The Crystal Cathedral Bankruptcy - Two Bricks That May Have Cracked The Glass

Online, October 21, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Is there such a thing as too big? The board of directors of the Crystal Cathedral may have just come to that exact realization as they negotiated the terms of their bankruptcy. No one on the outside looking in had any idea this was coming. The news of the bankruptcy filing was truly a shock as many people now reflect on the wonder years of the ministry. After years of saturating the Sunday morning airwaves, Pastor Schuller has appeared to simply fade to black literally.

Gone are the days when a minister simply preached the whole truth and nothing but the truth as Pastor Schuller had perfected. The optimistic sermons that built the Crystal Cathedral never seem to catch on with this new breed of high maintenance Christians, as a result attendance and donations declined dramatically.

There were in fact two bricks that may have hastened the crack in the sparkling glass that held up the roof of the Cathedral.

Brick #1 Paul Crouch and the Prosperity Crew - Compared to many of the prosperity preachers featured on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) Pastor Schuller preached a very orthodox version of the gospel. No name it and claim it messages, No 8 Steps to Wealth, just simply "if you dream it you can achieve it." As the prosperity gospel increased in popularity, sermons based on the believer actually having to do something other than give to a preacher became as popular as chastity belt at Woodstock.

Brick #2 Rick Warren Youth Movement - Rick Warren may have inadvertently delivered the final blow to the Crystal Cathedral in his mass appeal to Generation X. As the demographic of Orange County changed so they did the type of members sitting in the pews at the Crystal Cathedral. While Pastor Schuller base begin to dwindle due to declining income, some reaching the retirement age, and the absence of glitz & glamour, Rick Warren has emerged has the undisputed champion only miles away from the Crystal Cathedral. Rick Warren has mastered the art of marketing to a younger age bracket which has presented his ministry as the really hip and cool place to attend church.

The attempt to install Pastor Schuler's son as the Pastor of Crystal Cathedral proved to be a disastrous decision which may have also lead to a decline in members and donations. There are many lessons to learn from the rise and fall of Pastor Schuller's dream but the biggest one may be how to move a ministry forward after the founder is no longer front & center. As the ministry now finds itself in the mist of complaining creditors and a poorly managed bankruptcy many are now asking is there such a thing as too big?

Forbes.com reported that Schuller and family "stayed with the organ when everyone had gone to the rock 'n' roll band. He stayed with the robes when everyone else was reinventing themselves as bishops. In a time when most mega-churches are going multisite and to smaller venues, he kept building bigger buildings."

The additions to the 40-acre grounds also forced the ministry to take out a mortgage that still carries a $36 million balance.

Gillian Flaccus added that "Sheila Schuller Coleman, Schuller's daughter, has since taken over as senior pastor and presides over the "Hour of Power" broadcasts with a rotating stable of guest preachers, including her father.

In the past two years, the church has laid off 250 of its 450 or so employees, sold its beloved retreat center, cut salaries and canceled contracts with more than 100 TV stations nationwide, Charles said. Family members took 50 percent pay cuts this year, the church spokesman said. He would not say how much they are paid.

It is reported that Crystal Cathedral takes in nearly two million dollars in monthly donations, which is an amount most ministries only dream of. In striking similarity to many American households, their monthly debt far exceeded their income which created a constant bleeding of resources. The Bankruptcy filing revealed that there was a $30 million dollar mortgage on the Cathedral and media contracts that that appeared to average $1.5 million each. With monthly bills of such staggering numbers, one would have to wonder how church leadership allowed the ministry to descend into the land of the overextended.

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