“Charles,” my dear wife replied, “did you see the grief on Pastor Don’s face? Don’t take it personally, honey. He probably won’t recognize a lot of familiar faces today.”
We sat with our dear friend Michael Brown, who, like many sitting in Times Square Church’s beautiful sanctuary, flew in for the occasion. It was the most inspirational memorial service I’ve ever witnessed. The heartfelt memories shared by Pastor Dave’s family and the current Times Square Church pastors had us laughing one minute and weeping the next. Especially moving was the video clip of a sermon in which Pastor Dave exclaimed:
You see, there’s something down deep in my heart that says, “Come what may…the devil can’t kill me, can’t kill you, without God’s permission. And if God permits it, instant glory!” Something takes your life, and suddenly you’re in glory! Hallelujah! Thank You, Jesus!
Afterward, many people lingered around to talk and catch up with old friends. I simply sat there, still feeling the hot tears that made a path from my eyes down to the bottom of my chin. Lynn remarked, “There’s Pastor Don over there in the front, talking with people.”
“He didn’t even recognize me,” I repeated as though I never heard Lynn’s earlier comments. She affectionately put her hand on top of mine, and that small gesture seemed to snap me out of my little pity party. I looked over at her and smiled, and then I suddenly said, “Wait here, honey. I’m going to try this again.” I attempted to make a beeline to Pastor Don, but many old friends and acquaintances kept greeting me on the way. I finally made it to the front, but he was gone. I turned around to head back to my seat, and Pastor Don turned around from somewhere and we almost ran right into each other.
“Charles,” he said enthusiastically, “so sorry I didn’t recognize you. I knew the line was family only, and that’s what threw me off. You don’t look like any of my relatives. Not even a distant cousin!” I made a few remarks about how inspiring the memorial service was, just as Pastor Dave’s life was. Pastor Don informed me that he moved back to the city and was serving once again as the director of the original Brooklyn Teen Challenge. He handed me his business card, and I gave him mine. He then said his family was waiting for him, and he left.
When I arrived home that evening, I got on my computer and began to write this manuscript. And for the next week I spent every free moment remembering and writing about the many ways and times that Pastor David Wilkerson blessed my life.
The very day and hour I finished the first draft of this manuscript (with the exception of the final chapters), I got an e-mail from Pastor Don in which he simply wrote, “Charles, what are you doing right now?”
“Right at this moment?” I wrote back, startled at the timing of his question. “Well,” I replied, “I’m actually finishing my fifth book called Walking in the Footsteps of David Wilkerson.”
“Call me,” he simply replied back.
I called the number on his business card, and he asked if I’d like to have lunch with him in Brooklyn that coming Friday. And before I knew it, I was sitting with Pastor Don in an Italian restaurant named Graziella’s in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, a few blocks from Teen Challenge. After we ordered lunch and the waitress left, he said, “So Charles, I know we’ve talked a few times since you left Times Square Church. But fill me in. What have you been doing since then?”
“My goodness,” I began, “it’s been eighteen years since I left Times Square Church! Let’s see, by God’s grace I’ve planted five churches: in Arizona, the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and then again in Queens. I’ve written a few books, and in recent years I’ve been teaching in Bible schools: in Manhattan with Michael Brown and then in Connecticut with Brian Simmons. But they both closed for various reasons. I now conduct a Bible study twice a month in my apartment in Astoria, and I’m an associate pastor in a small church in Queens. And on the weekdays I work for King Kullen Supermarkets in Long Island. I’m not sure what God has next for me, but I’m open to whatever He would have.”
“What would you like to do? If you could describe what you’d enjoy the most, what would that be?”
“Well, Lynn and I both feel that church planting is behind us. I’ve really enjoyed teaching in Bible schools. I’d love to teach again in a school, especially one that’s preparing students for the ministry.”
Pastor Don stared at me, a stare of both shock and excitement. And then I heard the very same words I heard him say to me that began my life of pastoral ministry, way back in 1988. He slowly said, “Well, this is interesting.”
“What is?”
“Do you even know that we started a Bible school here at Brooklyn Teen Challenge?” I shook my head no as he continued. “It’s been going for about a year now. Any student who graduates the program and feels called to the ministry is offered one year of Bible college. We had two teachers, but one recently left; and we’ve been desperately looking for another teacher to take his place.”
“Really?”
“Charles, if you want the job, it’s yours. I don’t even need a résumé! I know and trust you.”
“When does your next semester start?”
“Tomorrow morning, at 9:00 A.M.!”
In June 2017, I celebrated six years of serving the Lord here at Brooklyn Teen Challenge, the original (flagship) Teen Challenge Center founded by David and Don Wilkerson in 1958. I now work here full-time as a teacher and a pastor. I’m so honored to work with Pastor Don once again, helping to continue the legacy of David Wilkerson.
I wish God would speak to me more often through divine dreams. It only occurs for me about three or four times a year. But when I receive one, there’s no doubt as to the source and the message it contains. For instance, a few months after I began working here, I had a dream that I immediately knew was from the Lord.
In the dream, Pastor Don and I were standing on a street corner at night, less than a block away from Brooklyn Teen Challenge. We were there talking for most of the night. When the morning light began to fill the sky, Pastor Dave came out of a brownstone building, crossed the street close to us, and began to enter another building. I walked after him and caught up to him right before he entered. He turned and said, “Charles, didn’t I tell you in the past that I don’t like for people to stay up all night waiting up for me?”
“I didn’t do that, Pastor Dave. I didn’t even know you were around. Pastor Don and I were just up talking.”
Pastor Dave then said to me, “The Lord says, ‘Since you honor your elders without worshiping them and worshiping the way they did things, you have the ability to help Teen Challenge go to the next level in God without destroying its original DNA.’”
When I woke up, I realized that second-generation ministry leaders usually either drop the baton, keep a ministry at the very same level, or they destroy its DNA. Genuine spiritual sons can take it to the next level in God while maintaining its original vision and DNA. I got permission from Brother Don to buy lettering to paste on the large cafeteria wall here at the original Teen Challenge Center. It’s a quote from Pastor Dave I first read on the subway (thirty-seven years ago in 1980!) from chapter 14 of The Cross and the Switchblade:
“The house I had dreamed of, we might call it Teen Challenge Center: an atmosphere of discipline and affection. Christians living together, working together; a family.” The dream lives on!
16
A Tribute to Don Wilkerson
IF DAVID WILKERSON IS A WORTHY EXAMPLE OF A FAITH-FILLED MAN OF God, then surely his younger brother Don is a shining example of a faithful man of God. His original call to ministry in New York City wasn’t as dramatic as his brother’s, but it was just as real. It came in the form of a phone call from his older brother David, asking him to come and help him! He’s actually been as much of a spiritual father to me as Pastor Dave. Honestly, none of those giants Pastor Dave defeated were conquered alone. Pastor Don is the co-founder of both Teen Challenge and Times Square Church. I was very blessed to work alongside Brother Don in Manhat
tan and again at Brooklyn Teen Challenge. When Brother Don asked me to come on staff with him in Brooklyn, I told him that God was emphasizing the biblical message of sonship to my heart. Because of this, I have changed my life Scripture from Matthew 25 to Philippians 2:
His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matthew 25:21).
“But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly…I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state…you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel” (Phil. 2:19-22).
In other words, I don’t just want to be a faithful servant to God; I also desire to be a son—to my Heavenly Father and my earthly spiritual fathers—and to, in turn, be a father to others. (I have learned through the years, the fastest way to find a true spiritual father—like Paul was to Timothy—is to focus on pouring into the Timothys you can find all around you. Proverbs 11:25 says, “He who waters will also be watered himself ” (NKJV). When Pastor Dave was building the ministry of Teen Challenge through traveling, speaking, and being in the limelight, his brother was faithfully holding down the fort in Brooklyn, day after day, year after year. In many ways, I can relate to Brother Don even more than Pastor Dave. As a young believer, the Lord gave me a promise: if I would be willing to play second fiddle, He would (spiritually) allow me to play in the best orchestras in the world. I have gladly served as an associate or as a staff member not only in Teen Challenge and Times Square Church, but also with Billy Graham’s ministry, FIRE School of Ministry, Peter Wagner’s School of Ministry, Brian Simmons, Joel Sadaphal, Vincent Buonfiglio, Gary Frost, Russell Hodgins, and others. Even so, the greatest second-fiddle-player trophy in Heaven surely is reserved for Don Wilkerson. And he’ll gladly wait for that day when he’ll be properly and eternally rewarded by God, instead of by fickle people.
One day, at the end of a service at Times Square Church, I was standing beside Brother Don as a lady came up to greet him. She screamed, “Oh my God! David Wilkerson! I’m so thrilled to finally meet you! Can you please sign this copy of The Cross and the Switchblade I just bought from the book table?”
Pastor Don politely replied, “I’m not David. I’m his brother, Don.”
The lady gave him a mean look and said with deep disappointment, “Oh,” and then walked away as though Brother Don just became invisible.
He knew I had just witnessed the whole thing, and he turned to me, smiled, and shrugged his shoulders. I’ll never forget that smile. It said, “That’s the thousandth time I’ve experienced that, but it’s OK. God knows who I am, and that’s enough for me.” I’m grateful that throughout my entire adult life, Brother Don’s cheerful smile, humble attitude, and wise counsel have always been there for me.
Epilogue
Famous and Not-So-Famous Quotes
I WILL ALWAYS TREASURE THE THINGS PASTOR DAVE TOLD ME PERSONally, as well as the sermons I’ve heard him preach throughout the years—from the message about Moses, Joshua, and Caleb in 1978 to the short exhortation he gave the last time I saw him at a pastors’ prayer meeting at Times Square Church a few years ago. I’d like to share some of his most famous quotes and then reiterate the gems of advice he gave me as one of his spiritual sons, along with the page numbers where they’re located:
“As I look back over fifty years of ministry, I recall innumerable tests, trials, and times of crushing pain. But through it all, the Lord has proven faithful, loving, and totally true to all His promises.”
“Stewards of the Gospel should be redeeming the time and not squandering so much of it on hobbies, sports, recreation, and television. Show me a man of God who sits before the TV idol, flitting away precious hours, vexing his soul and mind with the corruption of hell—and I’ll show you an unjust steward whom God will soon bring into account and strip of all spiritual authority.”
“Some Christians are content to merely exist until they die. They don’t want to risk anything, to believe God, to grow or mature. They refuse to believe His Word, and have become hardened in their unbelief. Now they’re living just to die.”
“How quickly we forget God’s great deliverances in our lives. How easily we take for granted the miracles He performed in our past.”
“Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.”
“You can have as much of Jesus as you want.”
“It’s all [our material things] gonna burn. You know what really matters? That we know Him!”
“Don’t ever be a carbon copy of me. Instead, be a carbon copy of Jesus.”
“Remember what my grandfather used to say. ‘God always makes a way for a praying man.’”
“Many of those who once were so passionately in love with Christ now run about pursuing their own interests. They’re burdened down with stress and problems, chasing after riches and the things of this world.”
“Riches and the things that are necessary in life are not evil in themselves. And all of us face cares and troubles in this life. The sin comes in the time and energy we spend in pursuing these things, at the expense of neglecting Christ.”
“Some of my suffering was self-imposed, caused by ignorance or foolishness. But now, at 74 years of age, I can boldly testify: never has God failed me.”
“We have in our hands one of the prime theaters in America, and I think God says, ‘If I can trust you with the poor, I can trust you with the Mark Hellinger.’”
“There are people having great emotional experiences right now and calling it revival. But I think true revival will come through searing, heart-piercing, convicting preaching where people are driven to their knees to repent.”
“Jesus knows what it is like to be cheated on! He has been patient and long-suffering as all through history His beloved Israel has been unfaithful to Him, committing spiritual adultery over and over again. The heart of Jesus yearns for a faithful bride. How He longs for a people who will have eyes only for Him, with no other love coming between. What is it that brings joy to a wife or a husband? It is faithfulness—the ability to look into each other’s eyes and see trust.”
“You could cut me up into a thousand pieces and lay them in the street, and every piece will still love you.”
“You can take it from this skinny preacher from the hills of Pennsylvania; the cross is mightier than the switchblade.”44
And here’s a few quotes Pastor Dave told me, or I personally heard him preach (already mentioned earlier, but worth repeating):
“Within that entire multitude of people who came out of Egypt with Moses, only two men followed the Lord with all their hearts—Joshua and Caleb. Because they were sold out to God, they were given supernatural courage!” (pg. 25)
“When you have authority, you don’t have to yell” (pg. 72).
“Don’t ever make major decisions when you’re sick, depressed, or worn out” (pg. 94).
“The need can indicate a call, but it is not to dictate the call. The prodigal son found himself in a place where no man helped him so he would look up to Heaven for help. We need to differentiate between our calling and the needs of the people around us. And no one is called to meet every need he sees” (pg. 95).
“If you don’t hear clearly from the Lord whom to marry, this could destroy the calling on your life” (pg. 103).
“Beloved, there are times when staying in God’s presence is more important than getting enough sleep, getting enough to eat, or getting enough of anything else” (pg. 104).
“Trust what you hear when you’re in God’s presence. Doubt what you hear when your heart is filled with fears and anxieties” (pg. 105).
“I don’t believe in long marriage engagements. When you know it’s God, why wait? Waiting too long just puts you in hard situations” (pg. 111).
“Here’s my [marriage counseling] advice. Have a lot of mercy on each other, especially for the first year. When yo
u have disputes, just say, ‘I’ll have mercy on you if you’ll have mercy on me’” (pg. 111).
“No matter how strong an Old Testament prophet’s message was, it always included words of hope and encouragement. So we need to do the same” (pg. 118).
“Don’t ever try to be anointed. Just try to meet the needs of the people you’re ministering to, and the Lord will anoint you to do that. The anointing is to meet needs, and not for a show” (pg. 118).
“[God’s] gifts are given to meet people’s needs, not to create a circus atmosphere” (pg. 119).
“If you preach more than forty to forty-five minutes, you’re going to lose the people. The fastest way to ruin a good sermon is to go a little too long. If you can’t make your point in forty minutes, give it up!” (pg. 119)
“A father’s ceiling should be his children’s floor” (pg. 120).
“Don’t become overly frustrated with all the shortcomings of God’s people” (pg. 121).
“When you’re willing to serve the servants, that’s when heavenly promotion comes. Joseph gladly ministered to Pharaoh’s servants in that awful prison, and before he knew it, he was in charge of all of Egypt” (pg. 130).
“A sanctified imagination is one of the mightiest weapons in the hands of God. If you want your sermons to become riveting, become addicted to reading, not to watching television” (pg. 130).
“God will bless you tremendously if He can trust you” (pg. 130).
“Don’t get caught up in the numbers game, always striving for a bigger and better ministry. So many young pastors are consumed with packing the people in, but that kind of striving never ends. Bigger is not always better. Be content with what God gives you” (pg. 130).
“It’s almost impossible to put too many Scriptures in a sermon. It’s the power of God’s Word that breaks hardened hearts. Allow conviction to go deep into people’s hearts before you pull the scalpel out. Scripture-filled, convicting sermons are like successful heart surgeries: they save lives” (pg. 130).
Walking in the Footsteps of David Wilkerson Page 16