It appears that the problems at the Crystal Cathedral have grown too great to overcome.
Robert Schuller founded the church and retired as the church’s senior pastor, but stayed on the board of directors. The church never fully recovered from Schuller’s pastoral departure. Though he stayed on the church’s governing board, two of his children took a shot at pastoring the large church. Schuller’s son, Robert became the senior pastor and two years later resigned. Then, Sheila, daughter of the elder Schuller, became senior pastor, and now left. The church then filed for bankruptcy in 2011 with $50 million in debt.
The Crystal Cathedral became one of the first mega churches and now is one of the first popular mega churches that may close. The Crystal Cathedral building was sold last year to the Catholic Diocese of Orange, CA for $57.5 million. The church continues to meet, but they must leave the building soon.
Much of the conflict around the transition of the elder Schuller to his children revolves around one fact: they are not their father.
When churches affix the identity of the church with the founding pastor, it becomes much harder for the church to transition to new leadership. A celebrity pastor is often a formula for explosive growth, but ultimately is that a formula for disaster?
The Schuller children enacted several changes in worship, music, leadership, and programming. The reason why those changes did not fit the congregation was centered on the fact that they did not do the necessary work. The church should have gone through a period of discernment and vision when Robert Schuller left as the senior pastor. It is clear that when the Schullers stayed on the board of directors of the church their leadership became ineffective.
Leadership requires a guiding presence that can empower people to their full potential. The Schuller family failed at how to handle a leadership change.
The USA Today reports on this failure of leadership: Continue Reading…
