How Schuller Shaped Your Ministry
April 1, 1997
Whether you admire or dislike his ministry techniques or possibility-thinking theology, probably no one has shaped the way pastors relate to the unchurched more than Robert Schuller.
Forty-two years ago, Schuller and his wife, Arvella, moved from Chicago to Southern California to start a church—and, unintentionally, a new way of doing church. With about 50 people attending the first service, Garden Grove Community Church (affiliated with the Reformed Church of America) was born.
Today the legendary Crystal Cathedral sits on a sprawling oasis of palm trees and fountains and statues in the middle of Orange County's concrete jungle.
Schuller pioneered the use of marketing techniques to reach the nonchurched. It would not be overreaching to say that without Schuller and the Crystal Cathedral, there would likely be no Willow Creek Community Church, no Saddleback Community Church, or the thousands of other seeker-oriented churches around the country. The cliche—the pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs—is certainly true of Schuller. "I didn't know I was going to get criticism," he says. "I thought I'd get pats on the back."
In the modern era, he was the first to:
—call his denominational church a "community church," since most seekers
didn't understand or relate to a denominational label
—call a sermon a "message"
—use a nontraditional setting for church worship—in his case, a drive-in theater
—conduct door-to-door research, asking, "Why don't you go to church?"
—use marketing strategies to reach nonchurched people (about the time George
Barna was born)
—train pastors in leadership (1969)
—televise a weekly ...
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