Schuller Steps Aside as Administrator, Plans Youth Drive

The Rev. Robert Schuller, whose services from the Crystal Cathedral are watched by millions worldwide, used the 39th anniversary celebration of the founding of his ministry Sunday to announce a change in leadership and to launch a new project.

Because of his frequent public appearances outside California, Schuller told his congregation, he has restructured the ministry, naming Charles Todd, the church’s chief counsel and an ordained minister, as chief operating officer. Schuller had occupied the position.

He said he also plans to build the state’s largest Sunday school.

“You will help me,” Schuller told more than 3,000 worshipers as he stood beside his own 20-foot-tall image on a TV screen. “We’re going after the next generation. And their kids. . . . We’ve got to get the kids whose parents don’t want religion.”

Schuller--one of the world’s most popular televangelists, whose “Hour of Power” is broadcast to 20 million people worldwide--declined to provide details of the school plan, or of a real estate or business deal that he hinted at. Schuller cited “powerful, secret and sensitive negotiations” that may not be concluded for two to three months.

The administrative change had been known within the church, but the school plan came as a surprise even to Crystal Cathedral staffers, who said they know none of the specifics.

Church spokesman Mike Nason said Schuller has been considering the school effort for some time and will present it formally soon.

“He believes that getting to the youth is the answer to many of our society’s problems,” Nason said. “I can’t tell you anything more about it.”

Nason added that the sensitive negotiations Schuller referred to are not related to his school plan. “I know about that, but I can’t reveal anything,” he said.

At one of three Sunday services, actor Charlton Heston read part of the Easter story from a Bible printed in 1653, which, the actor noted, carries “extra weight” because of its antiquity.