[22], In May 2011, the senior Schullers, along with their daughter Carol and her husband Tim, were dismissed from the ministry at the Crystal Cathedral. That's like a Ponzi scheme. Billy Graham preached the dedication at Coral Ridge. Sure. It's not the hard liberalism of a Harry Emerson Fosdick or someone who just outright denies the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. Jim Kennedy, who was incredibly strategic, as well as entrepreneurial in his own way, he goes on to a church as 10s, he builds it up into multiple thousands, builds this incredibly theatrical building. There's some real theological parallels there but they're not the same. Mainline Protestantism, older in the mean, or the median than evangelical Protestantism. The court would eventually allow them approximately 20 percent of what they were owed. It was out of necessity, lack of options. Well, that to me is the bridge. We pretend and wear masks to prove to others were worth loving. Professors, welcome to Thinking In Public. Augustine would say we have too much and that's sin." But in every year that we can see, the dependence on the revenue of the Hour of Power never was reduced. Schuller had a message that he deemed to be universal, and one that would touch everyone. I grew up in Alto, Wisconsin; and he grew up in Alton, Iowa. Between getting the message out about a service that's accessible, and allowing people who did not know each other to occupy the same place was remarkable. I think that the fact that the ministry had an older profile really betrays that the message of the cathedral and the ministry of the cathedral appealed to a particular culture. Schuller has the audacity say, "Well, I think Augustine is wrong on that.". It's not impossible. You had a lowering of restrictions on the flow of capital. But it's also called Pasadena Community Church. It had no marketing ability. But you may be doing so at the risk of any external shocks that may happen, things that you cannot predict that may hurt your church, even though you have done everything you could within your church. How do I become stable financially? That would be Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, where a D. James Kennedy was pastor. He tore pages out of Self-Esteem: The New Reformation and proceeded to correct the reformation based theology that people to me was speaking. Our book is certainly a caution to church leaders today. All Rights Reserved. Just how fleeting some religious movements can be, which seemed monumental at the time. But if he's talking to Larry King, I mean, he affirmed universalism, rather than historic Christian understandings of the gospel, I mean, repeatedly. Kantzer and a co-author actually wrote an article summarizing it. In the book you don't take this out very far. That becomes a significant issue that the current congregation continues to wrestle with. A parable in one person, everywhere you look, and in every way you can conceive, that was Robert H. Schuller. We hope to see you soon. My grandmother, my Southern Baptist grandmother had not only Guideposts magazine, but other Norman Vincent Peale books. Both named after the same Dutch town. One of our arguments is we the Glass Church is both what locals call grew up calling the Crystal Cathedral as Glass Church pejoratively. Because your faithful support and prayers led us to our new home in Irvine, this is our invitation to you to become a permanent part of it. Something has to explain how this came together in your minds, and then eventually, in the book entitled The Glass Church. Don't worry about the weather. Frankly, I did. When he graduated from seminary and took on his first pastorate outside of Chicago, his concern was how best to pastor and grow this church. I think there'll be some people who will read the book because of the idea of megachurch strain, with the megachurch such a major phenomenon across the religious world, especially the Christian world. You can talk about predestination. [18] Schuller stated that "different ideas as to the direction and the vision for this ministry" with his son "made it necessary to part ways in the Hour of Power television ministry". But then he would turn around with someone else, like with me, and insist how much he believed in heaven and hell, and a traditional reformation understanding of the gospel. That's a warning to us all. Jim Wallis does know who Robert Schuller is. [28] According to the Religion News Service, the founders were left with little to no assets; their home was fully mortgaged. That spoke to the inherent psychology of all people. He wanted both worlds. Lo and behold, when Orange County was populated with Southerners and Midwesterners, all moving out into an expanding suburban landscape, working in a variety of fields, not only aerospace, but a number of other businesses and opportunity that was opening up, that Schuller ended up speaking to the very same kind of person. He actually changed pronunciation as he moved west to make it a little softer. We've got record enrollment as a very confessional seminary. I would put it differently. But rather the softer liberalism that came from a preacher preaching under a lot of glass in Garden Grove, California. [17], On January 22, 2006, Schuller's son, Robert A. Schuller, assumed the role of senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. You have two community churches, Grace Community Church in the north, Garden Grove Community Church in the south. Again, this came out of a conflict. I knew of it. Those two went toe to toe quite a bit. Very fair to say. Well, some have not only said that. [25] In July 2011, Coleman attempted to reverse the decision that had been made in her absence, saying, "Dad will continue to provide leadership for this ministry through me for as long as possible" and, "I have and will continue to defer to his wisdom and honor him for his unprecedented accomplishments. [30], In late August 2013, Schuller was diagnosed with esophageal cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes. That's church.". His father cited "a lack of shared vision" as the cause. 
But also two different things with Fosdick, one was he understood public relations. The church was completed in 1961, at a cost of $3 million[11][12] (equivalent to $27million in 2021). Schuler had no idea who his audience was. Let's just posit that Protestantism in the United States is older than it was 50 years ago. There's a real Presbyterian Church at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church right now. [23] They filed for bankruptcy. It's a Glass Church. The freeways weren't there or no one knew they were going to be there when he started the property, but it did end up that way. Not just in America, but the whole world. You also really document. Having some acquaintance with all of the dramas that had been associated with that ministry, I was very well aware when the bankruptcy was declared and found it to be just as shocking as most other people. Our church is a community of wounded healers broken people who have found redemption in the Kingdom of God and in the Fathers love. The difficulty is trying to achieve clarity about what that means. In other words, they have to be adept at certain managerial skills as well, especially in an increasingly complex economy and culture. Our argument is that, especially for megachurches, because they tend to be top heavy and overloaded, they're actually there's strains and there's fragility that in good times it's all quite masked. I mean, Philip Johnson, Richard Neutra, Richard Meier. I'm going to make sure it is as accessible as possible." None of the vestments that he wore. That makes a lot of sense. But, anyway, I read the book and it just seemed to me to be Palladianism mixed with New Thought. Mark, you come from a Dutch Reformed background. But on the other hand, I'm a theologian. Many thanks to my guests, Gerardo Marti and Mark Mulder for thinking with me today. The Strain of Megachurch Ministry and the person of Robert H. Schuller, again, it's a story that comes together that is so incredible. How they fill those is something that is part of the magic, if you will, of leadership. On June 11, 2009, Schuller announced that the church's leadership would pass to his eldest daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman. Even if he doesn't like Augustine, he really doesn't like Paul either. When credit contracted, and when those that wealth was no longer as accessible, and the flow of capital dried up, that's what really put everything in arrears. For instance, being located on the interstates there, the freeways. No fiction writer could make up Robert Schuller. It didn't come out of anything harmonious. I think if you actually look at some of the records, he was a little bit embarrassed by some of his Dutch reformed compatriots who are already there in Southern California. He is author of the books,Imagine Happiness, andHappiness According to Jesus. Maybe when they're homesick from church or their grandma had watched something like that." Back in Northwest Iowa, his name is pronounced Skuller. Robert Schuller, Founder of Crystal Cathedral Megachurch in Garden Grove, Dies at 88", "Robert Schuller rose from Iowa farm to world fame", "Drive in church Garden Grove Community Church", "From Crystal to Christ: A Once and Future Cathedral", "Diocese to retain Crystal Cathedral exterior", "America's Television Church The Church of Tomorrow (news release)", "Crystal Cathedral founder stepping down", "Crystal Cathedral files for bankruptcy amid mounting debts", "Crystal Cathedral: Schullers go to court", "Schuller ousted from Crystal Cathedral board", "Dr. Robert H. Schuller Honored as Chairman of the Board Emeritus", "Crystal Cathedral: Robert Schuller commends daughter for leaving church", "Split Crystal Cathedral: Sheila Schuller Launches 'Hope Center of Christ' in Movie Theater", "Doctors say Robert Schuller has cancer, could live another two years Los Angeles Times", "Arvella Schuller, wife of Crystal Cathedral's founder, dies at 84", "Televangelist and Crystal Cathedral founder Robert Schuller has died", "Amazon.com: Dr. Robert Schuller: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle", "Retail Religion: Robert Schuller, an entrepreneur of televangelism and megachurches, died on April 2nd", Faceted Application of Subject Terminology, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Schuller&oldid=1083793588, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2015, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. In this book, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, he wrote these words, "Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem." Then you have to have the charisma. One of the things I want to add is Schuller stumbled on a strategy to unite strangers at church. How does that all play into this? I'm going to try to really lower any obstacle to come into church that people can possibly offer. That he said, "You can't preach about it. Then along comes Peale. Warren would say, "That's okay. There certainly was an incredible commercial, financial aspirationalism, managerial perhaps aspirationalism in all of this. He had figured out the gospel for today. Two things here, that he really was spectacularly successful at harnessing thousands of them. We want it to be there for people who are wheelchair bound, people who are in uniform, people who are concerned about crowds and things like that." There's that aspect to it. He eventually came to consider himself a bit of a pre-evangelist that he was doing everything he could to get people in the door. They were more interested in what one of Schuller's disciples was doing down the road, Rick Warren at Saddleback. Okay. 
In order to get this book published by an academic publisher, you not only have to write it in such a way that it impresses academic reviewers, and you do write as scholars. He worked at Ivanhoe Reformed Church in Riverdale, Illinois, before moving to Garden Grove, California. You have to have the right person in place who is going to give attenders confidence that this person is somebody I want to follow. Schuller died early on the morning of April 2, 2015, at a nursing facility in Artesia, California, aged 88. Schuller called it the "single most defining moment of my early life. [3], Robert Harold Schuller was born on September 16, 1926, near Alton, Iowa, the second son of Jennie (ne Beltman; 18911970) and Anthony Schuller (18821964). The three legs that are supporting all churches, but megachurches in particular, and that's capital, constituency, and charisma. As a church historian and theologian, I can draw a line from people like Henry Ward Beecher at Plymouth Congregational Church, also in Greater New York, then Harry Emerson Fosdick. It began with a biblical understanding of sin. But: You are a beloved child of God just as you are. What you just said is exactly what I see as the most severe indictment of Robert Schuller. I often tell my students that religious change tends to be glacial. We all need to pay attention to where the revenue is going to come from. You weren't. While we were working on that, Gerardo actually pitched this idea. Now, at the time, I didn't realize it was organically Norman Vincent Peale. It's ruined. One of the things that's interesting about age is when a church grows over time, does the congregation remain the same age or does it get older? [2] He was also the founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, where the Hour of Power program was later broadcast. Once Mark and I landed on this notion that every church has to balance constituency, charisma, and capital that very much helped me to understand how is it that churches are trying to manage the resources of their ministries in order to achieve the goals that they have. Cathedral Memorial Gardens, Garden Grove, California, U.S. Christian ministry, authoring "positive thinking" books, Arvella De Haan (m. 19502014; her death), This page was last edited on 20 April 2022, at 19:13. One of the parables I would underline when it comes to Robert Schuller is the fact that there are different ways to reject the Christian faith in its doctrinal and confessional substance. The tilting of the country toward Southern California, bringing these white middle class families who we're eager for some semblance of a religious organization that looked something from home, but still had a fresh spin on it that felt West Coast and a bit different. I think one of the key things that we found out is he would read back stories or explanations for things that didn't necessarily exist at the beginning. The bridge is that you have an expansion of business and an expansion of people who are moving up the ladder as white collar workers in a newly built ladder of promotion. That there's somebody who has a dynamism. On October 18, 2010, Coleman announced that the Crystal Cathedral was seeking bankruptcy protection, in the midst of what became known as the Great Recession. But that's, of course, the opposite of what the scripture tells us. Billy Graham, much like Norman Vincent Peale preached at the inaugural service of the Crystal Cathedral. In July 2011, it was reported in the Orange County Register that Schuller had been ousted from the Crystal Cathedral board. I don't know if you know that name. I think that once this orientation of how do you then appeal to that business person who is pursuing profit and who is a very ego-oriented person putting themselves out into the world in a competitive manner? Check out our live stream service fromSHEPHERDSGROVEin Irvine every Sunday at 9 a.m. by going tosgp.live, or BobbysYouTube. But it's been through cycles of strain. Is that fair to say? Interested in connecting with BOBBY SCHULLER MINISTRIES? He wrote, "If you can dream it, you can do it! But it doesn't take much an economic crisis, a pastor who makes some poor decisions, changing demographics. There are many churches are doing it well. 
By the way, you also make very clear that Schuller often claimed, A, to have produced the ministry as part of a strategic plan. Just imagine the two of them. But that was read back on to drive-in church. Well, as a student of American religion, I couldn't turn that down. I don't understand this on the part of the RCA. I'm Albert Mohler. We need to now accommodate this message to be able to say, yes, you can be a Christian, and you can be a capitalist, and to be able to work those things together so that the messages began to be more practical and spoke directly to the anxieties of this new class of person.". The problem is getting all that in sync. Yeah. He was ordained as a minister in the Reformed Church in America. Being able to combine forces to be able to work all angles of this story is, I think, what makes it such a powerful analysis. The local classes of reformed churches had suggested a farmer who could be the architect for Schuller's new church, because he had built barns. Yeah. As much as I thought I knew so much about Schuller and the ministry, I learned a great deal by reading your book. I'm looking for frameworks that will help me make sense of what's really going on. HEAL as they are loved and then love and help heal others through MISSION. Churches, for as long as we've known them, are connected because friends, and family, and neighbors invite each other to church. When pressed tried to argue that his church wasn't a church but a mission, because then it wasn't theologically accountable as a church. He wanted the respectability that came with being an ordained minister of the oldest religious denomination, Christian denomination in the United States. The Hour of Power began televising in 1970 from the Garden Grove Community Church on the advice of Rev. I can well remember as a young theologian being given a copy of Robert Schuller's 1982 book Self-Esteem: The New Reformation. George, who wrote the best biography of Norman Vincent Peale, points out the fact that every time there was, say, a fundamentalist, modernist controversy, he sided with the modernists. Our brand new coffee table book beckons you to relive every chapter of our history and walk with us through the fifty years that have brought us to this, the middle of our course. I'm very thankful for the health that I see there now. Not to mention a Christian theologian or someone writing a theological work. [24] The creditors would be paid in full plus interest. Call us today! As long as those things are in balance, it works. That's what began a longer work, a longer project of which Peale was a part of, to say, "Okay. Now by the time you get to Schuller and the end of his ministry, the average age in the congregation is creeping hauntingly towards his own. But the larger culture is the religious culture is getting older. At that point, doctrine was not the most important thing in his mind. He was invited to speak in the same session as Jim Wallis. But what we don't often see and what I think Schuller underestimated is you can stretch the capacities of your church internally. With the fact that so many people watch on television, and that means you don't know who you have on Sunday morning. They weren't exactly non-Christians. I have to say as one who is now a seminary president, been almost for three decades, of a confessional theological seminary, this will be clear. You can't have seat on a pulpit and just tell people about it, because it's going to come off as strange and profoundly unattractive, that people don't have agency.". In fact, Schuller would completely agree with you, because he felt like many other church growth "theorists" would say that if the church is not growing, it's dying. But even naming this drive-in church, a community church, it was something he knew of already. The Strange Tale of Robert Schuller and the Crystal Cathedral: A Conversation with Sociologists Mark T. Mulder and Gerardo Marti, The Prayer That Turns the World Upside Down. It was a charm offensive. He was interred next to his wife at the Christ Cathedral Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Garden Grove, California.[33][34]. It's not that we don't have enough pride or we don't have enough self-esteem. Church had a bowling alley and a gymnasium, and vibrant youth group. There are often incompatibilities between the goals that they have and the resources that they possess. Every day, we receive emails and letters from people who have been transformed by this message of hope. I was actually a member of a Baptist megachurch, really stood by those contemporary definitions. The difficulty of not only attracting millennials and Generation Z or whatever we're going to land on calling them, but of getting them deeply involved in the life of a local church. Once the strains externally were imposed, in addition, that's what created the vicious spiraling that no one was able to control. Is one of the lessons here that he didn't see it until it was way too late? I hemmed and hawed a little bit. It wasn't theological, and that was the point. Robert Schuller had built a department store, trying to draw in everybody. The goal was to be somewhere between those two." [13], The design of the new church building enabled Schuller to preach his sermons to worshipers in 500 cars, as well as to members of the congregation inside the church. The local church has to pay the bill. I get almost no hands. I'm still perplexed. He was invited to speak, it's a very odd thing, in 1983, in the midst of all kinds of national and denominational controversy. For instance, about the same time as Schuller is building the Crystal Cathedral at its height, Oral Roberts from an extremely different tradition, Pentecostal charismatic tradition in Oklahoma. You also had windfalls on the part of wealthy Christian businessmen who now had more money to give to causes that they themselves had some resonance to. When it came to issues of accountability and orthodoxy, then he really liked to lean into his Reformed Church of America identity, but only when it worked for him. Schuller had immense confidence that he had figured out church. They grow until they don't. It's just a matter of miles between Garden Grove Community Church and, say, Grace Community Church, pastor by John MacArthur in Sun Valley up in the valley itself. I'll admit. I need charts and graphs. Ledby Pastor Bobby Schuller, millions of people around the world tune into Hour of Power with Bobby Schullereach week for inspiring music and interviews and unique and original messages that encourage each viewer to live a life filled with hope as they: LEARN more about who they are in Christ through the process of FORMATION. [19] Schuller also said "I love my son and am proud of my son" and that the long-term survival of his ministry was dependent on expanding its imprint beyond the Schuller name. But it just strikes me how someone as monumental to 20th century Christianity in the United States, someone who was on TV every Sunday morning for 40 years is credited by some as helping the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, because of his friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev, how less than a decade after he leaves ministry, he's already outside of the public consciousness for a lot of people. In fact, Carol V.R. But they still draw older. The Gospel I heard preached was a gospel about sin, and Christ, and salvation. He deliberately avoided condemning people for sin, believing that Jesus "met needs before touting creeds". Yes. Gerardo, you make the point in the book that growth is a key factor here. But that's exactly what Robert Schuller was trying to deny and replace with something else. This is just not the story you would predict coming out of that theological tradition in the United States. That's where I think that in those few years in which he was very successful as a pastor, that he began to craft a whole new persona of what it meant to really speak to people, and not just to the ones who are right in front of him, and not just the ones who were already shaped within the denomination, but to really be able to speak into the hearts of people. As I borrow, then I'll be able to fill in the gaps of revenue by being able to get a few donors and carry out those payments for as long as possible. There's a long story behind that. There, he opened the Garden Grove Community Church, in 1955, in a drive-in movie theater. You have to have the people in place that who are going to come, fill your pews, fill the offering plates, and that are going to be attracted to what you happen to be doing on Sunday mornings or on Wednesday evenings. You want to call it crystal. But what I think what he did not know is that he was unaware of how policies towards financial institutions had changed in the late '70s in order to combat stagflation. Robert Schuller and his wife Arvella are buried there on the campus. You had a massive rise in the ability to be able to obtain these loans. What does it mean to actually accomplish something in this world? Bobby is the grandson ofHour of Powerfounder and legendary televangelist Robert H. Schuller. It can only stand to put people off. I grew up in Schuller's Orange County and literally watched the Crystal Cathedral as it was being built. What do people think of? But I was also tremendously influenced by something of an analogy to the Crystal Cathedral in its vision, but not in its theology. Now, I mean, theologically, I was appalled. Church actually happens in the small groups that are spread all over, the one in 1,000 small groups are spread all over Orange County where people are actually getting together in intimate venue. It had a nice bookend, if you will, and that always attracts attention to people like me who would like to provide a more detailed, nuanced, and yet full understanding of what actually happened here in this ministry. Don't ask people to fix the furnace. It is a powerful analysis. There's a lot. But there's also fragility in glass. Indeed, you could argue over the years, ever more clear in confessional identity and still going, by the way. It's now a Roman Catholic Cathedral, the cathedral there in Orange County of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. Robert Harold Schuller (September 16, 1926 April 2, 2015) was an American Christian televangelist, pastor, motivational speaker, and author. Because if you watch Hour of Power, which you still can on YouTube every weekend, if you look at the congregation, it is still quite a bit older, even Bobby's younger presentation and he's a good preacher, and people love him. Again, you can't make this up. If you need the furnace fixed, tell them you need a new glass building and then use that money to fix the furnace and build your glass building." He himself admitted that the Hour of Power would likely not survive without himself, that he was the personality that would carry that show. It's really clear that Robert Schuller was embarrassed by and felt restricted by the confessional reformation theology of the Reformed Church in America. He said in that conversation in the 1980s with theologians like Kenneth Kantzer and David Wells that he believed in hell. Instead, we all have to be a part of managing our congregations. Some are probably going to read it simply because of their interest in Robert H. Schuller. By the way, it was just a phenomenally healthy place for me to be as a teenager and for our family. Arvella Schuller died on February 11, 2014, aged 84. [14], A "Tower of Hope" building was added on the north side of the drive-in church building in 1968; the Tower of Hope rose 13 stories (approximately 130 to 150 feet (40 to 46m) in the air, the tallest structure in Orange County at that time,[citation needed] and was topped by a cross. He got up and just actually tore pages right before us. The next thing I know, I got a phone call from Robert Schuller and started getting letters from Robert Schuller. In the very same paragraph he writes, "And what is hell? Because as we discussed in the book, he had a lot of trouble finding a spot to actually hold worship. It was not fully integrated. Who here has heard of Robert Schuller? I think, millennials and Gen Xers who saw, especially Robert Schuller in the last years, just didn't resonate with them anymore. The reality is you are talking about what is a very important cultural occurrence in the history of Christianity and the United States. Even though he never solved that problem, it is remarkable that he was able to build a 50-year ministry with such strength and persuade so many people of being able to manage things in this way that it really became the default of what clergy see as church management today. How did that happen? They just weren't engaged yet in any church. We discuss in the book the fact that I was starting all my semesters with students going to a Dutch reformed college and not to university and ask them just as a way to get to know them a little bit. Don't waste your time. I'm going to let him explain how he came to it and then how we decided to go forward with it. Under the leadership ofPastor Bobby, theShepherds Grove congregation meets in Irvine, CA, where they join viewers around the world each week through the newly designed Hour of Power with Bobby Schuller. [3], On June 15, 1950, Schuller married Arvella De Haan (19292014), a church organist, who became instrumental in developing the music department at the Crystal Cathedral and was the creator and producer of the Hour of Power for over 40 years. Unfortunately, I think that there are many things that Schuller didn't understand and didn't even bother trying to discern. [7] In 1931, just weeks before his fifth birthday, a visiting uncle, who was a minister, told him to be an evangelist.
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