Crystal Cathedral is Bankrupt: Chapter 11 filed

by Terry 20 Replies latest jw friends

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  Terry

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  Crystal Cathedral Bankruptcy: Megachurch Files For Chapter 11

  AMY TAXIN | 10/18/10 09:11 PM |

  

  GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — Crystal Cathedral, the megachurch birthplace of the televangelist show "Hour of Power," filed for bankruptcy Monday in Southern California after struggling to emerge from debt that exceeds $43 million.

  In addition to a $36 million mortgage, the Orange County-based church owes $7.5 million to several hundred vendors for services ranging from advertising to the use of live animals in Easter and Christmas services.

  The church had been negotiating a repayment plan with vendors, but several filed lawsuits seeking quicker payment, which prompted a coalition formed by creditors to fall apart, church officials said.

  "Tough times never last, every storm comes to an end. Right now, people need to hear that message more than ever," Sheila Schuller Coleman, the Cathedral's senior pastor and daughter of the founder, told reporters outside the worship hall.

  "Everybody is hurting today. We are no exception," she said.

  The church, founded in the mid-1950s by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller Sr., has already ordered major layoffs, cut the number of stations airing the "Hour of Power" and sold property to stay afloat. In addition, the 10,000-member church canceled this year's "Glory of Easter" pageant, which attracts thousands of visitors and is a regional holiday staple.

  Vendors owed money by the church formed a committee in April and agreed to a moratorium to negotiate a repayment plan with the Crystal Cathedral.

  Kristina Oliver, whose Hemet-based company provided live animals for the church's "Glory of Christmas" manger scene, said she doubts she will recover in full the $57,000 she is owed.

  "The church never made any kind of advancement that they wanted to pay their debt, that they were willing to try to make it happen and every time we tried they told us, 'You can't tell us how to run our business,'" Oliver said.
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  Terry

  Crystal Cathedral files for bankruptcy protection

  The glass megachurch in Garden Grove decides to file for Chapter 11 after some of its creditors sued for payment. Church officials said the 'ministry will continue as usual.'

  October 19, 2010 | By Nicole Santa Cruz, Los Angeles Times

  First came the layoffs, then the cutbacks in programming. Now the Crystal Cathedral, the beleaguered glass megachurch in Orange County, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

  The church decided to file for Chapter 11 after some of its creditors sued for payment, according to church officials. Hundreds of creditors could be owed between $50 million and $100 million, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana on Monday.

  "Our ministry will continue as usual," said Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman, speaking under an overcast sky Monday afternoon at the church's sprawling 40-acre Garden Grove campus. She said that if anything, the recent troubles will give the church's messages more meaning.

  The church was started by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller in a rented drive-in movie theater in 1955 and came to prominence through the "Hour of Power" television show. But in January, faced with a $55-million budget deficit and a 27% drop in revenue over the last two years, it eliminated some of its signature offerings and sold property.

  The church slashed dozens of jobs, pulled the "Hour of Power" from seven stations and canceled its annual Christmas and Easter pageants, which drew thousands of people.

  Earlier this year, the organization was sued in Orange County Superior Court by some of its creditors.

  "We want to pay our vendors back," said Jim Penner, the executive producer of the "Hour of Power" show. Penner said the church couldn't cut costs fast enough to deal with the economic downturn, decline in donations and aging congregation. He estimated the national audience for the show at between 800,000 and 1 million.

  Now, the church is paying cash for everything with the main goal to "stay out of credit card debt," Penner said. The church owes $7.5 million to vendors and has a $36 million mortgage on the property.

  According to documents, the church has assets of between $50 million and $100 million. The board of directors authorized a bankruptcy filing Aug. 27, according to court papers.

  At a news conference Monday, Schuller reiterated her father's popular proverb, "Tough times never last, but tough people do." She assured viewers that the church's "message of hope will continue." She said that despite the economic hardships, the most recent financial reports for the ministries indicate the best cash flow in 10 years.

  In February, Coleman told The Times that the organization "can't spend more than we bring in."

  "The reality is that the church has to operate like a business," she said at an interview in her office. She said the church is going through a "regeneration," in which younger families are arriving to fill out a predominantly elderly congregation.

  In 2006, Coleman's brother, Robert A. Schuller, succeeded his father to head the ministry. But by fall of 2008, the father and son decided to part ways in a messy family dispute. Last summer, the elder Schuller told congregants that he would return to a prominent role at the church for two years and that his daughter would be his co-leader. Some said the dispute was a disappointment for congregants, who expected consistency.

  All programming, services and education, including the Crystal Cathedral Academy and High School, will go on as usual.

  [email protected]
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  cameo-d

  "The reality is that the church has to operate like a business," she said at an interview in her office.

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  And I suppose that the business of the church is deciding what god wants.
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  Satanus

  Hmm, interesting.

  "the economic downturn, decline in donations and aging congregation."

  Could the same things hit the wt corp?

  S
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  moshe

  People are more educated about religion today and saying, I'm an atheist, has little negative downside. Churches will continue to close for lack of members and dwindling donations.
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  Think About It

  That's what I call a high dollar cult. Hopefully, people they owe money too don't get screwed.

  Think About It
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  Mythbuster

  The WTB&TS could not build a convention hall (5.5 million) and help them out, ya think?
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  JeffT

  In a chapter 11 bankruptcy the creditors get paid - eventually. The idea behind a chap 11 (chap 13 for individuals) is to make sure that everybody gets paid in a fair manner. That means some people that want to get paid now will have to accept payments over the next five years or so. It may be that the creditors will push the church into a chapter 7 in which everything is sold and the creditors get paid whatever percentage of their debt the proceeds will cover.

  I'm guessing that the biggest chunk of the 50-100 million in assets they are claiming is the building, which may be hard to unload for anything close to what it cost to build.
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  William Penwell

  If it was blessed by God, why would it need to go bankrupt?
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  Terry

  In my opinion, the super-dooper 5 scoop churches (megachurch) like Rick Warren's and Joel Osteen's and Joyce Meyers' is a personality-driven

  "feel good" social situation.

  When Robert Schuller was in his pre-retirement salad days he was the engine that drove Crystal Cathedral to prosperity.

  His son and "intellectual heir" (ha ha ha) is a flat pancake with no charismatic traits at all.

  The message of these high-dollar churches is nothing at all by itself but a pep talk and a thin coat of "jeezus" smeared on a cupcake of love.

  The central unifying force is the GUY/GAL up front with the smile and the smooth words.

  The Watchtower Society taps in to a subversive trait among losers. (Yes, I include myself). Outsiders and under-acheivers with a grudge against mainstream religion find a cornucopia of ammunition in the pages of the Watchtower. At least, they formerally did. The nasty polemic nature of olden JW literature was rife with muscle flexing and superiority.

  The gimmick the Society has always used (until recent times) was End Times tricksterism and the magical mystery of the anointed/FDS.

  The gangsters of the Governing Body have replaced everything, however, as central authority and bully-in-a-box.

  The active JW's are windup toys set in motion by weekly visits to their masters who turn their cranks and point them out the door toward local neighborhoods.

  Why does the JW cult survive? There are yet more and more societal misfits who want to belong to an outlaw gang throwing rhetorical bricks through windows and scribbling Watchtower slogans on tenement walls with a smug expression of: "I'm gonna see ya die at Armageddon, asshole!"

  Being in a gang always works for under-achievers who are afraid of life and need the insulation and protection of belonging to something bigger than themselves.

  It is the illusion of swagger and a big stick that keeps them inside.