Schuller's daughter seeks to heal a house of God

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By Gillian Flaccus ASSOCIATED PRESS

GARDEN GROVE, Calif.

Since age 4, Sheila Schuller Coleman has held just about every job at her father's Crystal Cathedral, from copying Sunday programs at the kitchen table to launching a private high school on the church grounds.

Now, five decades after the Rev. Robert H. Schuller Sr. established the church, his daughter is facing her most challenging job yet: Taking over her father's megachurch and its famous "Hour of Power" television ministry at a time of both financial and family crisis.

The church and its internationally known telecast have been bleeding dollars and members for years - a trend that accelerated last fall when the cathedral's heir apparent, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller Jr., suddenly left in a bitter family feud.

Mrs. Coleman, 58, hopes to rescue her father's legacy as the founder of one of the nation's largest megachurches by being upfront about the family's recent mistakes and refocusing on the original mission of outreach to the unchurched.

"I feel like I've been a part of this ministry my whole life, and it's almost like another child to me. I feel like I helped raise it," said Mrs. Coleman, a former public-school teacher who holds a doctoral degree in education and administrative leadership.

"I've been here doing the work; I've been here caring for the people. They know me and they trust me."

In the evangelical world, sons often are tapped to succeed their fathers as leaders of the ministries their dads built. The Rev. Franklin Graham succeeded his father at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Texas preacher Joel Osteen took the helm of his father's church.

But "it's very rare" for a woman to take leadership of a megachurch, said Scott Thumma, a sociologist at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

Mrs. Coleman will not be the senior pastor at Crystal Cathedral; instead she will act as a top administrator. Still, Mr. Thumma said, "It's quite an interesting and probably even a pretty bold move on the part of the Schuller family and the church as a whole."