( CNN ) The Rev . Robert H. Schuller , California televangelist and founder of the television ministry `` Hour of Power , '' died Thursday , according to his family . He was 88 years old . Schuller , also the founder of Crystal Cathedral megachurch , had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in August 2013 , a release from `` Hour of Power '' said . `` My father-in-law passed away peacefully early this morning . He was a great Dad and a great man of God , '' said Schuller 's daughter-in-law , Donna Schuller , in a Twitter message . Schuller 's life followed an almost Shakespearean arc . He was born in a Iowa farmhouse without running water and longed to preach from his earliest days . In his autobiography , `` Prayer : My Soul 's Adventure with God , '' he described standing alone by a river and picturing himself delivering sermons to a rapt congregation . After attending a Hope College and Western Theological Seminary in Michigan , he met his wife of more than 60 years , Arvella , while preaching at her church ( she was the organist ) . With their young family in tow , the Schullers caravanned west to California , where he rented a drive-in theater and preached from the roof of the snack bar . It was beneath the dignity of Christian ministry , some local pastors huffed . The `` passion pits '' where teenagers necked was no place for the gospel . Schuller was undeterred , and he quickly outgrew the drive-in . He called the explosive growth of his tiny congregation a `` miracle , '' though his many mainstream critics had other names for it . His confident , breezy version of Christianity -- too breezy , by some estimations -- drew hordes of seekers and lapsed Christians who were put off by the hellfire fulminations of many post-War American preachers . Schuller sold a softer , gentler message , which borrowed heavily , he acknowledged , from the father of the feel-good gospel , Norman Vincent Peale . He preached not to convert or condemn people , but to encourage them , a sentiment he called `` possibility thinking . '' People loved it . `` Evangelicalism at its best wants to be innovative and reach people , '' said Timothy Larsen , a professor of Christian thought at Wheaton College in Illinois . `` And Schuller was a master at that . '' `` What he got right is that the gospel is good news , '' Larsen continued . `` And he preached an uplifting message about personal transformation and uplift and hope . '' Some of Schuller 's favored phrases , though , struck others as cornpone Christianity . `` Turn your hurt into a halo ? '' said Randall Balmer , a professor of American religious history at Dartmouth College , citing one such phrase . `` That 's pretty weak tea . '' Still , Balmer gives Schuller some credit . `` It may be bad theology , but it 's brilliant marketing . '' In 1970 , Schuller began broadcasting `` Hour of Power , '' believed to be one of the first , if not the very first , Sunday service to be shown regularly on television . With his genial smile , priestly robes and gray hair , he looked and talked like a guy who wanted nothing more than to see his flock succeed . The show , which ran for decades , reached millions , making Schuller a televangelist before the term became tarnished by the sins of his many successors . Schuller 's crowning achievement , at least architecturally , still stands in Orange County , California , though it is now owned by the Roman Catholic Church . The Crystal Cathedral , a great gleaming edifice with 10,000 glass panels , gave worshipers a look at the clouds that house the heavens , while Schuller preached in the pulpit below . The message was clear to many : The road to the former ran through the latter . During the 1980s and 1990s , Schuller 's star continued to rise , with presidents stopping by the Crystal Cathedral -- often during campaigns , it should be said -- and future megachurch pastors like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels seeking his advice . As Schuller aged , though , his family was beset by a succession scandal straight from the pages of `` King Lear . '' He tried to install his only son , Bobby Jr. , as pastor of Crystal Cathedral . But the preaching styles of father and son were too different for the congregation -- measured at times at 10,000 strong -- to countenance . Bobby Schuller Jr. left `` Hour of Power '' and the pulpit at Crystal Cathedral after a short time . As the family searched for a new successor and tussled over finances , viewers and donations to the church and its television show dropped precipitously . Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for bankruptcy in 2010 , citing debts of more than $ 43 million , according to The Associated Press . Schuller 's empire , which once soared as high as his glassy cathedral , had fallen to dust . Eventually , Schuller 's grandson , also named Bobby , took over `` Hour of Power , '' though at a different church . In a statement on Thursday , the younger Schuller recalled standing atop Crystal Cathedral 's 12-story Tower of Hope with his grandfather as they surveyed the surrounding landscape . `` You could see the whole world from there , '' he said . People we 've lost in 2015 . CNN 's Stella Chan reported from Los Angeles .
The Rev . Robert Schuller , 1980s , had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2013 . His TV show , `` Hour of Power , '' was enormously popular in the 1970s and 88 .