mission statement |
history
history
A compassion and burden for the Teen Challenge Ministry was
birthed in the heart of Reverend Phillip McClain in 1966 as he
read a book by David Wilkerson, "The Cross and the Switchblade".
After reading, he immediately began a street ministry.
From 1968 to 1970, he served as a pastor in Whitehall, Michigan but
his burden for street ministry and the desperate constrained him to
resign from his position at the church in 1970. Soon after he
founded Western Michigan Teen Challenge.
He began by training street teams from area churches for
evangelism. They strategically infiltrated the teen hangouts, streets,
parks and beaches of Muskegon. As well as opening a coffee house
ministry in 1970.
It was obvious that some of them needed a live-in program to get
them out of their environment, to distance themselves from their
past and to provide opportunity for the discipleship process.
In 1972, a women's live-in facility was opened. The following year,
a men's facility was opened. Through this method, addicts and
alcoholics began responding to the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Since 1970, the ministry of Western Michigan Teen Challenge has
continued to grow. Today, it is one of the largest Teen Challenge
centers in the world, housing an average of 130 students year round
from all over Michigan and the United States.
Students learn that they can live free from drugs, immorality
and crime. They are rooted and grounded in the Christian
faith and life.
Teen Challenge has 168 centers in the United States and over
125 centers in foreign countries.
