About Adult & Teen Challenge

Sometimes a ministry begins with a carefully developed plan.

Adult & Teen Challenge began with a pastor who felt compelled to go somewhere he never expected.

In 1958, country preacher David Wilkerson learned about seven teenage boys in New York City who were on trial for murder.

Something about their story wouldn't leave him alone.

Despite his own uncertainty, Wilkerson believed God was prompting him to go to New York and reach young people whose lives had become consumed by gangs, violence, drugs, and hopelessness.

That decision eventually led him into relationships with gang members and troubled youth throughout the city—and from those unlikely beginnings, Teen Challenge was born.

What started on the streets of New York has since become a worldwide ministry.

Today, Adult & Teen Challenge has more than 215 locations across the United States, with the broader Teen Challenge ministry operating at more than 1,000 locations around the world.

The locations may have multiplied, but the central message remains the same: through Jesus Christ, people struggling with addiction and other life-controlling problems can discover hope and a new way of living.

Our Mission

Adult & Teen Challenge exists to help teenagers and adults find freedom from addiction and other life-controlling issues through Christ-centered solutions.

Rather than viewing recovery only as breaking dependence on a substance, the ministry seeks transformation that reaches the whole person.

Participants are encouraged to examine the patterns, relationships, choices, and spiritual needs affecting their lives while developing a deeper dependence on God.

Through structured programs, biblical teaching, discipleship, community, and practical life development, Adult & Teen Challenge seeks to help people build foundations for lasting change.

The National Office supports this mission by empowering, educating, and equipping local Adult & Teen Challenge centers as they serve individuals and families within their communities.

Empower

Addiction can make the future feel incredibly small.

For individuals and families who have experienced repeated cycles of substance use, broken relationships, disappointment, or relapse, believing that life can actually become different may be difficult.

Adult & Teen Challenge wants people to know there is still hope.

Through the power of Jesus Christ, the ministry points participants toward the possibility of a new future—one where addiction no longer has to determine their identity or direction.

That hope extends to families as well.

When one person's life is controlled by addiction, parents, spouses, children, and other loved ones often experience the consequences alongside them.

Adult & Teen Challenge seeks to offer those families encouragement as their loved one begins pursuing change.

Educate

Freedom also requires learning a different way to live.

Adult & Teen Challenge provides curriculum and educational resources designed to help participants understand biblical principles, develop healthy habits, and grow in their dependence on God.

Programs give participants structure while helping them develop greater clarity about personal responsibility, relationships, spiritual growth, and everyday life.

The goal isn't simply to tell someone what they need to stop doing.

It's to help them discover what life can look like moving forward.

By combining Christian discipleship with practical learning, Adult & Teen Challenge seeks to equip participants with tools they can continue using long after completing a program.

Equip

Adult & Teen Challenge believes ministry is stronger when people work together.

Its National Office supports local centers by connecting them with resources, training opportunities, organizational support, and potential funding options that can strengthen their ability to serve people struggling with addiction.

It also works to address broader barriers that can make ministry more difficult, including legislative and organizational challenges affecting local centers.

This allows individual Adult & Teen Challenge ministries to benefit from the experience and resources of a much larger network while continuing to serve the unique needs of their own communities.

From the Streets of New York to a Global Ministry

Few people watching David Wilkerson walk into New York City in 1958 could have imagined what would follow.

His willingness to respond compassionately to a group of teenagers society had largely written off eventually helped spark a ministry that would spread across the United States and around the world.

That history continues to shape Adult & Teen Challenge today.

Behind every center is the belief that someone's worst season does not have to become the rest of their story.

At the heart of Adult & Teen Challenge is a message of freedom, transformation, and hope that through Christ, people trapped by addiction and other life-controlling struggles can begin building a new life and discover that lasting change is possible.