The Hour of Power and the Moment of Truth

I don’t think I can fully comprehend what $50 million in debt means to a local church and organization, but that is what the Crystal Cathedral and Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power is facing these days. All along, Schuller told NPR, “It was the money that scared me, and that’s where the anxiety still comes, because the costs go up, and many of my strongest supporters are passing on.”

Many are chalking up Schuller’s financial woes to an inability to connect to shifting demographics. USC professor Diane Winston says:

It’s not surprising that when he organized and the way in which he did it, that he might have had a clientele that reflected the way Orange County looked at that time. And the fact that he hasn’t grown the church in significant ways may explain why it’s graying and why it’s so white.

Schuller’s daughter, Sheilla Schuller Coleman, who replaced her father as senior pastor when he retired, assures everyone the ministry and message will stay in place. “If anything, our message and our ministry have that much more meaning now,” she says.

The critics of old who declared the “bankruptcy” of positive-thinking spoke better than they knew. But to dwell on this point is like arguing that men cannot fly by pointing to a man who has just jumped off a building. The circumstances give us all we need.

The Schuller fiasco gives us a good lesson in going out of style. Ideas like positive-thinking, go in and out of vogue. By contrast, the gospel is a timeless truth that never is empty of relevance. But if we’re honest students of church history, we must still acknowledge seasons of fruit and seasons of dryness. Sometimes the gospel lands on sinful ears with such power that whole communities are transformed. And sometimes ministers of God must shake off the dust from their sandals in response to hard hearts. We can preach a message faithful to the biblical message that produces fruit––and large amounts of it––but still wanes and loses influence over time.

The moment of truth, then, comes when we examine what’s left on our hands after our influence has waned. Along with more than 550 creditors to pay off, the Crystal Cathedral is mired in controversy. When worldliness is the residue of former influence, it probably says something of a ministry’s original substance.