HIS MINISTRY
TV or prayer?
In 1958 David Wilkerson was a young pastor in Philipsburg, a small country town in Pennsylvania in the USA. One night he was watching television when he got bored and switched off the set. He went into his study and realised that he spent about two hours every evening in front of the silver screen. He then felt challenge to sell the TV and spend that time praying. A part of him didn’t want to do that. So he said to God, if this is of you, I will put an advert in the paper for the TV and someone must call in the first half an hour. For the first twenty nine minutes the phone didn’t ring. On the thirtieth it did. The set was sold. The praying began.
Last month David Wilkerson, aged 79, was killed in a car accident. Christians around the world, including Iranians (see tribute from Rev. Luke Yeghnazar), mourned the loss of a man of God, and reflected on all the blessing that has happened as a result of that decision to sell his TV and pray.
Teen Challenge
One evening while praying David Wilkerson’s eyes were drawn to the faces of some teenage gang members in ‘Life’ magazine charged with murdering a disabled boy, Michael Farmer, in New York. Staring at the despairing faces of the boys, Wilkerson found himself weeping. He then believed God was sending him to New York to preach Christ to them. He went and managed to get in to the court room where their trial was taking place. After the first hearing he rushed up to the judge to ask for a special meeting. The guards grabbed him and he was swiftly marched out of the court room, the press cameras clicking. The next day his photo was in all the newspapers. He felt and looked foolish, and some Christians made sure he knew this.
However those photos of a seemingly foolish preacher opened doors for Wilkerson with the gang members. They liked him because they saw he had got into trouble with the police for them. He got to know the gangs and saw their violent, drug and sex filled life-style that was destroying them. He organised a week of Christian meetings for them in one of the roughest areas of New York, arranging buses for the all the different gang members. For some nights there was no success, the few who turned up often drowning him out with cat calls and whistles. On the last night there was a break through, and some of the toughest gang members gave their lives to Christ.
The full story is told in his book ‘The Cross and The Switchblade’ which has sold more than 15 million copies and been translated into 30 languages. A film of the book was also made. Both book and film are in Persian and have impacted thousands of Iranian lives. Out of David Wilkerson’s work in New York, Teen Challenge was born, a mission which sets out to do what was in David’s heart the night he saw the pictures of those boys in ‘Life’ magazine: rescue young people tied up in drug abuse and bring them to a home where they can start again as Christians. Today the mission has 173 residential programmes in the USA, and 241 other centres in 77 other countries. The nearest to Iran are in Kazakhstan and Pakistan. Government agencies recognise the great success rate that Teen Challenge’s Christian based rehabilitation programmes enjoy. Over 80% of those who enter come out free from drugs, much more than secular centres.
Preaching To The Hippies
The Cross and the Switchblade made David Wilkerson famous and invitations poured in for him to speak at youth meetings. So he hit the road, taking the Gospel to the thousands of American young people getting caught up in the sex, drugs and rock and roll wildness of the 1960’s. Some called them hippies, he called them ‘goodniks’. His approach to them was the same as it had been with the gangs. He loved them – "I don't harangue them with hell and judgment, because many of them are living in all kinds of hell right now. I tell them Jesus understands their problems, and that a personal relationship with him will fill the gap in their lives."
In the 1970’s Wilkerson’s evangelistic and teaching ministry expanded, and he started another agency based in Texas called World Challenge, that now ministers on every continent. As well as the preaching and teaching at conferences, and the writing, Wilkerson eventually wrote over forty books, World Challenge also supported orphanages, programmes for victims of the sex trade, and other ministries to the poor.
Times Square Church
In 1986 David Wilkerson was back in New York to take some meetings. As he walked the streets, he was overwhelmed by what he saw and started praying.
As I walked down 42nd Street, I saw crack being sold by dealers every few feet. I began to weep as I witnessed all of this. I prayed, "God, you've got to raise up a testimony in this hellish place. It seems like the devil has set up New York City as his kingdom. This is the seat of Babylon." The Lord's answer wasn't what I wanted to hear: "You know the city, David. You've been here. You do it."
Tired out after spending thirty years with messed up people David Wilkerson eventually obeyed. He went back to Texas, cancelled all his appointments, and spent three months on his face in prayer. During that time God promised to exceed all expectations regarding the building, finances, and the congregation. And so it proved. In 1988, after a year in temporary accommodation, the church purchased the Mark Hellinger Theatre, just off Broadway in the heart of New York. And from the start, there has been standing room only, as about 8,000 people come to the services. In 1986 David Wilkerson cried out to God there would be a ‘testimony’ to God in that ‘hellish’ place, swarming with pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers. God has done, ‘exceedingly more’ than David Wilkerson asked.
LESSONS
The world’s most successful drug rehabilitation programme, ministries to the poor on every continent, a church of 8,000 on Broadway – this is quite a legacy. It is worth while for Iranian Christians seeking to impact their generation to consider the lessons of his life.
The foundation: Prayer
Most obvious is the commitment to prayer. The whole of the Cross and The Switchblade story originated in his decision to sell his TV and give himself to prayer. He learned then how to pray, how to hear God’s voice, how to weep with God’s anguish for the lost- and he never let himself graduate from that school. So when over thirty years later he again felt the call back to New York, he didn’t start planning, he started praying – for three months.
Separation from the world: Destroy your TV
Strong prayer depends on separation from the world. Wilkerson’s prayer ministry began by switching off the TV. Later he bought back the TV into his house, for the news and sport, but God spoke to him powerfully through Deuteronomy 7:26. It says, ‘You shall not bring an abomination into your house...you shall utterly detest it.’ He had no doubt that TV with all its time wasting soap operas and worse was an abomination. So he, and all his staff, took their sets out to the woods where they shot them up and buried them. And since then he has challenged all Christians to do the same. Indeed he says that to come from watching TV to church, is like coming to God’s house from idol worship.
Service to the world: The Gospel and the poor
Strong prayer also leads to service to the poor. In his ministry David Wilkerson always focused on the Gospel as being the only cure for human problems. This was his message to the gang members in New York in the late 1950’s, and it never changed. And of course the Gospel is for everyone, but Wilkerson had a special concern for the poor: to share both the Gospel with them and help them practically. So his first vision for the gang members in New York was for them to have their own home where they could be loved, and that was how the residential Teen Challenge ministries began. Years later with programmes for orphans and prostitutes, you can see he stayed in touch with this initial passion to serve the poor.
The Church: Keep her pure, ban rock music
David Wilkerson was passionate about the purity of the church. As such he was an enemy of rock music. He once went to a Christian rock music and was so incensed he tried to stop it. He believed rock music was of the devil and lambasted pastors who allowed it as being men who were soft on sin. He dismissed the idea that Christian rock music had anything to do with spirituality, and bluntly said it was to do with money. Christian rock sells, so the artists and retailers cater ‘to the whims and desires of carnal Christianity.
The Church: Spurn the prosperity Gospel.
David Wilkerson loathed the prosperity Gospel. Without hesitation he called prosperity preachers wolves who steal from the poor and the needy, and preach the doctrines of demons. In one sermon he specifically referred to a famous preacher who had publicly cursed any man who spoke against his ministry and who had said that Jesus was going to come to one of his meetings in the flesh. David Wilkerson called this blasphemy. If you want to find out who this man was just google in English, ‘curse any man who speaks against this ministry’. Just one famous name comes up.
The coming judgement: Warnings
David Wilkerson’s passion for the church’s purity, hostility to the prosperity Gospel, and challenge for Christians to live flat out for holiness come in the context of judgement. David Wilkerson is not that type of Christian prophet who makes money claiming to know how the world is going to end. He is more like an Old Testament prophet, insisting that there will be disaster without repentance. Back in 1973 he believed he saw five calamities coming on the world which he described in a book called ‘The Vision.’ Some might say the prophecies were a bit general, but one cannot accuse Wilkerson of being a false prophet.. He said there would be economic confusion that would impact the whole world; that natural disasters would be more frequent; that people could see explicit pornography on TV in their own homes; that teenage rebellion against parents would escalate; and persecution against Christians increase. All these calamities have happened. Warnings from true men of God should be taken seriously.
There is more for Iranians to learn from David Wilkerson, but even if one or two of the above lessons were put into practice, there could be revival in the Persian speaking church.
THE MEMORY OF THE RIGHTEOUS WILL BE A BLESSING
David Wilkerson was ministering till his seemingly untimely death on Wednesday April 27th when his car veered over to the left while crossing the Neches River Bridge about 100 miles from Dallas and had a head on collision with a tractor trailer. As news of his death spread, tributes poured in as hundreds of thousands around the world remembered the blessing of his ministry, including this writer. who read ‘The Cross and The Switchblade’ as a child and realized Jesus really was alive. David Wilkerson had sowed a seed that six years later struggled through in a heart that was completely lost.
And his ministry will continue to be a blessing as drug addicts are released through Teen Challenge, orphans are cared for, victims of sex abuse are restored, sinners hear the Gospel, and the church, through David Wilkerson’s books, blogs and sermons, is challenged to remain pure
Even on the day of his death, in a blog that was uncannily prophetic, David Wilkerson’s words will continue to encourage. He wrote:
To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights—and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, “I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident.
TV or prayer?
In 1958 David Wilkerson was a young pastor in Philipsburg, a small country town in Pennsylvania in the USA. One night he was watching television when he got bored and switched off the set. He went into his study and realised that he spent about two hours every evening in front of the silver screen. He then felt challenge to sell the TV and spend that time praying. A part of him didn’t want to do that. So he said to God, if this is of you, I will put an advert in the paper for the TV and someone must call in the first half an hour. For the first twenty nine minutes the phone didn’t ring. On the thirtieth it did. The set was sold. The praying began.
Last month David Wilkerson, aged 79, was killed in a car accident. Christians around the world, including Iranians (see tribute from Rev. Luke Yeghnazar), mourned the loss of a man of God, and reflected on all the blessing that has happened as a result of that decision to sell his TV and pray.
Teen Challenge
One evening while praying David Wilkerson’s eyes were drawn to the faces of some teenage gang members in ‘Life’ magazine charged with murdering a disabled boy, Michael Farmer, in New York. Staring at the despairing faces of the boys, Wilkerson found himself weeping. He then believed God was sending him to New York to preach Christ to them. He went and managed to get in to the court room where their trial was taking place. After the first hearing he rushed up to the judge to ask for a special meeting. The guards grabbed him and he was swiftly marched out of the court room, the press cameras clicking. The next day his photo was in all the newspapers. He felt and looked foolish, and some Christians made sure he knew this.
However those photos of a seemingly foolish preacher opened doors for Wilkerson with the gang members. They liked him because they saw he had got into trouble with the police for them. He got to know the gangs and saw their violent, drug and sex filled life-style that was destroying them. He organised a week of Christian meetings for them in one of the roughest areas of New York, arranging buses for the all the different gang members. For some nights there was no success, the few who turned up often drowning him out with cat calls and whistles. On the last night there was a break through, and some of the toughest gang members gave their lives to Christ.
The full story is told in his book ‘The Cross and The Switchblade’ which has sold more than 15 million copies and been translated into 30 languages. A film of the book was also made. Both book and film are in Persian and have impacted thousands of Iranian lives. Out of David Wilkerson’s work in New York, Teen Challenge was born, a mission which sets out to do what was in David’s heart the night he saw the pictures of those boys in ‘Life’ magazine: rescue young people tied up in drug abuse and bring them to a home where they can start again as Christians. Today the mission has 173 residential programmes in the USA, and 241 other centres in 77 other countries. The nearest to Iran are in Kazakhstan and Pakistan. Government agencies recognise the great success rate that Teen Challenge’s Christian based rehabilitation programmes enjoy. Over 80% of those who enter come out free from drugs, much more than secular centres.
Preaching To The Hippies
The Cross and the Switchblade made David Wilkerson famous and invitations poured in for him to speak at youth meetings. So he hit the road, taking the Gospel to the thousands of American young people getting caught up in the sex, drugs and rock and roll wildness of the 1960’s. Some called them hippies, he called them ‘goodniks’. His approach to them was the same as it had been with the gangs. He loved them – "I don't harangue them with hell and judgment, because many of them are living in all kinds of hell right now. I tell them Jesus understands their problems, and that a personal relationship with him will fill the gap in their lives."
In the 1970’s Wilkerson’s evangelistic and teaching ministry expanded, and he started another agency based in Texas called World Challenge, that now ministers on every continent. As well as the preaching and teaching at conferences, and the writing, Wilkerson eventually wrote over forty books, World Challenge also supported orphanages, programmes for victims of the sex trade, and other ministries to the poor.
Times Square Church
In 1986 David Wilkerson was back in New York to take some meetings. As he walked the streets, he was overwhelmed by what he saw and started praying.
As I walked down 42nd Street, I saw crack being sold by dealers every few feet. I began to weep as I witnessed all of this. I prayed, "God, you've got to raise up a testimony in this hellish place. It seems like the devil has set up New York City as his kingdom. This is the seat of Babylon." The Lord's answer wasn't what I wanted to hear: "You know the city, David. You've been here. You do it."
Tired out after spending thirty years with messed up people David Wilkerson eventually obeyed. He went back to Texas, cancelled all his appointments, and spent three months on his face in prayer. During that time God promised to exceed all expectations regarding the building, finances, and the congregation. And so it proved. In 1988, after a year in temporary accommodation, the church purchased the Mark Hellinger Theatre, just off Broadway in the heart of New York. And from the start, there has been standing room only, as about 8,000 people come to the services. In 1986 David Wilkerson cried out to God there would be a ‘testimony’ to God in that ‘hellish’ place, swarming with pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers. God has done, ‘exceedingly more’ than David Wilkerson asked.
LESSONS
The world’s most successful drug rehabilitation programme, ministries to the poor on every continent, a church of 8,000 on Broadway – this is quite a legacy. It is worth while for Iranian Christians seeking to impact their generation to consider the lessons of his life.
The foundation: Prayer
Most obvious is the commitment to prayer. The whole of the Cross and The Switchblade story originated in his decision to sell his TV and give himself to prayer. He learned then how to pray, how to hear God’s voice, how to weep with God’s anguish for the lost- and he never let himself graduate from that school. So when over thirty years later he again felt the call back to New York, he didn’t start planning, he started praying – for three months.
Separation from the world: Destroy your TV
Strong prayer depends on separation from the world. Wilkerson’s prayer ministry began by switching off the TV. Later he bought back the TV into his house, for the news and sport, but God spoke to him powerfully through Deuteronomy 7:26. It says, ‘You shall not bring an abomination into your house...you shall utterly detest it.’ He had no doubt that TV with all its time wasting soap operas and worse was an abomination. So he, and all his staff, took their sets out to the woods where they shot them up and buried them. And since then he has challenged all Christians to do the same. Indeed he says that to come from watching TV to church, is like coming to God’s house from idol worship.
Service to the world: The Gospel and the poor
Strong prayer also leads to service to the poor. In his ministry David Wilkerson always focused on the Gospel as being the only cure for human problems. This was his message to the gang members in New York in the late 1950’s, and it never changed. And of course the Gospel is for everyone, but Wilkerson had a special concern for the poor: to share both the Gospel with them and help them practically. So his first vision for the gang members in New York was for them to have their own home where they could be loved, and that was how the residential Teen Challenge ministries began. Years later with programmes for orphans and prostitutes, you can see he stayed in touch with this initial passion to serve the poor.
The Church: Keep her pure, ban rock music
David Wilkerson was passionate about the purity of the church. As such he was an enemy of rock music. He once went to a Christian rock music and was so incensed he tried to stop it. He believed rock music was of the devil and lambasted pastors who allowed it as being men who were soft on sin. He dismissed the idea that Christian rock music had anything to do with spirituality, and bluntly said it was to do with money. Christian rock sells, so the artists and retailers cater ‘to the whims and desires of carnal Christianity.
The Church: Spurn the prosperity Gospel.
David Wilkerson loathed the prosperity Gospel. Without hesitation he called prosperity preachers wolves who steal from the poor and the needy, and preach the doctrines of demons. In one sermon he specifically referred to a famous preacher who had publicly cursed any man who spoke against his ministry and who had said that Jesus was going to come to one of his meetings in the flesh. David Wilkerson called this blasphemy. If you want to find out who this man was just google in English, ‘curse any man who speaks against this ministry’. Just one famous name comes up.
The coming judgement: Warnings
David Wilkerson’s passion for the church’s purity, hostility to the prosperity Gospel, and challenge for Christians to live flat out for holiness come in the context of judgement. David Wilkerson is not that type of Christian prophet who makes money claiming to know how the world is going to end. He is more like an Old Testament prophet, insisting that there will be disaster without repentance. Back in 1973 he believed he saw five calamities coming on the world which he described in a book called ‘The Vision.’ Some might say the prophecies were a bit general, but one cannot accuse Wilkerson of being a false prophet.. He said there would be economic confusion that would impact the whole world; that natural disasters would be more frequent; that people could see explicit pornography on TV in their own homes; that teenage rebellion against parents would escalate; and persecution against Christians increase. All these calamities have happened. Warnings from true men of God should be taken seriously.
There is more for Iranians to learn from David Wilkerson, but even if one or two of the above lessons were put into practice, there could be revival in the Persian speaking church.
THE MEMORY OF THE RIGHTEOUS WILL BE A BLESSING
David Wilkerson was ministering till his seemingly untimely death on Wednesday April 27th when his car veered over to the left while crossing the Neches River Bridge about 100 miles from Dallas and had a head on collision with a tractor trailer. As news of his death spread, tributes poured in as hundreds of thousands around the world remembered the blessing of his ministry, including this writer. who read ‘The Cross and The Switchblade’ as a child and realized Jesus really was alive. David Wilkerson had sowed a seed that six years later struggled through in a heart that was completely lost.
And his ministry will continue to be a blessing as drug addicts are released through Teen Challenge, orphans are cared for, victims of sex abuse are restored, sinners hear the Gospel, and the church, through David Wilkerson’s books, blogs and sermons, is challenged to remain pure
Even on the day of his death, in a blog that was uncannily prophetic, David Wilkerson’s words will continue to encourage. He wrote:
To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights—and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, “I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident.
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