6/2/15
Re 30-DAYS of PRAYER for BOBBY SCHULLER: SO I kind of lost track of what Bobby Schuller was doing after the bankruptcy of the Crystal Cathedral, until recently. In fact, yesterday, I was relaxing briefly at Corona Del Mar beach (little CDM, to be exact) listening to my transistor radio & came across “The Bottom Line” Christian radio show (hosted by Roger Marsh here in southern California) and heard him interviewing Bobby. I was just about to go swimming but decided to listen to the interview before doing so. But let me back up. I didn’t even know there was a “bobby schuller” or (Robert Vernon 1
Schuller) back in 1984 when my dad & family (ie myself, my younger brother, & my mom, minus my two older siblings who were already in college) moved from Grand Rapids (MI) to Bellflower (CA) because my dad had accepted a job at the Crystal Cathedral as director of pastoral care.
I was vaguely
familiar with the Schullers in general from the Hour of Power, which we watched periodically on TV (although it only aired on Sunday morning so we only watched it if we were staying home from church due to illness) . I think I was most familiar with the Carol Schuller story (because of her leg amputation due to a motorcycle accident). I probably was aware that there was a Robert Schuller #2, but didn’t know much about him in 1984 (he would have been 30-years old at the time, born in 1954). 2
But Bobby was born in 1981 so he was only 3-years old at the time we came to California, meaning he’s about 34-years old now? All I knew at the time was we were coming to sunny southern California and people rode horses in our new neighborhood (called an “equestrian community”) and we were about a 15-minute drive to the nearest beach (Seal Beach). I was a senior in high school and had lived my whole life thus far in the Midwest (Iowa & Michigan) and knew how long and cold the winters could be, but still LOVED my friends, classmates, church members, pastors, teachers et al where I grew up. It was truly home. Anyways, Bellflower had one big similarity to grand rapids: it was a Dutch-American 3
community with lots of Christian Reformed Churches (CRC for short). Actually, Grand Rapids has MANY, many more CRC’s than Bellflower, but relatively speaking, Bellflower has a LOT compared to most of the southern California communities, and according to it’s size & population. So that sets the stage for the present. From 1984 until 2005 (?)
or thereabouts Bobby
Schuller was not in the picture. Then suddenly he arrived at the Crystal Cathedral. Suddenly I was aware there was a third Robert Schuller. By that time I had already left Fuller Seminary and started my own Christian evangelical ministry and was still regularly-to-periodically attending Sunday service at the Crystal Cathedral (this was before the sharp decline began). I remember 4
he started a ministry in the new hospitality center
on the top floor. I attended once.
Then he apparently started a church in a building somewhere in Orange that I never attended. He would re-appear from time-totime at the Crystal Cat as a guest or guest preacher, but it was sporadic, never on a regular basis. At the same time the two adult children of Robert Schuller #1 were battling it out as to who would be the lead pastor at the Crystal. For a while it was Robert A. Schuller (the father of Bobby), and then later it was Sheila. And finally, just as the Cathedral was finalizing it’s bankruptcy Bobby returned and took the helm. Somewhere around this time I sent a letter to him, thinking we might have some commonalities but in retrospect I realize we do not have 5
much in common. I’m 48-years old, by the way, so we are not even of the same generation. I think I thought he was older at the time he first appeared, but he’s about 14years younger than me, which is significant. Anyways, as all of this was transpiring I was also attending numerous other churches on a regular basis, including roman catholic parishes, even the closest one to the Crystal Cathedral on a periodic basis, St. Callistus, which would become Shepherd’s Grove (for those who don’t know, after the CC was sold to the Catholics, the CC congregation moved down the street to St. Callistus and it became shepherd’s grove, while the St. Callistus congregation moved into the arboretum and it became Christ’s Cathedral; the Cathedral itself 6
is being renovated and will not be ready for worship until 2016 ). While
going thru seminary, and attending the
Crystal Cathedral I was also observing the sociological phenomenon of the CC. I was a “pastor” by this time, albeit more so an evangelist than a formal church leader as is most-often associated with the title pastor. I thought about leading a church, but was still not convinced about how God wants “church’ to be conducted. I have reservations about what we call “church” today is what God really intended . It’s become “big business.” It requires accountants, secretaries, maintenance, etc etc etc . My idea of church is just people, who believe, gathering together, without all the “politics” to put it kindly. 7
To be honest, when we first came to the Crystal Cathedral in 1984 I was totally impressed. The architecture was awesome. The services were inspiring, interesting, edifying. The big TV cameras, at that time, were something to behold for those of us who grew up coming out of the black-&-white TV era into color TV, then cable TV (with a long wire ), and gradually to remote control, VCR’s and on & on. Being able to reach 1000’s of people across the country, and even around the world BACK THEN was quite the big deal. Today, you can do so with a tiny smart phone, uploading video, or a photo or text message at the click of a button. Times have changed.
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Thus, it wasn’t until just last week, and then again yesterday, that Bobby Schuller came back into my focus. Last week I went to Shepherd’s Grove for the first time because my dad, & a few other of the long-time CC pastors,
was being honored with a “pastor
emeritus” ceremony. I decided to go because it had some sentimental significance & to show support for my dad and his allegiance to the CC and the pastoral care & kindness ministry for so many years. He was also honored at the last CC service in the Cathedral itself, where he semi-retired. I think this emeritus ceremony was more of an official retirement, but maybe he will continue to be involved, with no strings attached, at the Shepherd’s Grove, I’m not sure. And to be clear, he is still mentally & physically acute, seems to be doing well, and still doing 9
periodic kindness conferences from time-totime. He was also doing pastoral care, periodically, for Robert Schuller #1 before he died, at the Artesia Christian home (which is affiliated with our CRC denomination). The reason I was no longer attending the new crystal cathedral (or Shepherd’s Grove) was because towards the end of the original CC I was becoming less & less comfortable attending the CC due to relatively new volunteers treating me like I was a “newcomer.” I had been there since 1984, come-&-go, and yet a new volunteer who came from wherever, maybe even another country, would sometimes treat me as if it was my first time there. I even suspected at times that they were deliberately being “mind blind” towards me because it made them feel 10
as if they were “above “ me. Let me explain: at some church there are volunteers who see their participation as part of a “ladder” on the “pyramid”. They figure that by volunteering they may be “below” the pastor & some of the other higher-up church workers, but at least they are “above” the average person attending to whom they hand a bulletin, or who they watch as the offering plate gets passed (to make sure nobody takes anything out of the plate, right?). This is a phenomena I see too often at various churches, not just at the CC then or now. Furthermore, there is even “racial posturing’ at some churches, and I saw it creeping in at the CC . Traditionally, churches were usually ethnic gatherings in general. There were, and 11
are, so-called “black churches” , & “white churches” , & “Vietnamese churches” , etc. And of the so-called white churches, these were often actually ethnic-oriented to a certain extent. The CC was a white church in general, but was also Dutch-American more than other ethnicities. Robert Schuller came from the Dutch-American church communities of Iowa, attended the Dutch-American Hope College (in Holland, MI), and was part of the RCA (Reformed Church of America), which was originally part of the Dutch-Reformed Church , which later split into CRC & RCA due to relatively small matters, which are no longer remembered, by and large, today. But back then, still in the 60’s & 70’s & even a bit into the 80’s the distinctions were still there. 12
My dad wouldn’t have been called by Robert Schuller to come to the CC if he hadn’t been affiliated with the Dutch-American Christian tradition . Growing up in Grand Rapids we often worshiped with other ethnicities at our particular small Christian Reformed church, but a lot of other CRC’s were more ethnically homogeneous. This was still the way it was at the CC when we arrived in 1984. It was a white church with a bit of the Dutch-American emphasis, but less sso than you would find at the CRC communities in Bellflower. The CC was more just white Americana, albeit Schuller would often talk about his Dutch heritage. I say this all as a review to come to a conclusion about how things have changed now that the CC is Shepherd’s Grove and 13
there are certain non-white ethnic persons who decided they were going to make sure this is a more than a “white church.” It was clear, in some cases, that some persons of color were now coming to the CC to make a “political point”. And they would even become volunteers or even on the pastoral staff and suddenly they were “above” you (in their minds). Furthermore, I don’t think Bobby has much, if any, loyalty to the Dutch-American tradition. Unlike his father, (& aunt Sheila) who went to college at Hope (like his dad) in Holland Michigan (Hope College is affiliated with the RCA) , Bobby went to Oral Roberts in Oklahoma. I remember when he first showed up at the CC he was sort of a maverick in terms of doing “altar calls” whenever he had 14
the opportunity. I don’t think his grandpa Robert Schuller #1 was quite as comfortable with this sort of evangelism even though he was evangelical in general. I’m not even sure Bobby’s dad was doing altar calls in his ministry either at Rancho Capistrano or at the CC. I think this was something sort of new to the CC (although I noticed Sheila becoming more and more evangelical in terms of inviting people to accept Christ at every opportunity, even at Robert Schuller’s funeral, but she wasn’t doing altar calls the same way Bobby was doing as you might see more in the Oral Roberts tradition). So I was sitting at Shepherd’s Grove last week, watching my dad “happily” get his “emeritus” award, and despite having been a contributor to the CC not only financially, but 15
also as a volunteer, I felt like I didn’t belong there anymore. When I drove into the parking lot I even got an “evil eye” from a black female parking lot volunteer who seemed to be “judging me” in a fleshly manner. And I was seated by a young Korean(?) usher who seemed to want me to clearly know , but aggressive body language, that he was more of a member of the church than me. I wanted to tell him
(& the black lady in the parking
lot) what I had done for and with the church since 1984, but would it have mattered? Somewhere along the way there seems to have creeped an anti-white American posture from just a few “minorities” who had arrived at the CC. And it seemed to have political innuendo. But there was “localism” too. It wasn’t just a matter of ethnicity or race, but there were a few ushers & others who were 16
like robots in terms of their service to the church, and again, it made them feel as if they were higher on the pyramid than me, or persons like me, who were contributing to the church behind the scenes. Thus in some ways the church was becoming too much like a “pyramid scheme” with those most seen in front of the camera or handing out bulletins or whatever it was as long as it was visual being “higher” than those who did their service to the church and/or God in less noticeable ways. I couldn’t compete because I didn’t want to be a volunteer going thru the motions every Sunday, hearing the same sermon & jokes etc twice . I like being in “real time”…everything being REAL, not rehearsed, not a script. I don’t want to “play church” or “play pastor.” This does NOT make 17
life easier, but more difficult, albeit nonetheless more real, and I think, more true to God’s intent. Funny thing is that while all of the CC bankruptcy was unfolding I was attending both Catholic & Protestant churches. I was exploring all of OC & L.A. and even a bit of SD (san diego county), assertively trying to attend as many different churches as possible: protestant, catholic, & orthodox. IN fact this led me to even offer a new branch of Christianity, pro-cath-ordox, which seeks to truly united the three main branches of Christian faith. Thus, you can keep attending wherever you attend, your local church, but you think of yourself at the highest level as pro-cath-ordox, not protestant, not catholic, not orthodox, but united, three-in-one. This 18
makes you a greater participant in the larger, worldwide body of Christ, not just your local community church. Since the transition I have kept attending the services in the arboretum at the Christ Cathedral, gradually being a recognized participant, as well as at numerous other parishes & congregations, both protestant, catholic, & orthodox. It was NOT easy doing this at first. People want familiarity and loyalty at the local level. But it’s imperative that we break thru this need for comfort in terms of familiarity & local loyalty if we are to be more true to God’s intent for the body of Christ. But this is supposed to be about Bobby and 30-days of prayer for him. It was last week that he came back into my focus if only for 19
the brief worship service, and then he came back to mind as I was sitting on the beach listening to him being interviewed on “The Bottom Line.” I felt a mixture of feelings about him as pastor, and about the whole “Schuller Soap Opera” so to speak. I saw his wife, Hannah, for the first time at the service last week. She looked so young. Then I heard Bobby mentioned they married at age twenty-one, also very young. But he “reversed”it saying he thinks men should marry younger, and was critical of so-called “dudes” who date for too long. This is another problem in the protestant church: the notion by the married pastor that unmarried men are less disciplined than themselves. Some protestant pastors don’t believe in the possibility of celibacy, let alone respect it. 20
The catholic church is MUCH better about respecting celibacy, while Hollywood has tried to make a mockery of it, beginning with the film “The 40-year-old Virgin”. Men are NOT virgins, they are celibates. Women are virgins and it is a virtue, but both Hollywood and some parts of the protestant church don’t respect the Virgin Mary or female virginity either. I think it is a cover-up for their own shame. Also during the service, as well as during the radio interview I heard Bobby mention “his book” about “happiness” (according to Jesus). This is another phenomenon I am wearied by: that to be a success you
have to “publish” .
You have to have a book, or several. The Schuller trio (all three Roberts) are now 21
authors. Apparently this is Bobby’s second book. We went thru this with Robert #1, Robert #2, & now Robert #3. IT seems clear that we can “look forward to”(?) decades of books by Bobby to come. It dawned on me that Bobby is definitely a long-term career pastor, who is savvy about media, publishing, traveling, and running a corporate church. It dawned on me that Bobby grew up in a very privileged home, with lots of money, lots of travel, good education, and the list goes on. He has had every advantage. He’s also been criticized. He spoke about crying so hard he could barely drive the car once while recounting how somebody had been critical of him. But this goes with the territory. 22
And now, especially given the way the Crystal Cathedral ended, it behooves us to be CRITICAL of the Schullers. I don’t mean we need to be making snarky or mean comments about them personally, but we need to be critical in terms of whether their knowledge, experience, long-term intentions are really, truly good for us as a church, or not? A LOT of people invested in the Crystal Cathedral financially and as volunteers thinking it was going to be a permanent Christian church & ministry that really SHINED the LIGHT to the world. A LOT of people believed that Robert Schuller had the wherewithal to establish the beautiful campus financially so that it would last perpetually. This was obviously NOT the case and a LOT of people were not just disappointed, but hurt 23
by it. If this was a corporation, there would be lawsuits and a lot of blame being cast on people for what seems to be a lack of good discernment about finances. But because it is a church, everything gets “washed away’ as a matter of simply not enough donations. Blame the people for not donating, not the financial decision-makers, right? Church in orange county is big business. Lots of mega-churches have risen up here. Maybe it begain with the Crystal Cathedral, but there’s also Calvary Chapel, Mariners, Saddleback, and many more. All of the pastors have ample incomes and are able to travel extensively . This is a luxury, albeit in most cases it is chalked up as “doing ministry.” On the radio show Bobby spoke of being in New York and on the way to Israel 24
when he had to turn around due to a health problem of one of his children. I am sure Bobby has been to Israel many times. That’s a luxury that most pastors experience, but not many parishioners. I know the Schullers had a nice boat for many years called the “Be Happy” or something like that. I imagine they enjoyed going out to Catalina Island and fishing and all that. I know they had a condominium in Hawaii, so all of the kids and grandkids probably have taken trips to the Aloha state. And yet these are all things that are paid for, in general, by church members. We do it because we want to believe that it’s helping a good cause and we like to see a successfully, happy, even “worldly” pastor who is doing well. But how much of this somewhat happy-go-lucky 25
attitude (also called “faith”
by some)
the ultimate bankruptcy of the CC?
led to Even at
the funeral of Robert Schuller #1 a few months ago, the son (Robert #2) spoke of going “around the world” for a fishing trip with his dad (and didn’t mention being a “fisher of men” simply tuna or swordfish or whatever). And the daughter (Carol) spoke of not being able to afford a
pool cleaner at the parents
house after the bankruptcy. She thinks they are poor because they can’t afford a pool cleaner? That’s a luxury to have a pool, let alone a pool cleaner. So where do we go from here? Clearly, Bobby is not going to “back down.” He’s got big plans and a vision just like his grandfather. On the radio show he showed he was very aware of the #’s of viewers of the 26
“new” Hour of Power, even though he qualified that it was not about #’s.
So why
mention the #’s then? It’s hard to be critical of a Christian pastor. We all need grace, and the minute we begin to be critical we feel like we are lacking grace. But we need to be critical sometimes. Where is Bobby going to lead this new congregation (or same congregation at a new location)? Or don’t they care? As they say “Fool me once,
shame on you, Fool me Twice, Shame on me”.
I don’t think any of the Schullers think they are “fooling” anybody. They have convinced themselves that this is for the sake of the gospel. And “playing pastor” is part of the Schuller tradition. They are all spin-offs of 27
Robert #1, albeit there was something uniquely original about RHS (Robert #1). Robert #1 came from a small farm in Iowa that once was destroyed by a tornado. He grew up in the Midwest‌knowing the cold of winter, months without sunshine. He knew tough times. He knew poverty, at least as a child. What about the rest of the Schullers? They all grew up in southern California coming of age when the Crystal Cathedral was doing quite well. Robert #2 & Sheila at least attended Hope College and showed some continuity with the Dutch-American RCA tradition, but Bobby seems to have lost all of that affiliation. Dutch-Americans like a lot of other ethnicities were loyal to each other. Robert #1 hired mostly RCA and especially Dutch Reformed persons, like my dad, like 28
Ken Leestma, & Terry Nyhuis, among others. I don’t see that loyalty in Bobby, but that’s not my main concern. I’m not looking for a job working “for Bobby” at the Shepherd’s Grove. More concerning is that there is no affiliation at all apart from Christ in general. That may sound noble, but when there’s no accountability to any board or denomination or wiser, older humans, as you can see with the ultimate bankruptcy of the CC, problems arise. Sure, the CC had a Board of Directors but they did TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE. And even the RCA never did much, if anything at all, in terms of oversight of Schuller & financial decision-making.
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Furthermore, as you can see with the lawsuit that Robert #1 filed before his death, he & the Schuller family think of the Hour of Power & various aspects of his sermons & positive thinking to be their own copyrighted material. Although Schuller lost his lawsuit that had to do with further payments from the CC, it’s clear that there is a possessiveness by some of the Schullers about what “he started” as opposed to what Schuller started with the help of a lot of people called the church. Even on the funeral program I noticed in small print at the bottom that they were attempting to claim the
funeral ceremony
itself was “protected by copyright”. Back to 1984 when my dad excitedly took the call to be director of pastoral care at the Crystal Cathedral. Only myself and my few 30
family members and a few others in our community know my dad’s career as we know it. He started out as a CRC pastor for a small church in Iowa and also did hospital ministry, especially psychiatric pastoral care , including CPE (clinical pastoral education). Apart from the parish in Iowa he did mostly hospital chaplaincy in New York, Ann Arbor, and mostly in Grand Rapids at our denominational Christian psychiatric hospital (Pine Rest). We lived on Griswold street in Grand Rapids, about seven miles from Pine Rest (actually in Caledonia). He would go to work every day as a chaplain while we went to school, to our athletic activities, to musical events, etc. He was truly devoted to doing pastoral care. He had a true passion for it, and especially for issues of “grief.” 31
He had a passion for caring for people, and that’s what he came to the CC with, a passion. And he was able to do a LOT in that regard, even an annual kindness conference, a few books, along with various other church duties (becomes class, new hope counseling, CPE, occasionally preaching in the chapel-in-the-sky, but not much, if ever, involved in the Sunday service . He was rarely in front of the camera. Sometimes I wondered if the Schuller’s were very protective and exclusive about who they allowed to “appear” in the Hour of Power. Even at the “emeritus” service last week, the pastors were only given “60-seconds” to say a few words. That’s a 60-second goodbye after 31-years. Sure, it all ended strangely given the bankruptcy at the CC, when nobody 32
seemed to be in control anymore, but now at Shepherd’s Grove, are the same dynamics being resurrected? Is this another several decades of the “Schuller show” ? As noted, Hannah read the scripture (on camera for the Hour of Power I assume) , and Bobby conducted most of the other liturgy, including the sermon of course. How much do the Schullers covet the camera? And control it? My feelings were that there was something non-integral transpiring from the CC to the new Shepherd’s Grove. On the radio interview, Bobby mentioned that the new church was now getting strong and mentioned that he was happy to have gotten rid of a few people and better of with some new people. This seemed to lack a bit of class. He didn’t mention names but you notice that 33
the blame goes towards other people, not himself, not any of his own family members. I am concerned about Schullers being selfserving. WE live in a shameless culture, and add Christian “grace” to it and we are supposed to whitewash everything away now? The church is NOT intended to be anything & everything the pastor wants it to be. There has to be a certain amount of nitty-gritty integrity & loyalty to certain principles. There has to be self-discipline. Churches now borrow money banking on future contributions. Who ever heard of a church going bankrupt before the Crystal Cathedral? I’m sure it’s happened but never to such a large, seemingly financially well-off ministry.
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Maybe Bobby will continue to get the big #’s in terms of viewership. I get the feeling he is very savvy & aware of “the #’s” even if he won’t admit it. This is so common now. But it shouldn’t be. As I entered the Shepherd’s Grove the big TV cameras no longer were impressive. It was NO BIG DEAL to know it was being televised and would be shown on TV & internet all around the world, not matter how many watched. I wondered if it is truly possible to be an “incarnational ministry or church” via television. It is so ephemeral. Look how easily and relatively quickly the CC went bankrupt and folded. Those who were incarnationally involved with the CC couldn’t believe it, while those who were involved less-so just moved on, down the street, try 35
again. No big deal. The church is supposed to be incarnational. Christ incarnate. So I don’t know whether to feel sorry for Bobby or angry or remain emotionally detached. Really, all I can do is remain detached while intellectually trying to form a conclusion. And so I decided to put it to God in prayer. Let us pray sympathetically for Bobby in terms of just doing the natural thing in terms of opportunistically carrying on what his grandfather started. Let us pray with a little more aggression if there is any inkling in his mind that he may be taking advantage of us, and that God will lead him in the right direction. We all know, as TV audiences, etc about those sorts of directors and producers who 36
think of their audience & consumers as “schmucks” . Let us hope and pray that this is not how Bobby thinks of us. There were times when I would get a hint of this from the Schullers as they were the savvy sophisticated TV producers and most of the rest of us were the less-than-intelligent audience. I don’t know where to go from here. I just felt I had to get some of this off my chest given the feeling I got recently about Bobby Schuller knowing that we have many decades to come of him and new books and seeing articles in the OC Register about him and family, and thinking to myself, “here we go again” just when I thought I could finally exhale about the Schuller Soap Opera. 37
He’s here to stay. And I’m not trying to be mean. I’m trying to formulate a way to understand what this means, and whether we will be treated like fools , like a free studio audience for “his show” or whether he is truly building up an incarnational church that sincerely cares about the people in the building as much as , or hopefully more so, than the remote viewer 1000 of miles away. Did you know that Hollywood produces so many shows that they even pay some people to attend them ? These are paid studio audiences. A good show needs a good audience to applaud, sing, or stand, and to inspire the speakers and choir et al. Let us hope that Bobby isn’t thinking of us as a free studio audience for the show to help the #’s.
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Let us hope and pray that the Bobby Schuller will grow, most of all, in care & concern for the church, the people around him, who help make it happen, including the people who show up week after week and drop their 1dollar or 10-dollar or 100-dollar bill in the offering plate, truly believing that it is for the Kingdom of God, and not for a church corporation. Let us hope and pray for integrity. True integrity. Sincerely John Philip A. Vander Kok, Street Evangelist BA/BA/M.Div
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