Rev. Schuller retiring from Crystal Cathedral
GJ - Robert Schuller tied himself to paganism from the beginning, adding a dusting of Christianity to make it more appealing. He correctly claimed that he invented the Church Growth Movement. His empire is in ruins now, so his newly ordained daughter with save it? Don't worry - he retained the power to fire her too.
AP – Sheila Schuller Coleman and her husband, Jim, left, share applause with congregants at the Crystal Cathedral …
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. – The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founder of Southern California's Crystal Cathedral megachurch and host of the "Hour of Power" televangelism broadcast, announced Sunday he will retire after 55 years in the pulpit and his daughter will take over.
The 83-year-old Schuller told his congregation that Sheila Schuller Coleman will become sole lead pastor, after sharing that role with her father for the past year.
Coleman previously served as principal of a private Christian school run by the cathedral and head of the Orange County church's family ministries division.
She was ordained just a month before she was appointed to head up Crystal Cathedral Ministries.
"I'm very proud that Sheila has earned her doctorate at the University of California, Irvine, and that this university has declared her to (have earned) a distinguished alumnus award," Schuller told his congregation during the 9:30 a.m. service. "Congratulations, I'm very proud of her."
The elder Schuller will assume the newly created position of chairman of Crystal Cathedral's consistory, which is the church's board of directors, The Orange County Register reported.
Coleman's appointment comes two years after Schuller's son, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, split from the church during a family rift that made headlines. The younger Schuller had been groomed to take over for his father.
Robert A. Schuller is now part of Dallas-based American Life Network, a cable channel aiming to produce family-oriented programming.
Coleman, 59, lives in Orange with her husband, Jim, and has four grown children.
"That was emotional for me, and I'm humbled and honored to be asked to take this responsibility," Coleman said Sunday after being commissioned, wiping away tears as she addressed her congregation. "I truly know that God is here, he loves this ministry and my call is to help take the ministry into the future and to continue dad's ministry."
The 10,000-member all-glass church faces significant challenges under Coleman's leadership.
Earlier this year the church said it saw revenue drop 27 percent from roughly $30 million in 2008 to $22 million in 2009.
Church leaders blamed the decline on the struggling U.S. economy. They sold 170 acres in southern Orange County, including a retreat and wedding center, laid off employees and cut "Hour of Power" from eight of the 45 domestic broadcast TV stations that air it.
The church also canceled this year's "Glory of Easter" pageant, which attracts thousands of visitors and is a regional holiday staple along with the church's "Glory of Christmas" show.
Crystal Cathedral also faces legal action from more than 100 vendors who are owed millions of dollars for their work on the church's pageants and other projects.
The senior Schuller first formulated his outreach to the unchurched in the mid-1950s when he opened a ministry at a drive-in theater in the suburbs of Orange County that catered to Southern California's emerging car culture. He pulled people in with his sermons on the power of positive thinking.
The little church later grew into the Crystal Cathedral, a worship hall with a soaring glass spire that opened in 1970 and remains an architectural wonder and tourist destination.
The "Hour of Power" telecast, filmed in the cathedral's main sanctuary, at one point attracted 1.3 million viewers in 156 countries.
Here is a good overview on the Shrinkers.
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AKA Robert Harold Schuller
Born: 16-Sep-1926
Birthplace: Alton, IA
Gender: Male
Religion: Protestant
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Religion
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: World's most upbeat televangelist
When minister Robert Schuller first came to Southern California to preach, he began by renting a drive-in theater for Sunday morning services, for $10 a week. For six years, Schuller stood atop the concession stand, while his sermons were heard on tiny speakers hung from car windows. His motto, on the drive-in's marquee and in the church's flyers, was "Come as you are in the family car!" Today his mega-church is housed in Schuller's famous $20 million "Crystal Cathedral", with 10,000 windows and a stream running down the sanctuary's aisles. It is still a "drive-in" church, though -- the glass walls allow worshippers in the 1,000-car parking lot the same view of the pulpit that the congregation has, and the offering plate is passed through the parking lot as well as among the pews.
The Crystal Cathedral is where The Hour of Power is taped, broadcast on hundreds of TV stations across America and dozens of foreign countries, to an estimated audience of 20 million. It is famous for its optimistic themes, and for the usual presence of "special guests", celebrity entertainers who sing or speak during the broadcast. The show usually steers clear of politics, though special guest and Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev did appear two Sundays prior to the 2000 election with warm words about George W. Bush.
Schuller has sometimes been criticized by Christian fundamentalists for his optimistic outlook and his recurring theme of "possibility thinking", generally eschewing hellfire and brimstone. He credits his longtime friend Norman Vincent Peale with showing him the importance of positive thinking. Schuller is a member of the Dutch Reform Church of America, the oldest Protestant group in America. Prior to Schuller, the denomination's most famous moment came in 1628, when the church purchased the island of Manhattan from local Indians for trinkets worth about $24.
In 1997, Schuller was charged with misdemeanor assault after "roughing up" a steward on a United Airlines flight to New York City. Schuller, flying First Class, complained that the steward had been unwilling to hang up his garment bag, and brought fruit and cheese when he had only asked for fruit. The steward said Schuller stood up and shook him by the shoulders, causing whiplash injuries. Schuller eventually paid a $1,100 fine and underwent a six-month diversion program. In a statement to the press, Schuller proclaimed rather pompously, "I am innocent. I have not broken a single one of the Ten Commandments. I have not broken any of the teachings of Jesus Christ."
For decades, Schuller was among the televangelists who generally declined to answer inquiries about his ministry's basic financial information. In late 2006 he retired from the pulpit at Crystal Cathedral, turning over the church's leadership to his son, Robert Schuller Jr., but in October 2008 the elder Schuller fired his son for "lack of shared vision and the jeopardy in which this is placing this entire ministry".
