What lessons can we learn from the decline of the Crystal Cathedral?
News comes from California today that the Crystal Cathedral is for sale. The megachurch founded and developed by Robert H. Schuller has accumulated so much debt that selling the iconic Southern California facility is the only option.
Some point to Schuller and the Crystal Cathedral as pioneers of the megachurch phenomenon that has swept through American evangelicalism since the 1970s. But that raises a question. Are other megachurches poised to face the same fate as the Crystal Cathedral?
The troubles for the Crystal Cathedral became apparent after Robert Schuller stepped down and handed the ministry to his son, Robert Anthony Schuller. By 2008 factions and disagreements emerged among the church's leaders, and the younger Schuller eventually resigned. His sister, Sheila Schuller Coleman, then took over as the senior pastor, but according to a report in the LA Times, the congregation "has not fully embraced" her.
The difficulty in finding a successor to Robert Schuller has resulted in declining attendance, increasing debt, and now the loss of the church's most valuable (earthly) asset--its property
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Related article: Why Selling the Crystal Cathedral Is a BAD Idea
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O GOD the Father, of heaven : have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
O God the Father, of heaven : have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
O God the Son, Redeemer of the world : have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
O God the Son, Redeemer of the world : have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
O God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son: have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
O God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son : have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three Persons and one God : have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three Persons and one God : have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers; neither take thou vengeance of our sins: Spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever.
Spare us, good Lord.
From all evil and mischief; from sin; from the crafts and assaults of the devil; from thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation,
Good Lord, deliver us.
From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness,
Good Lord, deliver us.
From all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion; from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and Commandment,
Good Lord, deliver us.
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A few takeaways: (1) Thankgiving to HM for the Bible, the books, the old Reformation Confessions, and the old BCP. (2) Also, thanksgiving to Grandparents, Parents, and faithful Catechetists in the faith. Dr. Philip Edcumbe Hughes (CoE), that faithful REC Bishop, Dr. Theophilus Herter, and Dr. James Montgomery Boice. R.C. Sproul has done commendable work as well, although he's permitted predestinarian, non-confessional, anti-liturgical and Revivalist Anabaptists to the stage.
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