I had to use that one for the Anteater who's taking over the Crystal Cathedral, Sheila Schuller Coleman is taking over the reigns from dad Robert. She had been running the church's school and their family ministry program. Her brother Robert A. (dad is Robert H) had been the heir apparent until he had a falling out with his father and left a few years ago.
Dr. Coleman has a doctorate in administration and leadership from Cal-Irvine. "Not there is anything wrong with such a degree" says Dr. Byron (Ph.D. in Business Administration, Kent State, 1996), but it isn't a pastor's degree. It's a manager's degree, and running a megachurch and the programs that go with it is more managerial than pastoral.
I haven't seen her preach before (she's been sharing the pulpit with dad for the past year) but her promotion reminds me a bit of Rajiv Gandhi; his older brother Sanjay was the heir, so Rajiv pursued a career as a pilot before getting dragged into politics after Sanjay got killed in a crash. Coleman might have likewise had not counted on becoming a pastor and might have been leaning a more behind-the-scenes craft.
It will be interesting to see how CC fares in the years to come. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Presbyterian has had a tough time after he retired, and CC might have the same problem.
One interesting part is that CC is a Reformed church, which is somewhat evangelical but ordains women. I remember meeting a woman Reformed chaplain at a hospital that was run by a coalition of Reformed and Christian Reformed churches near Grand Rapids; there were no CR women pastors, so I knew she had to be straight Reformed.
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