Sheridan Voysey

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The Nicky Cruz Interview [Podcast]

April 29, 2011
Nicky_Cruz_Med

Sadly and tragically, David Wilkerson, founder of New York’s Times Square Church and the worldwide drug rehabilitation movement Teen Challenge, has died in a car crash in East Texas. The accident happened on Wednesday, April 27, reportedly involving a head-on collision with a tractor trailer. Wilkerson’s World Challenge ministry has issued a statement here. Wilkerson was 79.

David Wilkerson leaves behind a remarkable legacy. During February of 1958, David felt God prompt him to spend his evenings praying rather than watching television. One night, two weeks later, he picked up a copy of Life magazine and started weeping over an ink sketching of seven members of New York’s Dragon Gang on trial for murder. ‘Go and help those boys,’ he felt God say. The result was Teen Challenge, an organisation which has since spread globally and reportedly helps around 24,000 men and women beat substance abuse issues each day. Wilkerson founded Times Square Church in 1987 and since 1999 has traveled the world holding conferences for Christian ministers. His story is told in the popular book and film, The Cross and the Switchblade.

I never had the opportunity of interviewing David Wilkerson. I wish I had.

I have, however, spoken to the man who felt his sacrifice the most - Nicky Cruz. In this Open House interview you’ll hear Nicky Cruz talk about:

  • His abusive family and his escape to the streets
  • Joining Brooklyn’s infamous Mau Mau gang and rising to become one of New York’s most feared gang leaders
  • The day a scared, young bespectacled David Wilkerson walked into his life, and the abuse Nicky and his gang threw at him
  • The single sentence David spoke that changed Nicky forever

As I’ve said in the introductory paragraphs of Nicky’s chapter in Open House Volume 2, there wasn’t a dry eye between us at the end of this interview. It’s a fitting way to remember David Wilkerson, a man who risked his very life to follow the call of God and love the most ‘unloveable’.

Download the interview here or listen below.

***

Q: Have you read The Cross and the Switchblade, or Nicky Cruz’s book Run Baby Run? How have you been touched by the life, faith and service of David Wilkerson?

About Sheridan Voysey

I am a writer, speaker and broadcaster on faith and spirituality. Let's keep in touch! To have my articles, talks and interviews delivered straight to your inbox, please subscribe.
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  • http://davemiers.com davemiers

    i read cross and switchblade as a 9 year old. can’t remember all the details, but can remember being amazed by the work of God done in and through wilkerson. praise God for a life not wasted.

  • http://www.InternetMissions.org Tony

    At age 14, The Cross and the Switchblade was the first Christian book I had read after becoming a Christian from one of my sisters who had been contacted via a Teen Challenge coffee shop. Run Baby Run was a close 2nd (apart from a small pocket Gideon Bible). These books both had a lasting impact were pivotal in reaching me for Jesus. 46 years later I’m now embarking on a full-time ministry as an Internet Evangelist.

  • http://sheridanvoysey.com Sheridan Voysey

    I remember watching a video of the movie not long after I became a Christian, only to have the cassette run out of tape right at the point where Eric Estrada (Nicky Cruz) was about to repent! I was still profoundly moved. What a bold example Wilkerson has been.

    Sounds like some exciting days ahead for you too, Tony. God bless.

  • http://sheridanvoysey.com Sheridan Voysey

    Reading The Cross and the Switchblade was a major jolt for me and strongly combatted the prevailing idea in my mind (encouraged, no doubt, by the somewhat conservative church I was attending) that God could never use Pentecostals. Wilkerson showed beyond ANY doubt that God could and did use Pentecostals, together with other denominations, to get his message through.

    When the film The Ten Commandments came out, a poster in cinema foyers proclaimed “You’ve seen the film. Now read The Book.” The same thing for me after watching Pat Boone portraying David Wilkerson.

  • TV

    Reading The Cross and the Switchblade was a major jolt for me and strongly combatted the prevailing idea in my mind (encouraged, no doubt, by the somewhat conservative church I was attending) that God could never use Pentecostals. Wilkerson showed beyond ANY doubt that God could and did use Pentecostals, together with other denominations, to get his message through.

    When the film The Ten Commandments came out, a poster in cinema foyers proclaimed “You’ve seen the film. Now read The Book.” The same thing for me after watching Pat Boone portraying David Wilkerson.

  • Peter_g

    I read both books in the early 1970s, as well as several other books by Wilkerson. I had been converted in the city at the age of 16, and received a call into ministry just under two years later while walking through Sydney on my way to work.

    “The Cross and the Switchblade” challenged my thought that God might be calling me into a suburban church somewhere, and showed me the needs of the city. It took me a long time to obey that call, but I now have over 27 years of city fringe ministry behind me.

    The book also challenged me in another way. Its unashamed Pentecostal stance forced me to question views and attitudes in my own church and, although I remained a Baptist, it was a significant factor in helping me shake off the shackles of a moribund fundamentalism and to accept the importance of the charismatic element in Christian faith.

  • http://www.sheridanvoysey.com Sheridan Voysey

    That’s a pretty profound impact, Peter. Thanks for sharing.

  • Rob R

    A good and wise friend bought these books for me when I was a very confused young man.  I’m probably still confused, and am certainly not young anymore.  But the simple message of God’s love, sacrifice and hope for all of us, but for also especially for me, brought me to a strong and unshakable faith.  I have met Nicky, during a speaking tour in the UK years ago.

  • http://sheridanvoysey.com Sheridan Voysey

    Isn’t it funny how we can still feel some confusion, yet have an ‘unshakable faith’? Thanks for sharing, Rob.

  • Nic

    The cross and the switchblade is a real good book and i would recommend it for all teens.
    Nic

  • http://sheridanvoysey.com/ Sheridan Voysey

    Agreed. Even for older readers, too.