The Glass Megachurch That Started as Drive-In Sermons from a Snack Stand in 1955

Shutterstock

Table of Contents

Crystal Cathedral, California

Before megachurches had coffee bars, there was one with 10,000 windows. The Crystal Cathedral opened in 1980 as the new home for Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power, the country’s most-watched religious TV show.

Here’s how a drive-in preacher created television’s most recognizable church, still standing as a landmark today.

Wikimedia Commons/Warren K. Leffler

It Started at a Drive-In Movie Theater

Robert Schuller didn’t begin his ministry in some fancy church. In 1955, he rented the Orange Drive-In Theatre and preached from the roof of the snack bar to people sitting in their cars…

Story continues

TRENDING NOW

LATEST LOCAL NEWS