Ex-CHC members reveal pressure to donate ‘as much as we can’
City Harvest Church (CHC) started off as a modest Bible study
group of 20 more than two decades ago.
Organised by a fresh-faced National University of Singapore
graduate named Kong Hee in 1989, the church grew rapidly,
converting many young and passionate individuals to the Christian
faith.
At its peak in 2009, the religious group, which by then had been
registered as a charity, could count 33,000 followers.
Many of them would rock the halls of the Singapore Expo where
services were held, repeating the shouts of “Hallelujah!” by Kong,
a proponent of the charismatic movement in Singapore.
In interviews with Yahoo! Singapore, current and former church
members recounted their experiences with CHC,
which has now come under the spotlight after Kong and four other
key members of the ministry were charged Wednesday over the alleged
misuse of church funds to finance Kong’s pop-star wife’s
career.
“I think one of the factors that draw people to our church is
how the services are conducted,” shared 22-year-old CHC member Michelle Weers. “The praise and worship is
vibrant, the gospel is preached creatively.”
Besides holding weekly services in English, Mandarin and
dialects, the CHC also caters to Indonesians,
Filipinos, children and the intellectually-disabled.
About 46 per cent of the congregation was below the age of 25
years, based on statistics provided by the church in 2010. With an
average age of 24, majority of the churchgoers are believed to be
young professionals aged 25 to 35.
Most, if not all, of CHC’s followers are
also very much attracted to the church’s charismatic founder, a man
they said is “talented” and “inspiring” and who always “lives out
what he preaches”.
“He’s like our spiritual father,” said James Yeo, an active
CHC member for the past eight years. “And as
our senior pastor, he really practises what he preaches, and acted
like a role model to all of us.”
Echoed a 28-year-old executive who’d be known only as Ms Ong, “I
believe it is the doctrines and preaching from Pastor KH that
continues to draw the crowd and retain its members despite the
upheavals it has been through over the years.”
The ‘prosperity Gospel’ of CHC
Church funds grew with the rise in membership. Net assets in
2009 amounted to an estimated S$103 million.
Members who listened to Kong, 47, would open their pockets wide
to contribute to the church.
The pastor would often preach what became known as the
“prosperity Gospel” – one reaps what one sows, and up to a
hundred-fold returns could be harvested.
In a video of one of his sermons uploaded onto YouTube in 2008,
Kong stressed that one’s faith proclamation “must be backed up by
our giving” and, if not, was essentially empty.
“What we give every week is the measure of the value that you
place on your Lord and your saviour Jesus Christ,” he told the
crowd. “We can lift up our hands to worship god, but if the tithes
are still in our pockets, then due tribute has not been given. Then
our praises are empty. Our words are empty. There is no value to
back it up.”
CHC’s online donation page, which allows
churchgoers and the public alike to give their offerings via eNets
and credit cards, also states that the church believes one’s giving
is “a form of worship unto the Lord”.
Not everyone, however, bought into this belief, which gradually
turned into a focus of many critics. Some CHC
members left as a result.
“I joined the church initially because he (Kong) preached very
well and knows how to create a program that appealed to youths,”
said 26-year-old Terence Lee, who was a member of the church for
seven years until 2010.
Citing “a lack of transparency” in the running of the church as
his reason for leaving, the assistant editor shared that he no
longer agreed with the doctrine, which he now feels is based on a
“shaky Bible interpretation concocted by self-styled Bible
gurus”.
A former cell group leader, who declined to be named, also let
on that “there was definitely pressure to donate”, especially among
younger church members.
“Those who consistently gave more would be applauded; those who
didn’t give so much would be ‘strongly encouraged’ every week to
‘give as much as you can’,” he told Yahoo! Singapore. “We were
always told that God would make rich those who donated more.”
Marketing executive Mary Lim too, felt the pressure. The
29-year-old eventually chose to leave the religious organisation
three years ago when she became depressed that she couldn’t give
enough.
“When we signed up, they would give us forms, GIRO forms, encouraging us to donate to CHC via GIRO to make sure our
tithes were regular,” she recalled.
Her friends who continue to attend CHC
still donate via GIRO, she added. Three other
CHC members confirmed this.
Continued support
Over the years, CHC has been hounded by
controversy over how it may be using members’ funds.
Nine years after its main church building – a 2,300 seater – was
built in Jurong West, CHC announced in early
2010 its big plans to build a double-floor 12,000-seat auditorium
in Suntec Singapore for worship services at a whopping S$310
million.
Questions over the church’s ambitious plans began to surface
among the public and the press. For one, should religious
organisations, registered as charities, be allowed to make
investments using what are essentially donor funds?
In March 2010, the Commissioner of Charities (COC) and
Commercial Affairs Department came knocking on CHC’s door after receiving complaints alleging the misuse
of the church’s funds.
Even then, the megachurch managed to secure S$22.9 million last
November in pledges towards a building fund that will pay for the
church’s S$310 million investment in Suntec Singapore, said a 2011
Straits Times report.
This, despite a falling membership amid police investigation for
possible abuse of funds.
Numbers dwindled to an estimated 23,000 in 2010, down from
33,000 a year before.
A two-year investigation ended last Wednesday with Kong and four
other senior CHC members charged for
allegedly misappropriating about S$24 million from CHC’s building funds for unauthorised use, among other
charges.
Despite the put-downs, many CHC members
whom Yahoo! Singapore spoke to continued to show unwavering support
for the church and their pastor.
“The church does preach about prosperity, but that is only one
aspect of the gospel,” shared Weers, who’s been a member for six
years. “Teachings are done on the full gospel.”
The 22-year-old SIM undergraduate also
added that “testimonies shared are not always on financial
blessings”, contrary to what many have alleged.
Mdm Lim, a 50-year-old homemaker, was another who shared the
same sentiment and believed wholeheartedly in “God’s principle of
Sowing and Reaping”.
“Whatever seed we sow, we will reap the harvest of its kind –
when we sow love, we reap love; when we sow money, we will be
blessed financially,” she said.
“But it’s more than that,” Lim was quick to add. “Pastor Kong
has preached on love, sacrifice and many areas, it’s not just about
money.”
But the churchgoer of two years, who contributes about S$500 to
the CHC every month, shared that she
understood where detractors were coming from, especially since
“money’s a sensitive issue”.
“But my stand is that people give because they want to give to
the Lord. And we know that the church will do good works from
whatever we’ve contributed.”
While some churchgoers such as Lim acknowledged “the wrong
Pastor Kong has done”, many maintained that their leaders are
innocent and voiced confidence in their integrity.
Said one from the latter group, James Yeo, “I believe that no
individual personally benefited from this, no one pocketed any
money, and there was no embezzlement whatsoever.”
Referring to the controversial project at the heart of the
probe, the 21-year-old added, “Crossover is not a project of five
individuals, it is a project of the whole church. Members gave
willingly and with great support as to what Sun (Kong’s wife) is
doing.”
from yahoo
The chappie is not stupid . He saw what he could do to harness the
young and impressionables . He had a platform to start with - he
was a graduate from our UNI to start with. And he must have seen
those American styled evangelical stir your spirits type cult
leaders, who could move people.. in the direction he wants them to
move... Like a MRT people mover - you can swing a mass of loyalists
to donate to your course once they get mesmerized by your
prosperity gospels and fast beating rock hymns....and of course you
got to do some visibily good stuff( charities etc) and promote and
publicize what good you do...... then when your insidious
intentions to line your pockets and lifestyle seeps in- the
congregation actually accepts it as part and parcel of God's
blessings for you-their spiritual leader! Amazing grace!
