Politics & Power Quote by David Wilkerson

The line walks a careful tightrope between decentralization and control, and that balancing act is the point. By insisting that "every Teen Challenge ministry is responsible for raising its own finances", Wilkerson frames the movement as locally owned and spiritually serious: no freeloading, no dependency, no bureaucratic mothership that turns faith into a grant-writing machine. In a religious world often accused of top-down power and bottomless fundraising, the opening clause functions like an ethical disclaimer.

Then comes the second half, where the real architecture is revealed: "but we assist". The subtext is cohesion. Wilkerson is describing a networked ministry model before "NGO" became a brand identity, one that preserves autonomy while still projecting a central mission, standards, and pastoral authority. "Finances, prayer and counseling" is a deliberately mixed list, pairing material support with spiritual legitimacy and expertise. It signals that the organization isn't just wiring money; it's exporting a method, a theology, and a way of running recovery that treats addiction as both social crisis and spiritual battlefield.

The geographic roll call - Siberia, Africa, South America - does rhetorical work too. It's less travelogue than proof of reach, a snapshot of evangelical globalization in the late 20th century: go where state services are thin, where despair looks apocalyptic, where American Pentecostal confidence can cast itself as rescue rather than influence. "Especially overseas" subtly positions the home base as stable and resourced, the periphery as urgent and needy. It's mission language with a management mindset: self-sustaining outposts, selectively reinforced, all under a shared banner of salvation and discipline.