American evangelists

David Ray Wilkerson (May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011) was an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He was the founder of the addiction recovery program Teen Challenge, and founding pastor of the interdenominational Times Square Church in New York City.
Wilkerson emphasized such Christian beliefs as God's holiness and righteousness, God's love toward humans and especially Christian views of Jesus. Wilkerson tried to avoid categorizing Christians into distinct groups according to the denomination to which they belong.

Jack Frasure Hyles (September 25, 1926 – February 6, 2001) was a leading figure in the Independent Baptist movement, having pastored the First Baptist Church of Hammond in Hammond, Indiana, from August 1959 until his death. He was well known for being an innovator of the church bus ministry that brought thousands of people each week from surrounding towns to Hammond for services. Hyles built First Baptist up from fewer than a thousand members to a membership of 100,000. In 1993 and again in 1994, it was reported that 20,000 people attended First Baptist every Sunday, making it the most attended Baptist church in the United States. In 2001, at the time of Hyles's death, 20,000 people were attending church services and Sunday school each week.

Jerry Bridges (December 4, 1929 – March 6, 2016) was an evangelical Christian author, speaker and staff member of The Navigators, a Christian organization. Born in Tyler, Texas, United States, he was the author of more than a large number of books, including The Pursuit of Holiness, which has sold more than one million copies. His devotional Holiness Day by Day garnered the 2009 ECPA Christian Book Award for the inspiration and gift category, and The Discipline of Grace received a similar award in 1995 for the Christian living category.Bridges earned his undergraduate degree in engineering at the University of Oklahoma, before serving as an officer in the United States Navy during the Korean War. He joined Christian discipleship organization The Navigators in 1955, where he served as administrative assistant to the Europe Director, office manager for the headquarters office, Secretary-Treasurer of the organization, and as Vice President for Corporate Affairs before moving to a staff development position with the Collegiate Mission.At the time of his death, he was a widower, and had married Jane Mallot a year after his first wife's death. Bridges died on March 6, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at the age of 86.

Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner (born January 14, 1944) is a former evangelist preacher and actor. He first gained public attention during the late 1940s when his parents arranged for him to be ordained as a preacher at age four due to his extraordinary speaking ability, making him the youngest known in that position to this day. As a young man, he preached on the revival circuit and brought celebrity to the revival movement.As an adult Gortner, having grown regretful, admitted that his days as a child evangelist were filled with fake stories, lies and the sales of fake "holy" or healing items. Marjoe (1972) is a behind-the-scenes documentary about him and the lucrative business of Pentecostal preaching, in which he actively participated. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, and it became known as a prominent criticism of Pentecostal preaching. Gortner had an acting career from the 1970s to the 1990s, which included the main role in the space opera film Starcrash (1978) and the television series Airwolf in 1985, and also released a musical studio album titled Bad but Not Evil in 1972.