Over a period of decades millions of people have tuned into the granddaddy of television-evangelism church services: the Crystal Cathedral of Dr. Robert H. Schuller. But from the start it has not been without controversy.
Schuller’s unapologetic philosophy of ministry was to address the emotional brokenness in people and make them feel better about themselves. But even the gentlest critics of the message and ministry of the Crystal Cathedral have pointed out that this cannot possibly be the whole gospel. The ministry has now filed for bankruptcy. An editorial in Christianity Today, Cracks in the Crystal Cathedral: Why we are better off letting God make the gospel relevant, offers a perspective.
Not to be glib, but, “He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.”, Ben Franklin. Wisdom for the creditor and the debtor.
I think their financial failure was due in part to, the “health and wealth – prosperity gospel” virus that refuses to account for bad economies and other realities. Is it in Proverbs where the question arises about financial prudence being needed in regards to funding our endeavors? Just because God owns all the cattle on a thousand hills doesn’t mean he’s the Federal Reserve or the U.S. Treasury. [Side note: Unlike the U.S. Treasury the Federal Reserve is not a branch of our U.S. Government.]
There is NOTHING wrong with wanting to feel good about ones self. Adam and Eve didn’t suffer from poor self-esteem or poor self-worth until they ate that bad apple and from that point on they were immediately hurting. Fortunately for us, Jesus to the rescue, voila…et al the Word of God was and still is the answer. “The answer” becomes even more of a fortune when as in my case it was 25 years after being saved did I finally figure out that my sence of self-worth was supposed to be based on Gods opinion of me. When I figured that out it was easy to understand WHY a camel would easily fit through the eye of a needle and why the apostle Paul stated that all he’d achieved as Saul that gave him his sense of worth and self love was worthless and pointless compared to knowing that he was intimately loved by God.
There’s a splendid book in my opinion written by Robert McGee (founder of RAPHA) published by WORD, “The Search For Significance” which address those issues of self-esteem and self-worth, “Whether labeled self-esteem or self-worth, the feeling of significance is crucial to man”s emotional, spiritual and social stability and is the driving element within the human spirit”…”We must understand that this hunger for self-worth is God-given and can only be satisfied by Him” [pg 11].