Crystal Cathederal Goes Bust

[dales]

Crystal Cathedral Megachurch Files For Bankruptcy
by The Associated Press

October 18, 2010 Crystal Cathedral filed for bankruptcy on Monday in Southern California after months of trying to overcome mounting debt.

The megachurch, birthplace of the Hour of Power televangelist broadcast, announced its filing as it deals with a $55 million debt.

Church spokesman John Charles said the church owes about $7.5 million to a host of vendors for services such as advertising and providing the use of live animals for Easter and Christmas services.

The church was negotiating a payment plan with vendors but several chose to file lawsuits, the church said in a statement.

"We've always believed in a big God ... a God Who is greater than any problem or challenge we could ever face," Sheila Schuller Coleman, the Cathedral's senior pastor, said in a statement. "Our announcement today to file for the protection of Chapter 11 is just one more chapter in the book that He is continuing to write."

The Orange County-based church, founded in the mid-1950s by the Robert H. Schuller Sr., earlier this year ordered major layoffs. It also cut the number of stations airing the Hour of Power and sold property to stay afloat.

In addition, the 10,000-member church canceled this year's Glory of Easter pageant, which attracts thousands of visitors and is a regional holiday staple.

The church was founded in the 1950s at a drive-in theater and attracted congregants with its sermons on the power of positive thinking. Its worship hall features a soaring glass spire that opened in 1970 and remains an architectural wonder and tourist destination.

Church leaders blamed the decline on the struggling U.S. economy. Other megachurches have also suffered from the downturn and reduced charitable giving.

The Hour of Power telecast, filmed in the cathedral's main sanctuary, at one point attracted 1.3 million viewers in 156 countries.

I never saw the place would've liked to though just for the sheer opulence.

[Gob]

"We've always believed in a big God ... a God Who is greater than any problem or challenge we could ever face," Sheila Schuller Coleman, the Cathedral's senior pastor, said in a statement. "Our announcement today to file for the protection of Chapter 11 is just one more chapter in the book that He is continuing to write."

Take a fucking hint eh?

[loCAtek]

Peter Gabriel Big Time Lyrics


I'm on my way I'm making it, Huh!
I've got to make it show yeah, Hey!
So much larger than life
I'm gonna watch it growing
Hey hey hey heyyyyyyy

The place where I come from is a small town
They think so small, they use small words
But not me, I'm smarter than that,
I worked it out
I'll be stretching my mouth to let those big words come right out
I've had enough, I'm getting out
To the city, the big big city
I'll be a big noise with all the big boys, so much stuff I will own
And I will pray to a big god, as I kneel in the big church

Big Time, I'm on my way I'm making it, big time, oh yes
Big time, I've got to make it show yeah, big time
Big time, so much larger than life
Big time, I'm gonna watch it growing, big time
Ho ohh ohh, oh oh, ho ohh ohh, oh ohhh

My parties have all the big names and I greet them with the whitest smile
Tell them how my life is one big adventure and always they're amazed When I show them 'round my house to my bed
I had it made like a mountain rage with a snow white pillow for my big fat head
And my heaven will be a big heaven,
And I will walk through the front door

Big Time, I'm on my way i'm making it, big time, Huh!
Big time, I've got to make it show yeah, big time
Big time, so much larger than life
Big time, I'm gonna watch it growing, big time
Big time, my car is getting bigger Big time, my house is getting bigger
Big time, my eyes are getting bigger
And my mouuuth
Big time, my dinner's getting bigger
Big time, and my bank account
Big time, look at my circumstance
Big time, and the bulge in my big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big, hi there

[tyro]

Another Godpark fails for its investors?





You know…,







….maybe there is a God.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Another Godpark fails for its investors?





You know…,







….maybe there is a God.

and he has a plan

[dales]

Schuller pleads for dollars for Crystal Cathedral

Associated Press October 24, 2010 06:04 PM Copyright Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
.
(10-24) 18:04 PDT Garden Grove, Calif. (AP) --

Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller tearfully asked his parishioners for help in overcoming the megachurch's tens of millions in debt.

The Orange County Register says Schuller made the plea from the pulpit Sunday as he spoke publicly for the first time since the church filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday.

The 84-year-old Schuller's voice cracked with emotion as he told congregants about his family home in Iowa getting flattened by a tornado when he was a teen. He said it taught him that tough moments never last, but tough people do.

Schuller says his ministry had earned the trust of churchgoers, and has also earned their help.

Citing debts of more than $43 million, the organization declared bankruptcy last week.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z13L1Sa4l7

Which begs the question:

How did you get $43,000,000 in debt?

[loCAtek]

I dunno, he ain't gonna get it. With this economy; charity donations are way, way down.

[Scooter]

When you can't cut your budget anywhere near the amount necessitated by the collapse in your revenues because you have a TV production to keep up and it would show too much to take an ax to the production costs.

The problem, which was evident for years, is that Schuller Jr. is nowhere near the charismatic figure or great preacher or church growth guru that his father is. I don't know whose idea it was that the pulpit of that church needed to remain a family affair, but it was the biggest mistake they could have made, to have settled for Jr. instead of doing a nationwide search for someone who really had the stuff to keep up Schuller Sr.'s legacy.

[dales]

Shades of the WWCG!

[Scooter]

A bit different...CC was not a cult of personality like the WWCG, but Schuller Sr. is an extraordinarily gifted pastor who really knew how to grow a church (his books on church growth and development are used widely by clergy of many denominations), and his son just doesn't measure up.

[Big RR]

Not a cult of personality Scooter, doesn't the problems ofter Schuller Sr's retirement show that's pretty much what it was? Indeed, it didn't really exist (at least at a sustainable level) absent its leader.

[Scooter]

The typical observer saw only the television ministry and might have assumed that's all there was to the CC. There is in fact much more going on there than that, which certainly did not revolve around the personality of Schuller Sr., although it would take someone possessing his gifts to maintain and grow it, which it hasn't had.

[Big RR]

Well Sue, I'll defer to you, since I only really know the TV show Hour of Power, and then only years ago when my parents watched it. But if everything falls apart when the leader leaves, it does indicate, to me at least, that the entire organization depended on him and his personality and other skills.

[Gob]

I'd never heard of any of this cack ("Crystal Cathedral" and "hour of power", honestly!) before the OP, thankfully.

Over here we do have Hillsong, which is an Aussie church dedicated to ripping off the poor and stupid.

Parodied nicely below..

"Praise the lord for all the cash I've got. Praise him for my Rolls Royce and my yacht.

Serving god ain't hard with a credit card. Jesus died so I could make a lot.

Praise the lord he's made us millionaires. Wave your donations in the air.

We've replaced our hymns with ATMS. And soon we'll charge a fee on every prayer.

Jesus Christ was a poor man don't you know. He should have used our accountants for his cash flow.

Stop the sermon on the mount he should have had a bank account.

Two thousand years with interest he'd be rolling in the dough.

Praise the lord this song's out on CD just $40.95 plus GST.

Hallelujah plenty of moolah. Solid gold baubles on my christmas tree.

I've got all of heaven's riches thanks to all you stupid b*tches.

Praise the lord for modern christianity. Whoever said religion should be free."

[Big RR]

Gob--I'm not sure how much this church fleeced the flock (giant crystal cathedrals don't get built for nothing), but I don't think Schuller was as shameless as some. I heard some of his preaching on TV, and he always seemed to me to be a commons sense, here and now minister--someone who preached to make life better on earth and heaven would follow. I'm sure he was pretty conservative (I doubt he'd campaign for gay marriage, but I really don't know), but he wasn't one of those screamers, or the guys who used light shows and music to make his point, or even one the of the Billy Granham types "Come and accept jesus with 12,000 of your closest friends. I was not a great fan, but I didn't particularly dislike him.

[Crackpot]

yeah the megachurch phenomenon isn't necessarily a bad thing though they do tend to be heavily centered upon a charismatic leader. Which is why they tend to suffer heavily once the founder kicks it. The church I'm now attending was following the megachurch format but due to it's setbacks (relies too heavily on the pastor and how individuals are more and more marginalized as the population grows) abandoned it for a format of their own making which is more or less buying out struggling churches with similar beliefs and setting up different largely autonomous campuses to serve the local communities.

[rubato]

A lot of businesses don't survive the first inter-generational transfer.

yrs,
rubato