called Teen Challenge that has one of the highest success rates anywhere in the world. Since it's first center opened in New York in 1960, Teen Challenge has grown to over 170 centers in 48 states and nearly 250 centers in 80 countries. In Puerto Rico the organization is building an AIDS hospital, the first of its kind. Wilkerson also founded a global evangelistic ministry, World Challenge. Yet the Pentecostal preacher remains today what he was 50 years ago-a man dedicated to preaching the gospel in the heart of New York City. He pastors Times Square Church in Manhattan, which he founded in 1987. Wilkerson made more than the news back in 1958-five months after his discouraging day in court, his compassion for teen-age gangs with life-controlling problems made history. A year later he established the first Teen Challenge center in one of the roughest areas of Brooklyn.Troubled adults and teens poured into the center and were delivered by God's power. One skeptical psychiatrist observing the program remarked, "It seems to me you're just using Jesus as a crutch." "Then give me two of them," a resident of the center responded. "What is the program?" the psychiatrist asked. "God in the morning, Jesus in the afternoon and the Holy Ghost at night," the resident replied. The good news spread quickly, and Wilkerson was deluged with pleas for help with drug problems from all over the country. "I raised funds for the first 10-12 centers that started," he said. Answering appeals got so demanding that he allowed the ministry to come under the Home Missions department of the Assemblies of God. His brother Don then took over as director of the center. Based on strong Christian principles, the intensive program runs from 6 to 14 months. Residents come from the streets, detoxification facilities, hospitals, jails, or simply by referral. Some are referred by pastors and counselors or court-ordered into programs by judges. HIV-positive students are normally accepted. Teen Challenge teaches that the key to freedom from life-controlling issues is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.