| Jim Hinch: Where Are the People?: "The Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California, is one of America’s largest and most celebrated ecclesiastical buildings. At 60,000 square feet and designed by architect Philip Johnson, it was until recently the sanctuary of Robert H. Schuller, once one of the country’s most prominent and influential Christian ministers. In September 1980, when he dedicated the cathedral... Schuller was at the height of his influence, preaching to a congregation of thousands in Orange County and reaching millions more worldwide via the Hour of Power, a weekly televised ministry program.... But 2013 marked the end of an era. In June, Schuller’s evangelical Christian ministry, founded almost 60 years ago amid the suburbs of postwar Southern California, conducted its last worship service.... Hounded by creditors (including some of those Hollywood-grade costume and livestock suppliers), the ministry had declared bankruptcy three years earlier and last year sold the cathedral for $58 million to Orange County’s Catholic diocese.... Just 10 years ago, evangelical Christianity appeared to be America’s dominant religious movement.... Evangelicalism is not only in gradual decline but today stands poised at the edge of a demographic and cultural cliff.... Young people’s most common complaint... is that churches are too focused on sexual issues and preoccupied with their own institutional development—in other words... 'Christianity no longer looks like Jesus'. |
