According to several press reports the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California is tens of millions of dollars in debt and maybe on the verge of bankruptcy. The founding pastor, Robert H. Schuller Sr. is 83 years old and well-known for his books on possibility thinking and the television program, “The Hour of Power.” And these bankruptcy reports are only the latest in a series of negative events impacting the church over the last few years.
A couple of years ago Schuller, in essence, fired his son, Robert Schuller Jr. as pastor and his self-appointed successor. The Southern California megachurch’s current leader is Shiela Schuller Coleman, daughter of Robert H. Schuller Sr., the founding pastor. Earlier this year the church closed a church campus in Rancho Capistrano. And in recent weeks it has put various properties up for sale, laid off employees, and cancelled its Easter pageant. The church has also scaled back its “Hour of Power” broadcasts, which are viewed by millions worldwide.
According to the Orange County Register the church is behind on payments to nearly 200 vendors. A lawsuit by three businesses including an equipment financing company and two television stations claim the church owes them more than $2 million for services rendered. In a meeting with its creditors the church asked for 90 days to resolve the financial issues. The meeting by all reports was civil and a committee was formed by vendors and creditors to “insure each creditor is treated equally when funds become available.”
The church is at a tipping point. Can it solve its current problems? Can it continue? And if so on what scale? These are the questions that many church leaders around the country are asking. But they are the wrong questions.
The right question, one that every church in America should ask, is “How did it get to this?” The answers are legion: changing demographics, entrenched ministries, etc. etc. The answer is obvious: a failed transition at the top. We don’t know what truly transpired between father and son. But whatever it was didn’t work. And that is why every church should go to school on how things play out at the Crystal Cathedral.
Pastor, is your church ready to effectively continue on after you’re no longer their leader? Are the people and processes in place to carry on? It’s an important question. Several well known churches in my denomination (Southern Baptist) have struggled over the issue (First Baptist Dallas and Bellvue in Memphis just to name two). The struggle for survival and solvency at the Crystal Cathedral is worth watching and worth learning from.
Last year as part of a national research project I met a west Texas pastor twenty years into a church ministry he started. Although he was on the north side of fifty five he was still active, fit and still had the fire in the belly. Yet a part of our conversation was about his planned transition from senior pastor to another less visible role. He knew they needed to do it, for himself and the church. He and his elder board were beginning the process. God Bless them for it. And may God bless the Crystal Cathedral as they struggle through it.
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