In 1986, I came back to New York City for a street rally. I was shocked as I witnessed 9, 10 and 11 year-old kids bombed on crack cocaine. As I walked down 42nd Street, I saw crack being sold by dealers every few feet. Len Bias, the famous college basketball player, had just died of a crack overdose. I heard one pusher yelling, "I've got the stuff that killed Len."

I began to weep as I witnessed all of this. I prayed, "God, you've got to raise up a testimony in this hellish place. It seems like the devil has set up New York City as his kingdom. This is the seat of Babylon."

The Lord's answer wasn't what I wanted to hear: "You know the city, David. You've been here. You do it."

I was shocked. I'd been ready to retire. It wasn't that I was weary; I just felt I'd put in my time. I'd spent thirty years on the streets and in drug-rehab centers all over the world. Now I was prepared to move to Colorado and spend my later years writing books. My only other desire was to go to Russia and Eastern Europe to preach. But I couldn't get the Lord's words to me that night out of my mind.

For two nights I walked the streets of New York, weeping and praying that God would bring someone else. I thought, "Lord, if I'm supposed to do this, how can I tell my wife? We have a beautiful home in Texas on a lake. We've moved our headquarters there. How can I uproot Gwen now, and tell her we're moving back to the city?"

That night, when I walked into our hotel room, Gwen had been praying. "We're coming back to New York, aren't we?" she asked.

After we returned to Texas, I spent three months on my face before God. I shut down every activity in my life and lay in my room, seeking God. During that time of prayer, the Lord made me a promise: if I would come to Times Square and do everything his way, he would house a church in a beautiful building that would take our breath away. He assured me his provision would be beyond belief. And he would fill the house with people hungry for him. God also promised me that we wouldn't have to worry about finances. He, our great God, would supply every need.

In 1988, the Town Hall Theater and the Nederlander Theater served as temporary homes for Times Square Church. The next year, in 1989, the historic Mark Hellinger Theater was purchased. Times Square Church had found its home, in the very heart of New York City, on 51st Street and Broadway. The New York Daily News declared, "SRO [Standing Room Only] for Jesus on Broadway." And Variety announced, "That old-time religion books Hellinger."

From its inception, Times Square Church has stood at the world's crossroads as an inter-denominational Protestant church of evangelical doctrine and practice. Today, more than 100 nationalities are represented in the congregation. The church believes in the necessity of personal conversion to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, as the ultimate redemptive force in individual lives and in society at large. "Come unto me," Jesus said, "all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Thus, the mission of the church is always to seek out the lost, the addicted, and those seeking true fulfillment and to tell them of the power of the risen Christ to set them free!