02 May 2011

UNDER THE WATERFALL: Patrick ButlerThe word springing to mind when recalling the life of David Wilkerson is “application.” This man took the logical conclusion of the presupposition that God existed, Christ died for the sins of all and that eternity is a real place along with the inner healing that goes with it.

For more than 40 years he ran with these ideas and no one could hold him back. What an amazing example of perseverance, perception and pushing through incredible odds, daunting circumstances and impossible looking barriers. Just remembering Wilkerson’s work with gang members in New York City in the 1960s would have earned him accolades for decades, but he didn’t stop there. He opened his Teen Challenge centers from coast to coast and internationally. Then he started World Challenge. He did international crusades for teens, urging them to reconsider their paths. He also started Times Square Church, which the aloof New York Times even conceded was a vital and positive influence on the city.

He was commended for his labors by more than U.S. presidents, religious leaders and especially the people he reached out to. Just ask former New York Mau-Mau gang warlord Nicky Cruz, the recalcitrant, vituperative, explosively angry switchblade artist, what Wilkerson's cross meant to him. Just a few years ago, Cruz spoke at another crusade in New Jersey with another ministry carrying on the Wilkerson legacy to kids — Teen Mania, headquartered in Garden Valley, Texas.

I met a young, dynamic and well-thought of preacher just today who’d never read “The Cross and the Switchblade” or seen the film — the nexus of Wilkerson’s start to notoriety. “Switchblade” should be required reading in seminary under the title “Practical Application.”

I’ve heard the critics of Wilkerson’s recent predictions of tribulations that may be coming to America. I’ve heard the questions of his character or even mental balance. My question to them is, “What have you done recently that was so great?” When it comes to the idea of “put up or shut up” Wilkerson did far more than talk a good game. He played it out, and to the final buzzer. Singer Dallas Holm told me that his ex-boss “Never sought the lime-light, first and foremost. The thing is,” Holm said, “is that he has been right so often about so many things, when he says something, it’s worth it to listen.”

Through his humble service in the midst of real dangers, Wilkerson earned the right to speak to all of us. His authority came from a deep desire to do God’s will, not his own.

David Neff of Christianity Today may have simply and succinctly summed it up when he wrote on Facebook in response to an article about Wilkerson, “His legacy is truly amazing.”

Let us all realize a truly amazing man and legacy has passed and is still, right before our eyes. May we do all we can do, be all we can be to our generation, as Mr. Wilkerson was to his.

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