{"id":1171,"date":"2011-04-27T22:46:07","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T02:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/?p=1171"},"modified":"2011-04-28T10:20:10","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T14:20:10","slug":"famed-nyc-street-preacher-author-david-wilkerson-killed-in-car-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/04\/famed-nyc-street-preacher-author-david-wilkerson-killed-in-car-crash.html","title":{"rendered":"Famed New York City street preacher, author David Wilkerson killed in car crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1177\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1177\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/files\/2011\/04\/wilkerson-B1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1177\" title=\"wilkerson B\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/218\/2011\/04\/wilkerson-B1-300x259.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"259\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1177\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wilkerson speaking at a NYC prayer event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>David Wilkerson, 79, author of the bestseller <em>The Cross and the Switchblade,<\/em> founder of Teen Challenge rehabilitation outreaches worldwide, and longtime pastor of the 8,000-member Times Square Church in New York City, was killed Wednesday in a car crash.<\/p>\n<p>His wife of more than 50 years, Gwen, was hospitalized with injuries.<\/p>\n<p>A prophetic voice calling America to repentance for the last half century, Wilkerson burst onto the national scene in 1958 when he saw a <em>Life<\/em> magazine cover photo of seven New York City teen street gang members on trial for murder. At the time, he was pastor of a small church in\u00a0rural Pennsylvania. He\u00a0felt driven by the Holy Spirit to share Jesus with the teens.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1176\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1176\" style=\"width: 380px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/218\/2011\/04\/wilkerson-A.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1176\" title=\"wilkerson A\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/218\/2011\/04\/wilkerson-A.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"380\" height=\"211\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1176\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cruz, Wilkerson and Arguinzoni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Thwarted by police who would not let him visit the teens, he\u00a0ended up on New York City newspaper front pages\u00a0holding up his Bible as he pleaded\u00a0to be allowed to counsel the youths. The run-in with\u00a0authorities gave him credibility with the\u00a0Brooklyn street gangs and he spent the next decade ministering to youthful drug addicts and gang members.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/218\/2011\/04\/Wilkerson-C.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1174\" title=\"Wilkerson C\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/218\/2011\/04\/Wilkerson-C.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"309\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a>Christian authors\u00a0John and Elizabeth Sherrill heard\u00a0about his work and\u00a0worked with him to write <em>The Cross and the Switchblade,<\/em> which sold over 50 million copies in\u00a0more than\u00a030 languages since 1963. In 1970, a Hollywood movie based on the book starred Pat Boone as Wilkerson and Erik Estrada as the leader of the street gang, Nicky Cruz. The book was included on <em>Christianity Today<\/em>&#8216;s &#8220;The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A number of the gang members went into ministry. Cruz has written more than 20 books and conducts evangelistic crusades worldwide. The first herion addict won to the Lord at Teen Challenge, Sonny Arguinzoni, is the founder of Victory Outreach, a Los Angeles-based street ministry that has established more than 500 churches in tough urban neighborhoods across the globe.<\/p>\n<p>Wilkerson posted a\u00a0message dated April 27 &#8212; the day of his death &#8212;\u00a0titled &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldchallenge.org\/en\/view\/devotions\" target=\"_blank\">When All Means Fail<\/a>.&#8221; In it, he encouraged those facing difficulty to &#8220;hold fast&#8221; and stand strong in faith.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1172\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1172\" style=\"width: 336px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/218\/2011\/04\/wilkerson-E.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1172 \" title=\"wilkerson E\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/218\/2011\/04\/wilkerson-E.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"336\" height=\"349\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1172\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wilkerson and Cruz, 1959<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;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, &#8220;I am with you,'&#8221; Wilkerson wrote. &#8220;Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means fail-his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word. There is no other hope in this world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In 1971, he started World Challenge, Inc. as an umbrella for his crusades, conferences, evangelism and other ministry. Times Square Church was founded under the group in 1987.<\/p>\n<p>The church is now led by Pastor Carter Conlon and has more than 8,000 members.<\/p>\n<p>Wilkerson\u00a0is survived by his wife, four children and 11 grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Wilkerson, 79, author of the bestseller The Cross and the Switchblade, founder of Teen Challenge rehabilitation outreaches worldwide, and longtime pastor of the 8,000-member Times Square Church in New York City, was killed Wednesday in a car crash. His wife of more than 50 years, Gwen, was hospitalized with injuries. A prophetic voice calling&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,132,83,71,108,133,12,134,137,131],"tags":[402,29,381,403,404,138,407,401,406],"class_list":["post-1171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-david-wilkerson","category-inspirational","category-news","category-news-media","category-nicky-cruz","category-prayer","category-sonny-arguinzoni","category-the-cross-and-the-switchblade","category-times-square-church","tag-david-wilkerson","tag-drugs","tag-news","tag-nicky-cruz","tag-sonny-arguinzoni","tag-street-gangs","tag-the-cross-and-the-switchblade","tag-times-square-church","tag-victory-outreach"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Famed New York City street preacher, author David Wilkerson killed in car crash - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/04\/famed-nyc-street-preacher-author-david-wilkerson-killed-in-car-crash.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Famed New York City street preacher, author David Wilkerson killed in car crash - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Wilkerson, 79, author of the bestseller The Cross and the Switchblade, founder of Teen Challenge rehabilitation outreaches worldwide, and longtime pastor of the 8,000-member Times Square Church in New York City, was killed Wednesday in a car crash. 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