‘Hour of Power’ : Schuller Plans Sharp Cuts as Donations Lag

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, citing fund-raising difficulties stemming from the “shock waves” echoing through American televangelism, announced sharp cutbacks Tuesday in his popular “Hour of Power” broadcast ministry.

About 40 of the broadcast’s 250 or so staff members have lost their jobs in recent weeks, including Victor C. Andrews, the ministry’s unpaid chief executive officer. Schuller said he would be assuming Andrews’ position.

The present situation is “very, very severe,” said Michael Nason, one of Schuller’s closest aides.

In a memo to his television ministry staff, Schuller said the broadcast operation would have to make do with $26 million in 1988, compared to a budgeted $34 million in 1987. As a result, Schuller wrote, the ministry was implementing “deep preventive cuts.”

Curtailments Studied

Officials said they were considering scaling back purchases of broadcast time around the country in markets which do not generate enough in donations to support themselves. They said television production on the grounds of the Crystal Cathedral complex in Garden Grove might be curtailed.

The “Hour of Power” is among the top-rated U.S. religious broadcasts. Seen on 168 stations around the country, it reaches an estimated 2.5 million viewers each week, Nason said. Yet the number of stations carrying the broadcast has been declining in recent years, down from 213 in 1985 to 187 in 1987.

Ever the optimistic “possibility thinker,” Schuller said Tuesday that “we don’t have a problem, we have a challenge. . . . No matter how tough the storms might be, this is a ministry that is going to prevail.”

“This ministry is not closing up shop,” Nason said. “We are moving forward,” he added, pointing to last Sunday’s groundbreaking for a $23-million, 145,000-square-foot Family Life Building in Garden Grove. No other aspects of the ministry, which includes the $20-million Crystal Cathedral itself and various other service and missionary programs, will be cut back, Nason said.

However, Nason pointed out that overall contributions to Schuller’s operation are sharply down this year, especially among members of Schuller’s “Eagles’ Club,” those giving more than $500 annually. He declined to be more specific about the declining income of Schuller’s programs.

Although alarmist appeals are not uncommon in Schuller’s broadcasts and mass mailings, the present crisis appears real, and was, in fact, foreshadowed by Schuller’s Christmas and Easter broadcasts.

Suffered ‘Three Hits’

On Dec. 13, 1987, Schuller said the ministry was suffering from “three hits, any one of which could have been a mortal blow.”

These blows, Schuller said, were the televangelism scandals, the October stock market crash and the decision last September by New York City’s WWOR-TV to eliminate all paid religious broadcasting, including the prime 11 a.m. EST Sunday time slot for the “Hour of Power.”

“We may never recover that exposure,” Nason said.

In addition to serving New York, WWOR is a “superstation,” appearing on many cable systems around the country and accounting for about 10% of the “Hour of Power” audience and at least an equal percentage of contributions, according to Nason.

Schuller admitted in the Christmas broadcast that when the televangelism scandals first broke, he was “quite confident, quite secure” because of the way his ministry is run. He told himself, “I wouldn’t have to worry. I was safe, I thought.”

But soon, he said, he found that his ministry was indeed vulnerable.

“In the 18 years I’ve been in the television ministry, never before have I seen such a free fall, almost meltdown of the ‘Hour of Power,’ ” he said then.

Bakkers, Roberts, Swaggart

To date, the televangelist controversies have involved Jim and Tammy Bakker, whose PTL network became embroiled in a financial scandal and bankruptcy following the revelation of a sexual encounter between Jim Bakker and church secretary Jessica Hahn; Oral Roberts’ claim that God would “take me home” if supporters did not contribute $8 million for medical scholarships; Pat Robertson’s decision to leave the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club” to run for President, and, most recently, charges that Jimmy Swaggart, another leading American televangelist, had consorted with a prostitute.

By April 3, Schuller was talking frankly about the problems visited on his own ministry by what he called “celebrityism,” which he said was “dangerous” and “a set-up for ultimate failure,” noting the examples of Bakker and Swaggart.

“When you don’t know who’s running the show,” Schuller said of those with successful television ministries, “how in the world can you control the operation?”

Schuller told his television audience that while traveling he was approached by a woman who said she recognized him, but could not recall his name.

He said he told her that his name was Billy Graham as a joke, but she knew that wasn’t right. She knew his name: “Schuller, Jimmy Schuller.”

‘Now They Are Not Sure’

“In the past,” he continued in his Easter message, “many people trust me, Robert Schuller, but now they are not sure. That’s what happens if you become high profile.”

Less than two weeks after the Easter broadcast, Schuller and his management team began plans for the cutbacks dictated by the continuing falloff of contributions, officials revealed Tuesday.

In his April 15 memo to his broadcast staff, Schuller wrote that, despite the situation, “the ministry today enjoys a financial stability which is without compare.”

This includes an estimated net worth of $75 million and only $4.5 million in short-term debt, Schuller said in an interview Tuesday. This figure does not include the value of the ministry’s cemetery and bequests, each of which Schuller valued at about $25 million.

Tuesday’s announcement came less than a year after Schuller’s ministry first reported a slide in donations. The June, 1987, announcement said income was down slightly for the first months of that year, although they reportedly rebounded after that.

In contrast to Schuller’s difficulties, the Tustin-based Trinity Broadcasting Network recently raised more than $30 million in its weeklong, twice-yearly telethon--a record for that organization. Nason said the success of TBN, a 24-hour Christian broadcasting network, surprised him.

Schuller said he had confidence that those who have been laid off will find new jobs soon.

“I doubt if any of them will find a place on the unemployment line,” he said.

Like them, Schuller said he expected the television ministry to bounce back. “When good people, tough people, honest people are pressed, they take positive reactions. I’ve never been more confident,” he said.

Schuller’s 10,000-member congregation is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, a mainline denomination.