Crystal Cathedral: 'We're Not for Sale'

Crystal Cathedral attorneys told a federal bankruptcy judge on Monday that the Garden Grove mega-church no longer wants to sell its property to pay off debts.

Instead, the church will have about three months to raise the $50 million it owes creditors or the judge will revert to considering outside bids on the property.

Crystal Cathedral leaders announced from the pulpit Sunday that the church's property was no longer for sale.

"Through our filing of Chapter 11 last October, I believe God has used it to turn the eyes of the world toward the Crystal Cathedral because He wants to make a big, bold statement--and, as a faith-based ministry, it's important to put our faith in God in this matter,'' Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman said of the church's goal of a "$50 million miracle.''

Church board member Jim Penner said, "We fully understand as a board that by taking this stand of faith, the Creditors Committee [overseeing plans to sell the property] will move on its own in the courts to initiate a sale process. But the final word on this campus and this ministry will be up to God Almighty.''

The Creditors Committee will continue to investigate at least four
proposals to acquire the property.

The Orange County Roman Catholic Diocese put in for the mega-church's property. The diocese is competing with Chapman University in Orange, a and Mark A. Thomas Ministries, which owns the My Father's House Church International nondenominational church in Norco.

The next hearing will be held Sept. 14 or 21.

-- City News Service