the ministry that would later become teen challenge (and in 2017 changed to "adult & teen challenge") was founded in 1960 by david wilkerson, an assemblies of god pastor who left a rural pennsylvania church to work on the street among teenage gang members and socially marginalized people in new york city and who, perhaps, is best known for later authoring the cross and the switchblade and founding times square church. teen challenge started its first residential program in december 1960, in a house in brooklyn, new york.