Televangelist and Crystal Cathedral founder Robert Schuller died on April 2 at the age of 88. Schuller, once one of the most influential ministers in the country, attracted both fans and critics for his upbeat and positive preaching style. We published the article below in 1981. It provides an inside look at his ministry philosophy for those reflecting on his legacy.
He has drawn both fire and plaudits with his drive-in church, television ministry, and Crystal Cathedral. Has Schuller abandoned the gospel for watered-down hi-jinks? Or is he effectively following Christ's pattern?
As churches of all types try to evaluate ministry models, Garden Grove Community Church usually becomes a reference point. Some people denounce its methods, saying many never hear the full claims of the gospel; others point to it as effective both in evangelism and congregational development.
What does Robert Schuller himself say he is trying to do? What is his overall strategy, and how should you view it in regard to your own ministry?
Here, in his own words, is a glimpse of how he came to his personal conclusions about ministry.
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"I find a restiveness in man," the late Robert Ardrey wrote, "a dissatisfaction of a universal sort. The average human being, as I judge it, is uneasy. He is like a man who is hungry, gets up at night, opens the refrigerator door, and doesn't exactly see what he wants because he doesn't know what he wants. He closes the door and goes back to bed."
We can all identify with that statement, but that only sets the stage for the question: What is the ultimate hunger of the human being? For the past fifty years, psychologists and psychiatrists have been trying to answer that bottom-line question. Let's look at some of those answers.
The will to experience pleasure, according to Sigmund Freud, explains the basic deep-seated hunger of human beings. Beyond a doubt, the pleasure instinct is a very real and very powerful force in human behavior. On the other hand, men and women by the millions have been known to forsake pleasure in favor of work, love, religion, or war. Man craves something deeper than pleasure. The appetites of the eye, the stomach, the ear, and the sex organs can all be satisfied, yet the human spirit hungers for something more.
Alfred Adler came along and said that Freud's observations were too shallow. To him, the will to achieve power explains everything. The desire to be in control and the exhilaration of being in command illustrate man's drive for power. The bloody pages of history offer horrendous evidence that man will kill, cheat, lie, and betray his own soul in his pursuit of power.
Yet power does not produce ultimate satisfaction. On the contrary, power often produces enormous anxiety and feelings of insecurity. The man on the top is the man who is shot at, threatened, and challenged by those who seek his position of power. The possession of power often leads only to futility and frustration.
The late Victor Frankl detected a deep and powerful undercurrent in human motivational forces when he suggested that the will to find meaning is the ultimate hunger of man. With perception, he has pointed out that man is able to achieve mental and emotional equilibrium when he sees meaning in his life experience. This explains why some people are able to achieve peace of mind in the midst of enormous suffering and misery. He, of course, had experienced the Nazi death camps. His family was exterminated in the holocaust, and he alone survived. When Frankl stood naked before the Gestapo, they made him take off his wedding ring. At that horrible, terrifying moment, the thought came to him, "You can't take away my freedom to choose how I will respond to what you are doing to me." Yet deep inside, man seeks more than meaning.
Abraham Maslow suggests that man's deepest need is for self-actualization. Erich Fromm believes it is the will to love. Rollo May talks about the will to create. All of these men speak to one of the strong subsurface currents within man. But none of them identifies the basic force we are seeking.
The position I have taken is that none of these theorists is totally wrong, and no one is totally right.
There is a deeper human hunger that I call self-esteem. Based on my perception of the person of Jesus Christ, the work of Christ, and the teaching of Christ, I submit that the deepest of all human hungers is the need for self-esteem.
Historically, systematic theology has started with the doctrine of man. I agree with this approach, for the people that I am trying to talk to do not accept the Bible, God, or even Jesus Christ. But they do accept and believe in human beings. So I believe that it is my sincere calling from God to take the systematic approach.
The whole theology of self-esteem is a systematic theological approach. To be systematic in theology is not to be anti-biblical. It had better be biblical or it is not going to have integrity. But I chose the systematic theological approach because I feel that's the way to communicate to people who will ask questions, who will listen to answers, and, if it makes sense, they will accept it. That's our strategy at Garden Grove Community Church.
From that perspective, then, we have developed a system of theological concepts. I never verbalize them to the television congregation, but they undergird everything we say and do: our substance, our style, our strategy, and our spirit.
Mankind's deepest need is for self-esteem. I consider this to be universal. I have traveled around the world and met Christians and non-Christians in a variety of cultures and nationalities and have found this to be true.
Let me illustrate how this relates to sin, salvation, and fullness of life. I come out of a Reformed theological background. For my thesis at Western Seminary, I made a topical and a scriptural index to the
Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin. I had to read through the Institutes word for word ten times, until I finished a 285-page index.
A central theme of Reformed theology is that a human being is, by nature, rebellious against God. But this does not go far enough. We must go deeper and ask why. The explanation given is that Adam and Eve disobeyed God and thus sinned in the Garden of Eden. They were expelled from the Garden, and that's it.
Let me illustrate with a cross-section slice of a golf ball. First, the outside of the golf ball is the white dimpled plastic. Classical theologians look at the golf ball and they see man, by nature, as rebellious against God. He sins, he steals, he kills, and he fights, unless he is born again.
Now when we say that man's nature is to rebel against God, we are looking only at the outside of the golf ball. We must ask the question: "Why is he that way?" or we won't know how to approach him. I contend that the skin of sin is rebellion. But at the very core of the golf ball, there is a hard rubber pea. That is the core with which all human beings are born, and I call that "negative selfimage."
Erik Erikson, an authority in child development theory today, contends that there are several stages of human psychological and emotional development. During the first twelve months, after the traumatic experience of being expelled from the womb and thrown into a world of sound and light and sensations, the child must learn to trust. It is not born with trust. In every premature nursery in America, nurses are taught to stroke and talk to the premature infant. Infants do not, by nature, trust!
If you want to know why Schuller smiles on television, if you want to know why I make people laugh once in a while, I'm giving them sounds and strokes, sounds and strokes. It's strategy. People who don't trust need to be stroked. People are born with a negative self-image. Because they do not trust, they cannot trust God.
So lack of trust is the exact opposite of saving trust. This is understood in the light of the classical Reformed theological definition of saving faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ includes three elements:
¥ Knowledge of the facts surrounding Jesus Christ
¥ Belief that the facts are true
¥ Personally trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation
We want to see people turn from a negative self-image, or lack of trust, to trust in Jesus Christ. Unless trust is adequate, all kinds of defense mechanisms enter the picture. Because people don't trust, they wear masks; because they don't trust, they are not honest.
Second, around the hard, solid rubber pea in the golf ball there are all kinds of tight, stretched rubber bands. They represent the intricacies and complexities in each person of tensions, worries, fears, guilts ambitions, and ego trips. Finally, when you come to the outer skin, you have a rebellious person.
I happen to believe with all my soul and being that you don't approach the rebellious person and say, "Hey, buddy, you're rebellious." You're going to get a sock on the chin. But that's been the classical approach. Tell him what a sinner he is, convict him of his guilt. The trouble is that the only people who are getting that message are the Christians who are sitting in church. The sinners stay away like fat people avoiding a bathroom scale.
When this church was being started, I rang doorbells and asked, "Why don't you go to church?" "What books do you read?" I found the unchurched people were reading Norman Vincent Peale. So l invited Dr. Peale to come and preach in the drive-in theater, and I promised him a big crowd. I told him we had the biggest church parking lot (1,700 cars) in southern California where everybody can have a soft seat near an open window. Dr. Peale said he'd come.
For that Sunday we advertised in the sports page, the business page, the news section, and the women's page. We really blanketed southern California. The drive-in theater was jam-packed with cars. I'll never forget that Sunday, because a movie was playing on the life of Audie Murphy, the World
War II hero, and carried the title on the marquee "To Hell and Back-In Person-Norman Vincent Peale."
Well, that morning I forgot Dr. Peale's biographical sheet. As I walked up to the podium to introduce him I prayed for guidance. This is what came out:
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have with us today the greatest positive thinker in the world. His name is a household word. He is, in my mind, the most beautiful person I have ever known. If you get to know him personally and have a chance to talk to him alone as I have, you'll be born again. His name is Jesus Christ; and here to tell us all about him is Norman Vincent Peale."
Dr. Peale blushed from the collar up. My introduction had intimidated him, although I hadn't intended it to do so. He began, "If Jesus Christ were here today, what would he tell you? Would he tell you what terrible sinners you are?"
I thought, "Yes, he would." But Dr. Peale said, "No, I don't think he'd have to. Deep down in your soul you know it. What he would tell you is 'Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.' "
He started the sermon where I usually ended mine. I must tell you that my preaching strategy up to this time was to make the listeners realize how sinful they were; generate a sense of guilt within them; and then give them the Good News that they can be forgiven. I patterned this after the classical formula of the Heidelberg Catechism, question and answer number two:
How many things are necessary for you to know, that you in this comfort may live and die happily? Three: the first, how great my sins and misery are; the second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery; and the third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.
I don't quarrel with this. I believe it. But as a strategy for mission, it's a lot better just to start with question and answer number one: What is your only comfort in life and death?That I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. …
That feeds my self-esteem. If he is mine, and if I belong to him, I am somebody.
Then Dr. Peale made another statement that was really very revolutionary. He said, "In fact, in the Bible, Jesus never called any person a sinner." I knew at that point he was wrong. So I went home that afternoon and I read through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the King James Version, red-letter edition. I discovered that Jesus never called any person a sinner! He recognized the reality of sin. He recognized the fact that all persons were sinners, but to convert them, he didn't use the strategy of calling them sinners! Jesus did call some people snakes and vipers. Those stern words were used only against the religious leaders, who made it a practice to use their religious authority to deepen a sense of guilt rather than sharing the knowledge of God's grace. But Jesus didn't use that language when he was trying lo take a person of the world and turn him into a believer.
I don't think there is anything a minister could do that would provoke the wrath of Jesus more than if he failed to communicate to sinners the grace of God. But what is grace? Grace is God's love in action for people who don't deserve it.
Adam and Eve were created, according to Genesis, without sin. Then they fell, which means they had a chance. They knew better. If Adam and Eve were in my congregation, I would not hesitate to say, "Adam and Eve, you are sinners. You both knew better." But their children were born in the bushes, in hiding, and it's not fair to pick on those kids and preach to them as if they were the same as the parents. Those kids never had a choice. They never had a knowledge of the beauty of God. Adam and Eve did. They walked in the Garden. So you take the positive approach with their children, one that has some strokes in it.
If I had to write a book on communication, I think it would be a development of this one sentence: "I am not what I think I am; I am not what you think I am; I am what I think you think I am."
How do you approach people? You don't approach them through battering their self-respect and insulting their dignity. That violates their self-esteem. The worst sinner still is not a monkey. The human creature is a cathedral; not a shack. That's true whether he's white, black, yellow, or red; whether he's rich or poor, literate or illiterate, Mongoloid or genius. He's not a shack; he's a cathedral. He may be a cracked cathedral with the windows destroyed; he may be in ruins because of his rebellion, but he's still a cathedral because he was created in the image of God.
The secret of success is to find a need and fill it. Now apply that principle to communication. The theology of self-esteem produces a theology of communication. You never communicate with people by insulting, manipulating, or intimidating them. In all the churches and denominations there are people who claim to be Christians; they claim to be born again; they love the Word; they preach the Scriptures; and they know the right answers-but they're mean as the dickens. The love isn't there. And the number one reason is that the seeds of salvation were planted in the soil of some soul's shame, instead of being planted in the remnant of some soul's self-esteem. A person who is converted out of shame still has the same basic uncured problem of a negative selfimage. That's different from the person who experiences conversion and who knows out of the reality of what God thinks: "I am wonderful and he loves me, and he wouldn't stop at anything, not even the Cross, to make me his friend again." When you appeal to a person's self-esteem as a strategy for evangelism, a different kind of a Christian will emerge than when you appeal to a person's shame and degradation and insecurity.
That's why I won't be controversial from the pulpit when I'm communicating with unchurched people. The controversial material is better placed in the classroom setting where Christian education takes place. In that setting there is give and take. Dialogue takes place. Growth through interaction is experienced. This communication approach respects and promotes the dignity of the individual.
A theology of self-esteem also produces a theology of evangelism, a theology of social ethics, and a theology of economics; and these produce a theology of government. It all rises from one foundation: The dignity of the person who was created in the image of God. I see this relating to the central theme of salvation, which is clearly developed in the book of Romans. This is examined and well developed by Professor Anthony Hoekema in his book, The Christian Looks at Himself.
Let's suppose a person has a negative self-image. How would you build that person's selfrespect? Do you know what Jesus did? He approached Zacchaeus and said, "Let's have dinner together." When he came to Mary Magdalene he treated her like a lady.
"I'm not what I think I am; I'm not what you think I am; I am what I think you think I am." We become what people expect from us. We will fulfill the expectations that others hold for us.
If somebody with an immoral reputation invited me to have coffee with him, I would be a little ashamed to be seen with him. That would violate my self-dignity. If someone who is my equal invited me to have coffee with him, that wouldn't do anything for my self-esteem. If somebody high up the ladder, let's say the President of the United States, invited me to the Oval Office, that would give my self-esteem quite a boost.
But let's suppose there's somebody above the President whom almost everybody accepts as the Ideal One. In biblical terms, it's the Lamb of God without spot or blemish. Let's suppose he calls me on the phone and says, "Schuller, I want to meet you." So we meet all alone, and we talk, and he looks at me as if he really respects me. He puts his arm around me and makes me an offer: "I wanted to get together with you, Bob. You know, I'd like to live my life through yours if I could." And I say, "Wait a minute, I'm not good enough for you." And then he takes his robe of righteousness and puts it around me. "Here, wear this." I'm declared to be righteous by the person of God, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed, freely given to me as my own.
When you meet this Ideal One, who knows you as you really are but treats you as if you were perfect, you have a psychological, existential, and spiritual encounter with the grace of God at the most profound level. That's when you are truly born again. Now you can also accept yourself. "What is your only comfort in life and death?" You can now say:
. . . that I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me, that without the will of my Father in heaven, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation, wherefore by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.
Real self-esteem now emerges. Now I dare to receive the Holy Spirit because I feel worthy to be a channel for the Holy Spirit. And now it becomes possible for the fruit of the Spirit to flow through me in love, joy, and peace. I no longer have to function at the level of my old defense mechanisms: still insecure, defensive, touchy, and angry.
Don Quixote, The Man of La Mancha, beautifully illustrates the gospel of Jesus Christ. Cervantes portrayed the Ideal One as Don Quixote. Any Ideal One is going to be called crazy by the world; and they called The Man of La Mancha crazy. So he asked, "Who's crazy? Am I crazy because I can see the world as it could become? Or are you crazy because you see the world as it is? Who's really crazy?"
I have thought about that question, and I believe The Man of La Mancha is right. I'm not crazy if I'm an idealist. I'm not crazy if I'm a beautiful dreamer. People are crazy who only see the world as it is. They're crazy because they're not creative; they're crazy because they are not uplifting sources. Because they're not part of the solution, they keep the world as it is.
"I am not what I think I am; I am not what you think I am; I am what I think you think I am." If you say we are all sinners, you're right. I agree with you. Your condemnations only reinforce my own rebellion. So don't tell me what I am; tell me what I might become.
The Man of La Mancha sees this harlot, this whore, this Mary Magdalene. Aldonza is her name. She's a waitress by day and a prostitute by night. She serves the drunken camel drivers. The Man of La Mancha says to this whore, "My Lady." She looks at him and exclaims, "Lady?" Some camel driver makes a pass at her and she squeals . . . laughs. The Man of La Mancha says, "Yes, you are My Lady, and I shall give you a new name. I shall call you Dulcinea. You are My Lady . . . you are My Lady, Dulcinea."
Once, in distress, not comprehending him, when they are alone, she says, "Why do you do and say these things? Why do you treat me the way you do? What do you want from me? I know men. I've seen them all; I've had them all; they're all the same They all want something from me. Why do you say these things? Why do you call me Dulcinea? Why do you call me your Lady? What do you want?" He says, "I just want to call you what you are . . . you are My Lady, Dulcinea."
Later there is a horrible scene backstage. You hear screams . . . she is being raped. She runs onto the stage. She has been insulted with the ultimate indignity and she's crying and hysterical, dirty and disheveled. Her blouse has been torn off and her skirt is ripped. He sees her and says compassionately, "My Lady, Dulcinea, Oh, My Lady, My Lady."
She can't stand it and cries, "Don't call me a Ladv. Oh God, don't call me a Lady. Can't you see me for what I am? I was born in a ditch by a mother who left me there naked and cold-too hungry to cry. I never blamed her. She left me there hoping I'd have the good sense to die. Don't call me a Lady. I'm only a kitchen slut, reeking with sweat. I'm only a whore men use and forget. Don't call me your Lady. I'm only Aldonza. I am nothing at all."
As she runs into the night of self-flagellation he calls out, "But you are My Lady." The curtain drops.
The curtain rises, The Man of La Mancha is dying, like our Lord, from a broken heart, despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. To his deathbed comes a Spanish queen with a mantilla of lace. She kneels, makes the sign of the cross, and prays. He opens his eyes and says, "Who are you?" She replies, "My Lord, don't you remember? You sang a song, don't you remember? 'To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear the unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go. … ' My Lord, don't you remember? You gave me a new name, you called me Dulcinea." She stands proudly. "I am your Lady."
And the angels sing, and he goes to be with his Father. It is finished. She was born again.
That illustrates for me the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ. There is no philosophy, no psychiatric system, no theology of any religion in the world that can match this for an immortal soul.
Copyright © 1981 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
