Schuller Is Back on Job : ‘I Feel Great,’ Televangelist Assures His Congregation

Less than two months after undergoing brain surgery, a sobered but still upbeat Rev. Robert H. Schuller preached three back-to-back sermons Sunday at the Crystal Cathedral.

“I’m terrific. I feel great,” proclaimed Schuller, 65, as he blew kisses to his congregation.

He had jogged more than a mile Saturday, appeared slightly heavier and joked about the white wig over his shaved head. In Sunday’s appearances, unlike the usual services in which he sits behind a marble pulpit for the entire hour, Schuller gave 30-minute sermons and then retired backstage, apparently to rest.

The popular author and televangelist underwent emergency brain surgeries on Sept. 3 and 10 in Amsterdam following a head injury. Schuller fell into a coma hours after striking his head while getting into a car. Aspirin, which thinned his blood, contributed to the blood clot that necessitated the surgeries, doctors said.

Over each parking lot at the Crystal Cathedral on Sunday, arches of multicolored balloons carried banners that read, “Welcome Back Dr. Schuller!”

Co-pastor Bruce Larson read congratulatory telegrams from Gov. Pete Wilson, Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and evangelist Billy Graham. U.S. Sen. John Seymour attended the 11 a.m. service, which was televised for the “Hour of Power,” the most watched religious program in the nation.

At each service, Schuller received a prolonged standing ovation from a congregation whose members worried that he was returning to the pulpit too soon. Schuller said his doctor was in attendance at the cathedral.

In his messages Schuller described his ordeal--including his wife’s decision, because she feared AIDS, to postpone a second surgery that would have required a blood transfusion.

After his first operation, Schuller said, his brain continued to bleed as a result of blood thinned out by aspirin. Doctors told his wife Arvella that he would need a second surgery and a blood transfusion, but they could not assure her that the blood would be free of infection. Schuller said it was his wife’s decision to wait three days until his own blood became thicker. In the end, a transfusion was not necessary in the second surgery, he said.

Unusually introspective and theological, Schuller told his followers that during his recovery, the thought of their prayers made him cry.

As a professional “care-giver,” he said he experienced for the first time being on the receiving end of so much prayer. “Thank you. It worked,” he said. “I kept the faith.”

His full recovery, he said, has proved the power of religious faith. “It takes more than positive thinking to get through major surgery,” he said.

Schuller spoke with his trademark smile and raised eyebrows, raising and lowering his voice dramatically, pausing for laughter at his jokes. The hushed congregation listened intently as Schuller said he never felt fear or depression or anxiety during his recovery, even when he contemplated his own death.

He said he had accomplished all he had been driven to do in his younger days: completing the Crystal Cathedral, the spire, an on-site cemetery.

Schuller, who has said he has no plans to cut back his busy schedule, praised the work of Larson and of his son, Robert A. Schuller, who filled in for him during his absence. Schuller said that during his recovery, he drove to his own church and listened from his car to his son’s preaching.

“I enjoyed his sermons,” Schuller said. “There’s always the possibility that he might be my successor. We have to pick somebody,” he said with a sly smile, “25 years from now.”

Church members, some of whom watched him from their automobiles on a new, giant television screen in the parking lot, said they found their pastor no less charismatic and inspiring than before.

“If there’s a way to be positive, I’m sure he will find it,” said Ronald Young of Orange, who attended with his wife, Lynn, and their three children.

After the service, the on-site bookstore was doing a brisk business in Schuller’s latest book, which sells for $18.95 and was used as the basis of sermons: “Life is Unfair, but God is Good.”

Sara Drain of Hemet said she was inspired to buy the book even before she came Sunday. “It’s really inspiring that he went through all that with no fear or depression. That’s the question everybody has,” she said, ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ ”

A regular churchgoer and a Schuller admirer, Drain said, “I think he was as good as ever.”