Robert Schuller, founder of Crystal Cathedral, has died

Family members of the influential Rev. Robert H. Schuller has announced his death at the age of 88.

Schuller's grandson, who has been leading the church founded by former members of the Crystal Cathedral congregation since 2013, confirmed his passing via Twitter, writing: "My Grandfather Robert H. Schuller passed this morning into eternal life with Christ."

Schuller, who lost his wife, Arvella Schuller, in Feb. 2014, passed away Thursday at a nursing home in Los Angeles. He had been suffering since 2013 with esophagal cancer, and had not been undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatment, the Orange County Register reports.

Schuller and his wife, Arvella, founded the Crystal Cathedral church in Garden Grove, Orange County, California, in 1951, with the reverend starting his ministry outreach by preaching at a drive-in movie theater.

In 1970, Schuller started the massively popular and influential "Hour of Power" religious program, which still airs today and is helmed by his grandson, Bobby.

Ten years later, the pastor officially started services in his new Crystal Cathedral, an expansive glass and steel sanctuary with at least 10,000 windows and, by that point, home to just as many members.

Things took a turn for the worse for Schuller's Crystal Cathedral Ministries, however, when the church found itself deep in debt by 2010. The ministry filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, owing more than $7 million to creditors.

Crystal Cathedral was eventually sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for $57.5 million, and was renamed the Christ Cathedral in 2012.

By that time, relations among the leading Schuller clan had broken down, with the elder Schuller and his wife, Arvella, quitting Crystal Cathedral Ministries and filing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the ministry for copyright infringement. The couple was awarded less than a million dollars, and their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court denied.

The original Crystal Cathedral congregation also splintered off into at least two groups, one called Hope Center of Christ led by Sheila Schuller Coleman, former pastor and CEO and president of the ministry, and the other, Shepherd's Grove, led by the elder Schuller's grandson, Bobby.

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller and his wife are survived by their children, Robert A. Schuller, who had also briefly led Crystal Cathedral church, Sheila, Jeanne, Carol and Gretchen.