Drop in Giving Forces Schuller to Trim Scope of TV Ministry

Citing fund-raising difficulties stemming from “shock waves” echoing through American televangelism, the Rev. Robert Schuller announced sharp cutbacks Tuesday in his Orange County-based “Hour of Power” broadcast ministry.

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

The present situation is “very, very severe,” said Michael Nason, a Schuller aide.

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

May Cut Back Broadcasts

Officials said they were considering scaling back purchases of broadcast time around the country in markets that do not generate enough donations to support themselves.

They said television production on the grounds of the Crystal Cathedral complex in Garden Grove might also be curtailed.

The “Hour of Power” is among the top-rated U.S. religious broadcasts. Now seen on 168 stations in the country, it reaches an estimated 2.5 million viewers each week, said Nason. Yet the number of stations carrying the broadcast has been declining in recent years, 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,” said Nason. “We are moving forward,” he said, pointing to last Sunday’s ground-breaking 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 said that overall contributions to Schuller’s operation are sharply down this year, especially among members of Schuller’s “Eagles’ Club”--those who give more than $500 a year. He declined to be more specific about the falling income of Schuller’s programs.

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

Three Blows Cited

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 in September by New York City’s WWOR-TV to eliminate all paid religious broadcasting, including the “Hour of Power’s” prime 11 a.m. Sunday time slot.

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

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

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, he said, “I wouldn’t have to worry. I was safe, I thought.”

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.

Points of Controversy

To date, the controversies have involved Jim and Tammy Bakker, whose PTL network became embroiled in a financial scandal and bankruptcy after 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” in order to run for president; and, most recently, charges that Jimmy Swaggart, another leading American televangelist, had met with a prostitute.

By April 3, Schuller was talking frankly about the problems brought to his own ministry by what he called “celebrityism,” which he said was “dangerous” and “a setup for ultimate failure,” noting the examples of the Bakkers 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?”

“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.”

Cutbacks Ordered

Less than two weeks after the Easter broadcast, Schuller and his management team began plans for the cutbacks dictated by the falloff in 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.