Former Crystal Cathedral pastor says God was there in 'dark period'

Former Crystal Cathedral pastor Robert A Schuller recently released an inspirational new memoir chronicling the "dark period" in his life when he left the California megachurch and how the challenge of being "down to nothing" taught him to put more trust in God.

"Everyone gets 'down to nothing' at some point in life," reads the description of the book, When You Are Down to Nothing, God Is Up to Something: Discovering Divine Purpose and Provision When Life Hurts, released March 28 by the Hachette Book Group.

"It's exactly at those points that God does His best work. When we're down to nothing, God is up to something – truths to teach us, answers to satisfy us, assurance to bolster us, resources to supply us, or directions to guide us," the description adds.

Robert A Schuller is the only son of famed televangelist Robert H Schuller, who founded Crystal Cathedral Ministries five decades ago.

The ministry began as a start-up congregation in a Garden Grove, Calif., drive-in movie theater but eventually became one of America's most notable megachurches with a congregation of 10,000 members at the height of its popularity.

When his famed father retired in 2006, Schuller became a lead pastor of the successful ministry – but abruptly resigned in 2008.

Schuller has said that he was pushed out of the ministry as a result of sibling rivalry brought on by his three elder sisters.

"They didn't want to be accountable to me, their brother," Schuller claimed in a recent interview.

The former pastor has been candid about the difficulties of leaving the church he grew up in and the challenges of no longer being a pastor.

"It would be as if a surgeon lost his eyesight and could no longer perform surgery," Schuller said. "It was devastating."

Despite the devastation, Schuller, who has said he does not hold any grudges against his older siblings, has used the painful experience to reinvent himself as a successful businessman and entrepreneur.

The father of four and former pastor turned businessman has said that the best lesson he learned from the painful experience was, "When you are down to nothing, God is up to something."