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Crystal Cathedral Files Chapter 11

10/19/10

The Los Angeles Times reported this morning that the Rev. Robert H. Schuller’s iconic megachurch in southern California, the Crystal Cathedral, filed for bankruptcy protection this week. The report said the ministry owes millions to creditors and decided to file for Chapter 11 after some of them sued for payment. Earlier this year the ministry laid off employees, sold land, cut stations for its televangelism ministry “Hour of Power,” and cancelled their “Glory of Easter” show, a holiday standard in the area. But the senior pastor of the 10,000-member church, Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman, is undaunted by the hard times. CNN quoted Coleman as saying their 55-year ministry is no stranger to challenges nor will they cease to offer services or school operations. “Many people said we’d fail when we started our church in a drive-in theater…many said we’d fail in 1970 when we made a commitment to televise our first worship service…in 1977, countless persons predicted that our plans to build a 2,800-seat all-glass church in earthquake-prone southern California would never get off the ground, but we have made history,” declared Coleman in a statement, adding that this bankruptcy filing is “just one more chapter in the book [God] is continuing to write—and we know that God’s plans are good.” YahooNews reported that the Crystal Cathedral saw revenue drop about 30 percent in 2009 and couldn’t recover financially; now the church is operating completely on cash and spending only what they make in donations and revenue each month.