GARDEN GROVE, Calif. – The Crystal Cathedral megachurch was set to file plans Friday with a Southern California bankruptcy court to wipe out millions of dollars in debt by selling its campus and famous soaring, glass-spired church to a real estate investment group, its bankruptcy attorney said.
The church plans to lease back most of its core buildings under the plan, so worshippers and visitors won't notice any changes in services or outreach. The church's popular, decades-old televangelist program "Hour of Power" broadcasts will also continue, the church said.
"The ministry is going to continue in the same place, in the same buildings," said Marc Winthrop, the attorney. "It's just that we had to go through a financing transition to get rid of the debt."
The plan, which must still be approved by a judge, will erase the cathedral's $36 million mortgage and wipe out almost all of the $10 million in unsecured debt, including $7.5 million owed to vendors, Winthrop said. The deal would give the ministry a 15-year leaseback guarantee on the core church campus and a four-year option to buy it back at a fixed rate, he said.
The church would have to be out of the Family Life Center, which holds administrative offices and a private secondary school, after two years, he said.
Winthrop declined to name the investment group or the price of the deal before court papers are filed but said the buyers could develop the open spaces around the church, including large parking lots that surround the property.
The charismatic Rev. Robert H. Schuller got his start in Southern California preaching about the "power of positive thinking" from the roof of a concession stand at a drive-in theater as the nation's car culture began to boom.
Schuller soon turned his humble pulpit into one of the nation's first megachurches, beaming his weekly Sunday service into 1 million homes worldwide through the "Hour of Power" TV show, which went on the air in 1970. Schuller became a familiar presence on television, a smiling figure in flowing robes, with snowy white hair and wire-rimmed aviator glasses.
In 1980, he opened the Crystal Cathedral, a 2,900-seat see-through church made of 10,664 panes of glass. A $20 million architectural marvel designed by the acclaimed Philip Johnson, it became a major Southern California landmark and tourist attraction. Schuller soon added a K-12 school and a tourist center.
But his religious empire began to collapse in recent years after a disastrous attempt to hand over the leadership to his son, Robert A. Schuller, and a plummeting economy that took a bite out of viewer donations.
Donations declined by more than 20 percent the year before the church filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and its local congregation now stands at fewer than 5,000 people.
Before declaring bankruptcy on Oct. 18, the church laid off 250 of its roughly 450 employees, sold its beloved retreat center, cut salaries and canceled contracts with more than 100 TV stations nationwide. It also canceled its world-famous pageants and currently owes money to 550 creditors, including vendors who provided live animals, costumes and other props and services for the shows.
Sheila Schuller Coleman, Schuller's daughter and the church's senior pastor, said in a statement posted on the church's website late Thursday that the church had picked this restructuring plan from among several because it allowed vendors to be repaid immediately and put the church on solid financial footing to pursue a new vision, including global outreach to the poor.
"We need to rise up and be the hands of Christ to help a hurting world one neighborhood at a time. Reaching future generations with the positive message of Jesus Christ requires an outreach of love," she said in the statement. "I'm excited about what God is doing now and will be doing in the future through the Crystal Cathedral Ministries."
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