Times Square Church Keeps Growing

This article was orginally published in the May 1996 issue of Charisma.

In
Manhattan, David Wilkerson has given the term ‘Broadway revival’
a whole new meaning.

Perhaps
God had a better idea when the rock opera Jesus
Christ Superstar opened
25 years ago in Manhattan at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. Today the
ornate Broadway landmark houses a flourishing Pentecostal ministry
called Times Square Church (TSC), founded by David Wilkerson in 1987.

“We
originally came here to find a holy remnant who would welcome
repentance and set an example that people could live a righteous life
in the midst of Babylon or Sodom,” Wilkerson says.

Thousands
jam three services every Sunday, raising hands in joyous praise.
“We’ve had a continuous revival since we opened the doors,” the
64-year-old pastor told Charisma.
“I see an excitement about the things of God here that I’ve never
seen anywhere, other than overseas. People won’t go home. They want
to stay, sing and -worship.”

The
church, Wilkerson says, is built on a foundation of prayer. In 1995
Christians gathered three nights a week for special prayer,
entreating God for revival in New York City. They prayed the crime
rate down, Wilkerson claims, along with the removal of a school
chancellor who advocated a third-grade curriculum introducing the
homosexual lifestyle.

The
racially mixed church is blessed with a zealous congregation from
diverse backgrounds. Welfare recipients praise the Lord next to
middle-class families, single professionals and executives. Sixty
nationalities are represented in the congregation. Sermons are
simultaneously translated into Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and
French. Some worshipers claim their seats two hours before the
service begins.

“The
love of God covers color barriers. That’s why you have so many
different nationalities here,” says member Kimberly Long, who with
her husband, Brian, has been attending and “growing” ever since
they were introduced to the ministry of TSC through friends.

A
12-person security force assists the congregation but also stays
alert to pickpockets and occasional disturbances from drug addicts or
deranged people lunging onto the stage. People identified by the
church as demoniacs have screamed out ugly threats. “We try to be
ministers of reconciliation,” says Chris Currenti, security
director. “Where we are in Manhattan, we have no choice but to have
security.”

Dedicated
believers support the ministry wholeheartedly. When a crippling
blizzard hit New York on Jan. 7, more than 1,000 still showed up for
the Sunday evening service. And every weekend, Peter Moran, an elder
who lives in Lancaster, Pa., makes the six-hour round-trip drive with
his wife and five children to attend the church.

Several
thousand people make personal commitments to Christ each year,
Wilkerson reports, and about 1,000 are baptized annually.

An
estimated 50 people in the congregation suffer from AIDS. According
to Wilkerson, the church has three documented cases of healings of
AIDS, substantiated by medical reports and blood-test results.

With
a staff of 95 and an annual budget of $18 million, the mega-ministry
is debt-free. The ministry of TSC includes drug rehabilitation
centers for women and men, a feeding program and a Bible school. TSC
also gives as much as $4 million annually to U.S. and world
-missions.

A
150-bed homeless shelter and evangelistic center called Isaiah House
is scheduled to open in June. The nine-story, 45,000 square-foot
building is located in a former warehouse near Times Square. The
project will cost about $4.5 million. “It’s going to be one of
the strongest inner-city evangelism centers in the country,”
Wilkerson believes.

The
ministry’s success stories represent untold changed lives. One
example is Mark, a suicidal man who joined the Timothy House men’s
drug rehab center in June 1995. “I was selling drugs. I was
robbing. I was using crack. My life was tossing and turning, and I
wanted a way out,” Mark said.

He
kicked his habit and is now a radiant, born-again Christian. “I
feel wonderful today,” he says. “It’s nothing but Jesus; His
love is beyond measure.”

TSC
recently purchased 65,000 square feet of space in a building on
Broadway adjoining the former theater that will house a Bible school
and Sunday school for 1,500 children. “The church is exploding, and
we didn’t have room,” Wilkerson explains. “It was a miraculous
release of property that we had prayed about for two years.”

That
kind of faith and growth has characterized Wilkerson’s ministry
since he rose to national prominence in 1958 after his attempts to
help seven young men on trial for murder in New York made front-page
headlines. That incident, and Wilkerson’s subsequent efforts to
reach gang members with the gospel, became the basis for the book The
Cross and the Switchblade.

The
ministry he founded at that time, Teen Challenge, is considered to be
one of the most successful drug rehabilitation ministries in the
world. He also founded the evangelistic -ministry World Challenge.

Dismissing
any thoughts of retirement, Wilkerson intends to remain as senior
pastor, as well as continue ministering to hurting pastors and
writing and speaking on issues that impact the church. In his own
style of cutting-edge fervor, he observes, “I think there is a
spiritual famine in hearing the true word of God. There is very
little preaching against sin.”

Unlike
many other Christian leaders, he doesn’t see signs of a national
revival. “There are people having great emotional experiences right
now and calling it revival,” he says. “But I think true revival
will come through searing, heart-piercing, convicting preaching where
people are driven to their knees to repent.”

Peter K. Johnson is a freelance writer based in New York.