Schuller was born a few miles outside of Alton, Iowa to a family of Dutch ancestry. He studied at Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1950 with a Master of Divinity degree. Upon graduating from Western Theological Seminary, he was ordained as a minister in the Reformed Church in America. He worked at the Ivanhoe Reformed Church in Riverdale, Illinois (south suburban Chicago), before moving to Garden Grove, California where, after humble beginnings, the Garden Grove Community Church was opened in 1955 in the Orange Drive-In Theater, which Schuller rented for $500. He has also since received numerous honorary doctoral degrees.
He also purchased two acres, located about four miles from the drive-in theater and built a new 300 seat chapel. Each Sunday, Schuller conducted a service in the chapel at 9.30 in the morning and then drove his organ to the drive-in to conduct a second service there.
As the size of both congregations grew, Schuller was able to raise enough money to purchase 10 acres in Garden Grove, just two miles from the new Disneyland. His vision was to combine both congregations into one church location, which could function as both a "walk-in, drive-in" church. Ground was broken for the new church on September 10, 1958, at 12141 Lewis Street.
The new church was designed by the famed international architect Richard Neutra and was completed in 1961 at a cost of $3,000,000. The first dedication service was held in that new building on November 5, 1961.
With a punch of one button, two 25-feet high glass doors slid open as Schuller mounted the pulpit to the sound of his choir singing Holy, Holy, Holy. That part of the design of the new church building enabled Schuller to preach his sermons to 1,500 worshipers in 500 cars at the same time that the indoor portion of the building was packed with additional members of his congregation. The newspaper advertisements described the church as a "walk-in, drive-in" church.
Three new associate ministers joined the Garden Grove Community Church during that period: Harold Leestma, minister of Evangelism, coming from Indiana, Kenneth Van Wyk, minister of youth and education, coming from Michigan and Dr. Henry Poppen, minister of visitation, coming from Singapore.
A new "Tower of Hope" building was added on the north side of the drive-in church building. It was completed in 1968 and rose 90 feet in the air with a cross on top. It became the highest structure in the county at that time. The building would become the setting for another church first a 24 hour suicide prevention hot-line called New Hope, in memory of an early church member that Mrs. Schuller had personally attempted to save from suicide threats, only to lose her on a night when Mrs. Schuller was unable to answer her telephone. In the words of the founder, Dr. Robert H. Schuller,
"New Hope is a light that never goes out,an eye that is never closed,an ear that is never shut,a heart that never grows cold."
During that same year, Schuller was able to purchase the 10-acre walnut grove which bordered the north side of the Garden Grove Community drive-in church. That land expansion enabled him to begin construction of the much larger "Crystal Cathedral." In 1975,
Time magazine ran a story on architecture that featured Philip Johnson. Schuller met with Johnson in New York and cast his vision for the all glass cathedral. Johnson’s initial response was "Impossible! You can’t make a cathedral with glass walls and a glass ceiling in an earthquake zone!” Schuller persisted, “Why not? All you have to do is hire engineers that can do the impossible!” Then he added boldly to this architect master, “You need to cut the word impossible out of your dictionary!”
The first-ever all-glass church was dedicated on September 14, 1980 “To the Glory of Man for the Greater Glory of God.” At its dedication, Johnson called the Crystal Cathedral his “capilavori,” or “crowning achievement.”