Lots of People Throwing Rocks in the Big Glass Church

UPDATE 10/18: Crystal Cathedral files for bankruptcy.

The troubles at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove continue:

Crystal Cathedral officials have shown no intention of paying back more than 100 vendors to whom they owe $7.5 million, according to one of the vendors who is waiting for more than $50,000 from the megachurch and lost her house to foreclosure.

Kristina Oliver said she was happy to get on a committee for creditors in April.

I honestly believed that the church was going to come up with an equitable plan to pay us all," she said. "But now I know that all they wanted to do was string us along." [...]

Among the vendors for the "Glory of Christmas" pageants still waiting to get paid are Oliver, who supplied camels, horses and sheep for the pageant; wardrobe manager Juliet Noriega; dry cleaner Bruce Johnson, who cleaned the actors' costumes; props manager Sharon Crabtree, and Carin Galletta, whose public relations firm provided publicity for the pageant.

Also in line are PNCEF LLC., an equipment financing company owed $2 million and several television stations that have sued the church for hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to court documents, the Cathedral owes about $7.5 million to unsecured creditors.

At least two creditors, including PNCEF, have sought and obtained court-ordered writs, which could cause the megachurch to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Back in May I wrote about several musicians, including a friend of mine, who sued the Crystal Cathedral for nonpayment of fees they earned for performing in CC productions. I ran into my friend a few weeks ago and he told me they won and finally got paid, but their claims were for far less than the ones shown above and they were able to take them to Small Claims Court.  The vendors who are still without their payments will probably end up putting the CC into bankruptcy.

Maybe Mrs. Oliver can use the big glass church as a new camel barn.

And there are more than money problems at the church:

Several members of the Crystal Cathedral's congregation will independently hold a tribute Sunday night for the megachurch's long-time choral director, Don Neuen, the most recent member to resign after a dispute with founder Robert H. Schuller's children, now in charge of the ministry.

Neuen said he quit last month after 10 years of conducting the renowned Crystal Cathedral choir, which was featured in the "Hour of Power" program broadcast worldwide to millions of viewers. Famed pianist Roger Williams left the church earlier this year, also after a difference of opinion with a Schuller daughter.

"These were the best 10 years of my life," an emotional Neuen said Thursday.

But things ended on a sour note for the choir director. He said the "last straw" for him was when Gretchen Schuller Penner, who directs the "Hour of Power" programs, told him that she would be "vetting choir members" going forward and that she would make sure that they were "emotionally and spiritually fit for the Crystal Cathedral."

"I found that to be terribly judgmental and couldn't accept it," Neuen said.

The proceeds from this concert will go to other musicians who have worked for the CC and still haven't been paid.

This is the problem you're going to run into when a church is founded on one man and that man insists on keeping a stranglehold on the management of that church.  I remember when I sang there back in 2002 I was wandering around before the service and came across a full-sized bronze statue of Robert Schuller.  The whole thing was just a little creepy.  Certainly other churches have been founded on a single pastor, such as Saddleback Church and Rick Warren, but in 10 years of attending Saddleback I never once ran into a full-sized bronze sculpture of the man and the church's leadership is spread among a lot of talented people.

Now some of Schuller's children are running things (at least the ones he hasn't fired) and they're making, excuse the pun, an unholy mess of the place (just read Roger Williams' comments).  This iconic church is on its way to failure.  Too bad.