David Wilkerson is a legendary evangelist who was called to help teenage gang members and drug addicts in New York City.
His book about his work titled The Cross and the Switchblade was a best-seller for decades.
The small-town preacher from Pennsylvania went on to found Teen Challenge and World Challenge to minister to people’s spiritual and physical needs.
In 1987, he established Times Square Church, delivering powerful Biblical messages that encouraged righteous living and complete reliance on God.
With a strong burden to encourage his fellow pastors, he founded the Summit International School of Ministry and from 1999 to 2008, he held international conferences to strengthen church leaders.
DAVID WILKERSON’S BROOKLYN LEGACY
Although he died in 2011, his greatest legacy lives on inside a well-kept stately home in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill Historic District.
David Wilkerson bought the home, originally designed for a wealthy local, and made it the base for his Teen Challenge international addiction recovery program.
It is still operating today as the Brooklyn Adult & Teen Challenge Center with a graduate of the ministry at its helm.
With the help of his younger brother Don, David Wilkerson launched his New York street ministry in 1958, targeting troubled teens.
Nearly 70 years later, there are now 1,400 Teen Challenge centres around the world.
They provide more than 35,000 beds for individuals seeking “freedom from addiction and other life controlling issues” — through the power of faith in Jesus Christ.
INSIDE THE BROOKLYN TEEN CHALLENGE MINISTRY
The Brooklyn home has 58 beds with more than half of them dedicated to men who commit to the one-year addiction recovery program free of charge.
It’s a regimented daily routine in which participants learn how to do life better with regular prayer, Bible study, and church attendance.
Around 60% of participants fail to complete the program, but those who do, usually find success in overcoming their addiction.
The ministry’s executive director Paul Burke told The Christian Post: “We’ve kept the mission and the focus the same with being a Christian discipleship program”
DISCIPLESHIP TAKES PRIORITY OVER ADDICTION
“We focus more on the discipleship part, less on the addiction part.”
“[We believe] the addiction part takes care of itself when somebody fully embraces their walk with the Lord.”
“I always say sobriety is a by-product of a healthy spiritual person.”
Mr. Burke also noticed that the students who succeed in the program usually have no other options available for help.
HOW TEEN CHALLENGE PROGRAM CHANGED ONE LIFE
19-year-old Noel Casillas, who works as an intern guiding students at the ministry, agrees.
Prior to joining as a 17-year-old, he had been grappling with serious “family issues” which led to him being placed in a mental institution.
An aunt connected him with Teen Challenge and the program quickly became a lifeline for him.
“I cried out to God. I just said: I need you, if you’re there, just help me. I can’t do this. I’m weak.” he said.
He admits that if he had failed to complete the program he wouldn’t have had anywhere to go.
“I was not able to go back to my family if I had left the program. I would have been homeless, sleeping in abandoned apartments.”
“So I took this and I rode with it because it was my best and only option.”
“God used my circumstances to keep me here,” he explained to The Christian Post.
HOW A TEEN ADDICT AT ‘VERY ROCK BOTTOM’ TRANSFORMED TO BECOME A PASTOR
Pastor Michael La Pietra, a graduate from the 2016 class of New York Teen Challenge, who now works as the Brooklyn Center’s public relations coordinator, said he agreed to try the Christian program to help with his addiction struggles because he was at “the very rock bottom.”
“I was going through secular programs over and over and they weren’t working for substance abuse.”
Pastor La Pietra is now a married licensed minister and father thanks to the stabilising effect of Teen Challenge.
INSIDE THE BROOKLYN CENTER
Inside the Brooklyn Center, one can find the Wilkerson Memorial Library and the Nicky Cruz Assembly Room, named after a fellow evangelist who was working with the gangs at the same time as David Wilkerson.
A sober quote from the evangelist summarising Teen Challenge’s work is mounted on a wall.
Certainly we cannot claim a magical cure for addiction.
The devil which hides in the needle, the pills and the powder is so deadly strong that any such claim would be foolish.
All we can say is that we have found a power that captures a person more strongly than narcotics, but He captures only to liberate!
“POSTER CHILD FOR TEEN CHALLENGE’S SUCCESS”
The Christian Post writes: “As a 2009 graduate of the program who struggled with 18 years of addiction before getting his life together, Paul Burke is a poster child for the program’s success, but he embraces it with grace and temperance.”
The Brooklyn Center boss is also extremely grateful for the life God has given him.
He is a married father whose wife is also a graduate of Teen Challenge.
“I always tell people that I’m still in the program,” he replied, when asked how he managed to stay grounded as a former addict inside his office that used to be Wilkerson’s apartment.
“JESUS IS AN EFFECTIVE OPTION FOR PEOPLE LOOKING TO BE FREE”
Although there is no medical cure for drug addiction, according to the world renowned Mayo Clinic, David Wilkerson always argued that faith in Jesus is an effective option for people looking to be free.
Paul Burke understands this and explained that working in the ministry helps to keep him humble about his 17 years of sobriety
“Working in this environment keeps me grounded because I don’t forget where I came from and how deadly addiction is and how lost I was and how empty my life was,” he said.
“I struggled for 18 years on and off. Now, I’m at 17 years of sobriety. So, 35 years around addiction, I know how deadly it is.”
“I’m not fearful of addiction, but I respect that if I don’t stay committed to my devotional life with the Lord, if I don’t stay committed to growing and learning and still being teachable, there’s nobody that is beyond falling or failure again,” he insisted.
“I have to be as intentional about my own spiritual life and recovery as I was while I was a student in the program.”
“And seeing these guys and the brokenness that they come in with, it keeps me broken before the Lord, knowing that that would have been me if it was not for the Lord.”
