David Wilkerson

July 1, 2014
In 1958, a young, rural Pennsylvanian Assemblies of God pastor began a ministry to young drug addicts in New York. A few years later, he wrote up the success story of Teen Challenge in The Cross and the Switchblade (1963), one of the biggest best-sellers of the twentieth century. That ministry and several offshoots of it endure around the world to this day. Wilkerson and Sawyer tell the story of that pastor, the former's father, David Wilkerson, primarily in Gary's voice, supplemented by those of David's siblings; his other children; some of the addicts he converted (especially those who became evangelists, too); and many of the Bible-college students, ministers, and longtime associates who worked with him. Much more memoir than biography, the book is a graciously plain testimony to the character and the achievements, and the shortcomings and doubtsfew to those who knew him, worrisomely many to himselfof a man of genuine Christian charisma who eschewed politics and TV to use that gift as immediately, as personally, as possible.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)