As of January 2006, Schuller has succeeded his father as the senior pastor of The Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA. The church congregation exceeds 10,000 members.
Robert H. Schuller was born on September 16, 1926 in Alton, Iowa. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hope College and a Master of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary. He was ordained as a minister in 1950. From 1950-1955, he was the minister at the Ivanhoe Reformed Church in Chicago. In 1955, he founded the Reformed Church in America in Garden Grove, California. As a televangelist, he tried to integrate the teachings of John Calvin with the positive thinking of Norman Vincent Peale. After becoming one of the nation's best-known pastors, he watched Crystal Cathedral Ministries file for bankruptcy in 2010 amid huge debt, a changing religious broadcast industry, an aging audience, and family squabbles over leadership. During his lifetime, he wrote over thirty books including Turning Hurts Into Halos; Tough Times Don't Last, but Tough People Do; and If It's Going to Be, It's Up to Me. He received numerous awards including the Horatio Alger Award, Freedom Foundation Awards, Clergyman of the Year, Awards of Excellence for Religion in Media, and Peacemaker Awards. He was also known for his four decades of televised Sunday services, Hour of Power. He died from esophageal cancer on April 2, 2015 at the age of 88.
