At “Miracle-Seed Sunday” in Singapore’s New Creation Church
last month, the pastor’s sermon was preceded by PowerPoint and
video presentations, and donations were overseen by Deloitte &
Touche LLP auditors.
Centuries after Catholics established missions in Asia, Singaporeans are flocking
to a new species of churches making appeals more in common with
“Material Girl” pop-singer Madonna than the Jesuits. Wearing a
white leather jacket and jeans, Senior Pastor Joseph Prince asked
God to reward a crowd of about 1,200 with houses, cars, jobs, pay
raises and holidays if they contributed to New Creation’s
multimillion-dollar funding drive.
Prince’s 24,000-strong flock belongs to a flourishing breed of
churches from Houston to Sydney winning followers with a focus on
personal well-being. As the rise of so-called mega churches helps
make Christians the fastest-growing religious group in majority-Buddhist Singapore,
their fundraising prowess is also making its mark, allowing groups
including New Creation and City
Harvest Church to invest in some of the island’s
biggest commercial properties.
“Mega churches have been able to articulate Christianity in a
very contemporary manner,” said Terence
Chong, a Senior Fellow at the Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies who has researched such groups. “Being able
to adopt the language of pop culture, mass consumption -- we think
this appeals to the new middle class, people who are aspiring
middle class.”
In a city state of 5.2 million people occupying a quarter of the
area of Rhode Island, the mega churches stand out with their
gatherings of thousands, near-celebrity leaders and outreach
methods that range from magic shows and concerts to musical worship
backed by electric guitars.
At the New Creation service, PowerPoint slides showed attendees
how to write checks to the church, while armed security guards
watched the cash. Worship and Holy Communion were followed by a
video about a woman who donated on Miracle Seed Sundays even when
her husband’s cancer treatments saddled the couple with debt.
Images of a Volkswagen and a condominium showed the rewards that
came to them for giving.
“As they come forth Lord to sow, release upon them Father the
power to get, to create, to receive wealth in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ,” Prince said in the rented Rock Auditorium at the
Suntec
City Mall. “Prosperity is right. Amen. We prosper
to prosper others. We prosper to prosper God’s kingdom, so come
believing.”
The special session sought to raise funds for the church’s half
of a S$976 million ($783 million) retail and entertainment complex, which includes a
5,000-seat auditorium. The venue, which will double as New
Creation’s meeting place, is set to open in November with concerts
by musician and producer David Foster and friends including Chaka
Khan and Babyface, according to a statement from
the theater.
The joint venture with CapitaLand Ltd. (CAPL), Southeast Asia’s biggest
developer, would be among the 10 largest commercial properties by
value and the biggest investment by any religious organization in
Singapore, according to Nicholas Mak, executive director at SLP
International Property Consultants.
The Miracle Seed event in 2010 raised S$21 million in a single
day from 22,272 attendees, according to New Creation’s website, and
the church planned three such sessions this year. It had raised
S$348 million for the property project as of July 2012, the website
said.
It’s not alone. City
Harvest Church, a non-denominational church
founded by senior pastor Kong Hee, 48, has attracted a reported
20,619 members as of last year. It proposed in 2010 to spend S$310
million for a stake in the Suntec International Convention &
Exhibition Centre as well as related rents and renovation costs.
The building was the venue for the Asia- Pacific Economic
Cooperation summit in 2009.
At a July 21 church service, Executive Pastor Aries Zulkarnain
told followers the group raised a record S$22 million for its
building fund last year, and had doubled its stake in the property
to 39.2 percent for an additional S$54 million. He used PowerPoint
slides to instruct churchgoers how to give offerings via cash,
check and credit
card, and highlighted the online donation
system.
These churches are “beyond any doubt” the fastest fundraising
bloc among religious organizations in the city state, said Gerard
Ee, former President of the National Council of Social Service who
was previously a partner with Ernst & Young. “The message here
is: The more you give, the more you get back from God. It’s like an
investment.”
New Creation, whose website reports 24,000 church members,
convenes at several locations in the city every week because it’s
outgrown the Rock Auditorium. At the Suntec City Mall, which houses
retailers including Carrefour SA (CA), restaurants
and a “Fountain of Wealth,” tickets are given out starting at 6:45
a.m. on Sundays for those wishing to see Prince speak in
person.
Those who don’t have tickets watch him remotely via video feeds
from other venues, such as the Marina Bay Sands casino resort and
convention center or a nearby movie theater.
Prince, who sports a black leather jacket and bronze highlights
in his hair on the church’s website, speaks at four sessions
throughout the day, and recordings of his sermons reach millions
across North
America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Israel, according
to his podcast’s iTunes
page. Websites unaffiliated to the church put his
age at 49, though New Creation declined to confirm the
information.
Singapore’s 2010 census showed that Christians make up the
largest share of university graduates, and the proportion of
citizens who defined themselves as Christians increased the most in
10 years compared to all other religions.
By making their services enjoyable and embracing prosperity,
groups such as New Creation, City Harvest and Hillsong in Australia
are able to attract followers, said Jeaney Yip, a lecturer at the
University of Sydney Business
School who has studied the marketing practices of
mega churches.
“Market-friendly ideologies associated with individualism and
self-empowerment are often blended with selective Christian
theologies to emphasize positive living and blessings, while
deflecting overtly negative Christian doctrines such as suffering,
judgment, sacrifice, hell or death from sin,” Yip said. “Their
church services are scripted and ‘produced’ with deliberate use of
contemporary music, sound and lighting.”
Axel Ng, 20, a recruit serving his mandatory National Service
with the Singapore Army, attends Prince’s 8:30 a.m. Sunday
services, after waking up before 6 a.m. to get in line for tickets.
At New Creation’s Miracle Seed service on Aug. 19, he gave $50 to
the building fund from his $510 monthly pay.
“Pastor Prince is one of the reasons why I come to church, but
we believe he is just a messenger,” said Ng, who was introduced to
New Creation by his mother in 2005. “The music is liberating, it
speaks to me.”
Faith Community Baptist Church, founded in 1986 by Senior Pastor
Apostle Lawrence Khong, provides “celebration services” for its
10,000 members, according to its website. Khong, born in 1952, is
pictured on the site with gelled hair and a black leather jacket
and matching bracelet. He also fronts the group’s entertainment
arm, staging shows that “combine magic, music, drama and dance to
establish God’s Kingdom in the marketplace.”
Faith Community’s attendance compares with a weekly congregation
of more than 38,000 at the Lakewood Church in Houston,
Texas, according to the U.S.
church’s website.
The communications divisions of City Harvest, New Creation and
Faith Community all rejected interview requests from Bloomberg News with their
leaders.
Mega churches thrive in urban, newly-developed countries where
they create networking opportunities and a sense of identity,
according to Hoon Chang Yau, an Assistant Professor of Asian
Studies at
Singapore Management
University who researches Christianity in Indonesia.
City Harvest, which says the average
age of its congregation in 2010 was 29, has
affiliate churches in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Brunei. It lists
business awards won by its
members as well as statistics measuring their academic performance
against the national average on its website.
At the July 21 City Harvest service, singers led the
congregation in song during the worship session, featuring
contemporary-styled music backed by a band with drums, electric
guitar and bass. The founder, Kong, read Bible verses from an iPad
and then invited the crowd to talk to God “in tongues,” leading
almost a minute of unrecognizable spoken sounds.
The boom in fundraising has been accompanied by concern over how
the money is used. Kong and five other City Harvest officers were
charged this year with conspiracy to misuse S$50.6 million of the
church’s funds, including using a portion of the money to finance
the music career of Ho Yeow Sun, Kong’s wife. Kong denied the
charges. The church has said it stands by the accused leaders.
In contrast to the U.S., where churches often champion political
and sometimes anti-government views, religious groups in Singapore
refrain from criticizing those in power. The laws “provide a broad
framework to ensure that these pastors stay clear from discussing
the politics of the day,” said Mathew Mathews, a research fellow at
the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore who has written about
mega churches.
The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act allows authorities to
stop religious leaders from addressing or advising groups, to
prevent them from inciting hostility between different religions
and disaffection against the government, among other offenses.
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said in a June statement the
City Harvest case involved charges against the individuals, not the
church or Christians, adding that the group was free to continue
its services and activities.
Irene Hii, a former atheist, became a believer after hearing
Prince speak at a conference organized by Hillsong, a mega church
in Sydney, and has been a New Creation follower since she was a
university student in 2000. She gives 10 percent of her income to
the church every month, known as a tithe.
“It’s my way of telling my God: You’ve given me my blessings, so
this is the portion that I’m giving back to you, but I’m keeping
the 90 percent,” Hii, a 34-year-old doctor, said after one of New
Creation’s services.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sharon Chen in Singapore
at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie
Phang at [email protected]
This article was originally published on Bloomberg.com on
Sep 4, 2012
9:17 AM GMT+0800