Crystal Cathedral

The news today is that the Crystal Cathedral has filed for bankruptcy. It’s much easier to sit here in judgment on Robert Schuller and the “gospel” he preached, but there’s perhaps something redemptive to find in this story.

What can we learn from this? We also wonder what will happen to this building?

Sarah Pulliam Bailey, one of CT’s fine writers, gives us some thoughts:

Crystal Cathedral Ministries, which owes about $7.5 million to unsecured creditors, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this morning, according to the Orange County Register.

Earlier this year, the megachurch founded by television evangelist Robert H. Schuller slashed several programs and laid off 50 employees to cut $4.9 million from its $20 million annual operating budget. The Register reports that Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman said the bankruptcy filing was a necessity because of lawsuits.

Buildings don’t last forever, especially highly unusual ones that are riding attendance highs rooted in social trends. Beside the inordinate money spent on such “cathedrals” and besides the connection such ministries have to singular (and perhaps unfollowable) charismatic leaders, I’ve had conversations with church leaders who have told me there is a trend to design buildings that are multi-purpose so that, should the church fall apart somehow, the building could be used as a school or commercial property.

By and large, the world is beyond the construction of cathedrals — remember most were built on the backs of local, cheap and sometimes century-long labor forces.