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Less praiseworthy is Schuller's apparent determination to seek success and avoid controversy. Although the formative years of his ministry occurred during a time of turmoil in which many of his clergy colleagues were risking their careers in taking a stand for racial equality, Schuller chose to avoid engaging in what he rather enigmatically calls "politics":

"With the central focus on legitimate and timely opposition to racism and war and the selfish excesses of capitalism, the mental, emotional, and spiritual hurts of the average person were being ignored. As a result, millions of spiritually hungry souls were leaving their churches. I returned home and launched both an alternative message and an alternative strategy for turning a declining American church around. I had survived politics. I had survived the lure of ambition. My message was now ringing clear inside of me: I was called to be a preacher, and I was called to preach hope. Nothing more and nothing less."

Praiseworthy as it is to have a clear and consistent message, it is fair to ask whether anyone who wrestles with the Jesus of the Gospels can talk about the hope of heaven without including God's continuing concern for justice in the here and now.

Instead, the influential pastor befriends other wealthy and powerful people like movie stars (including John Wayne), the eccentric manufacturing and oil mogul Armand Hammer (the man who introduced Schuller to the Russians), and President Bill Clinton (though Schuller publicly broke with Clinton when the allegations of Oval Office sexual misconduct became public).

Threaded through the 500+ pages of My Journey is the tale of a devoted family man who has experienced his own share of personal trauma: a life-threatening brain injury, a daughter's motorcycle accident, the cancer of his beloved wife, Arvella.

With his son Robert Anthony anointed as successor, the ambitious evangelist could, in his mid-70s, rest on his laurels.

But will he? We leave him standing on another vacant lot, dreaming of the time when his Visitors Center will be done, and more pilgrims will arrive at the International Center for Possibility Thinking.

The reader is left to wonder how much of this empire was built by God's design, and how much by a strong-willed character determined to leave his imprint on five decades of American church history. How chastening to know that God does number our days. And how encouraging for all of us to know that somewhere, out there in another farming community or an inner-city rowhouse, God continues to call new visionaries to dream his dreams.

Elizabeth Eisenstadt-Evans is an Episcopal priest and freelance writer based in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

My Journey is available from Christianbook.com. The HarperSanFrancisco site offers a short excerpt.

Crystal Cathedral Ministries' online website has information on the California church and the Hour of Power.

In 1997, Christianity Today sister publication Leadership Journal interviewed the "grandfather of the seeker movement" for insights on reaching a changing culture.

The Apologetic's Index entry on Schuller says he has been called "the evangelist without a gospel, known for his unorthodox and heretical, pseudo-Christian teachings."

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August 5 2002, Vol. 46, No. 9