CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL MINISTRIES

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Born September 16, 1926 he is an American televangelist and pastor known around the world through his weekly Hour of Power television service.

Robert Harold Schuller was born in Alton, Iowa to a family of Dutch ancestry and, after finishing his studies at Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, was ordained as a minister in the Reformed Church in America.

Robert Schuller worked in Chicago before moving to Garden Grove, California where, after humble beginnings, the Garden Grove Community Church was opened in 1955 in the Orange Drive-In Theatre, which Schuller rented for $500.

Many consider this the first "seeker-sensitive" church in the world. Renamed the Crystal Cathedral in 1980 it is the denomination's largest congregation in terms of membership.

Strongly influenced by his mentor, Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuller has focused in his teaching on the positive aspects of Christianity.

Rather than concentrating on condemning people for sin, he encourages Christians (and non-Christians) to achieve great things through God, uplifting theology and positive thinking.

Such doctrines have led to some spirited criticism by many evangelicals. Schuller holds Viktor Frankl to have been one of the two greatest psychiatrists of the past century.

Dr. Robert Schuller married Arvella De Haan in 1950, who has been closely involved in making decisions about the television ministry.

Arvella was a church organist and was very instrumental in developing the music department at Crystal Cathedral Ministries and was producer of the Hour of Power television show for over forty years.

Sheila Schuller Coleman is head of Family Ministries at The Crystal Cathedral and has assisted in many of Dr. Schuller's most visible printed works.

Jean Schuller Dunn oversees the Glory of Christmas and the Glory of Easter and has assisted in various editorial contributions to various printed works published by The Crystal Cathedral and for Dr. Schuller's books (more than 30).

Carol Schuller Milner is writer, director, producer of Creation, Once Upon All Time that debuted in 2005 that was heralded by media as "Lavish" and "Dazzling".

She was the creative overseer of Dr. Schuller's autobiography, My Journey. She is also an applauded orator and writer in her own right.

Gretchen Schuller Penner is Programming Director for the Hour of Power.

Dr. Robert Schuller currently serves as the Founding Pastor of Crystal Cathedral Ministries and periodically appears alongside his son during Hour of Power services, interviewing selected guests.

Robert and Arvella Schuller have five children and 17 grandchildren. His only son, Robert Anthony , is also an ordained minister of the Reformed Church in America, and has been announced as Dr. Schuller's successor at the Cathedral.

Stepping down from the pulpit, at Crystal Cathedral Ministries, Schuller evokes the strict Dutch Calvinist culture of his youth, his early sermons and successes evangelizing from the roof of the snack bar at the rented drive-in theater where his ministry took off, and how he was shunned by traditionalists in his denomination for taking Christian preaching where it had never gone before.

Dr. Schuller shares insights on how his positive thinking philosophy helped him through the difficult moments of his life, and recounts meetings with great world teachers such as preachers Norman Vincent Peale and Billy Graham, psychiatrist Karl Menninger, and global leaders Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton.

Schuller shares his own spiritual journey as he reflects on his personal life and relationships, charting how he blended the good news of the Gospel with the best of modern psychology. My Journey is a genuinely inspirational and quintessentially American story.

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