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==Profile of Congregations==
==Profile of Congregations==
The church has been described by the ''[[Charisma (magazine)|Charisma]]'' magazine as "one of the largest congregations in Asia."<ref>{{cite web|title= Why Isn't the American church growing?|work=Charisma Magazine|url=http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=10291|accessdate=May 29, 2007}}</ref> It was believed to be the largest independent church in Singapore, with a database name list of 32,731 and had an average of 28,134 attendees in December 2009.<ref>{{cite web|title=THE CITY HARVEST STORY|work=City Harvest Church|url=http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/church/church.php|accessdate=Nov 8, 2010}}</ref><ref name="CHCOurChurch">{{cite web|title=CHC Factsheet|work=Kong Hee|url=http://www.konghee.com/www/chc-factsheet/|accessdate=Mar 07 2010}}</ref> The church's highest record attendance was 57,691 during City Harvest's Christmas services in 2008. On 31 May 2010, the Commercial Affairs Department raided the church's offices and picked up computers and financial records. Several individuals connected to the church, including the church founder Mr Kong Hee were also called in to assist in the police investigation for alleged misuse of church funds. During the period from June to September 2010, the weekly average attendance fell to around 15,000 <ref>{{cite web|title= City Harvest Scales Down at Suntec|work=The Straits Times|url=http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_636701.html|accessdate=Feb 19, 2011}}</ref>
The church has been described by the ''[[Charisma (magazine)|Charisma]]'' magazine as "one of the largest congregations in Asia."<ref>{{cite web|title= Why Isn't the American church growing?|work=Charisma Magazine|url=http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=10291|accessdate=May 29, 2007}}</ref> It was believed to be the largest independent church in Singapore, with a database name list of 32,731 and had an average of 28,134 attendees in December 2009.<ref>{{cite web|title=THE CITY HARVEST STORY|work=City Harvest Church|url=http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/church/church.php|accessdate=Nov 8, 2010}}</ref><ref name="CHCOurChurch">{{cite web|title=CHC Factsheet|work=Kong Hee|url=http://www.konghee.com/www/chc-factsheet/|accessdate=Mar 07 2010}}</ref> The church's highest record attendance was 57,691 during City Harvest's Christmas services in 2008. During the period from June to September 2010, the weekly average attendance fell to around 15,000 <ref>{{cite web|title= City Harvest Scales Down at Suntec|work=The Straits Times|url=http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_636701.html|accessdate=Feb 19, 2011}}</ref>


47.3% of members in City Harvest Church are below the age of 25 years.<ref>{{cite web|title=Average Weekly Salvation & Rededication Decisions|work=City Harvest Church|url=http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/church/church_stats_congregation.php|accessdate=March 6, 2010}}</ref>
47.3% of members in City Harvest Church are below the age of 25 years.<ref>{{cite web|title=Average Weekly Salvation & Rededication Decisions|work=City Harvest Church|url=http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/church/church_stats_congregation.php|accessdate=March 6, 2010}}</ref>

Revision as of 02:24, 20 February 2011

City Harvest Church
Map
CountrySingapore
DenominationIndependent
Websitewww.chc.org.sg
Clergy
Senior pastor(s)Rev. Dr. Kong Hee

City Harvest Church (Chinese: 城市丰收教会) or CHC is a non-denominational megachurch in Singapore with an average weekly attendance of about 15,000 attendees [1]. Founded in 1989 by Rev. Kong Hee,[2] the church bases its values on Charismatic and Pentecostal teachings, with doctrinal emphasis on the Great Commandment, the Great Commission and the Cultural Mandate. City Harvest Church is a full member of the National Council of Churches of Singapore, Evangelical Fellowship of Singapore, and Festival of Praise Fellowship. Services are held at its church building in Jurong West and the Singapore Expo.

CHC has affiliate churches in the region, including Indonesia, Taiwan and Australia.[3]

Mission statement

CHC’s mission statement is "to build a church with a strong spiritual atmosphere of faith and purity, where every member is released into ministry, discipled in the Great Commandment to obey the Great Commission and the Cultural Mandate set by the current cultural milieu."[4]

Together with its Mission Statement, City Harvest Church has 17 statements of faith which form the basis of its teachings to the congregation and the foundation of its various ministries.[4]

History

The church was founded by Kong Hee[2] and his wife Sun Ho[5] on May 7, 1989, and held its first service at Peace Centre. It first functioned as “Ekklesia Ministry,” a youth department under the legal covering of Bethany Christian Centre, an Assemblies of God church. On December 21, 1992, City Harvest Church was set up as a society. It was registered under the Charities Act on 16 October 1993.[6]

In its early days, CHC had to move through different venues to accommodate its growing congregation. Past venues include the Bible House, Katong Park Hotel, World Trade Centre, DBS, Auditorium, PUB Auditorium, NTUC Auditorium, Ministry of Environment Building, National Productivity Board Auditorium, Hotel Grand Central, Orchard Hotel, and the Westin Hotel. In six years, CHC grew from 20 to 1,319 in its average monthly attendance.[6]

On 4 June 1995, CHC leased the former Hollywood Theatre at Tanjong Katong Road and held its services there for another six years. By 2001, the church had grown to 10,310 and was conducting up to 15 services every weekend.[6]

On December 15, 2001, the church moved to its permanent 2,300-seater venue at Jurong West Street 91. On December 11, 2005, CHC rented another worship site at Singapore Expo for its weekend English congregations.[6]

From 2002, Kong began to teach on the Cultural Mandate and encourage the church members to excel in the marketplace. On November 1, 2005, Kong withdrew himself from the staff payroll and he now serves the church as an honorary founder/senior pastor.[7]

Staff and Committees[8]

The church has 26 licensed pastors, with eight of them ordained as Reverends. The 154 full-time staff work from two locations: the Jurong West premises and the corporate office at Suntec City[9].

City Harvest Church has 15 committees overseeing all its operations: (1) Audit Committee, (2) Programs & Services Committee, (3) Fund-raising Committee, (4) Appointment & Nomination Committee, (5) Human Resource Committee, (6) Investment Committee, (7) Missions Committee, (8) Marketplace Committee, (9) Building Committee, (10) Men's Ministry Committee, (11) Singles Committee, (12) Children's Committee, (13) Counseling & Inner Healing Committee, (14) Christian Education Committee, (15) Creative Ministry Committee. All committees report to the main CHC Management Board, whose office bearers are elected annually by its 720 Executive Members.

Profile of Congregations

The church has been described by the Charisma magazine as "one of the largest congregations in Asia."[10] It was believed to be the largest independent church in Singapore, with a database name list of 32,731 and had an average of 28,134 attendees in December 2009.[11][12] The church's highest record attendance was 57,691 during City Harvest's Christmas services in 2008. During the period from June to September 2010, the weekly average attendance fell to around 15,000 [13]

47.3% of members in City Harvest Church are below the age of 25 years.[14]

The church holds different weekly services in English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Indonesian, Filipino and Tamil. It also has weekly services for children as well as for people with special needs.

Ministries

Almost all functions of CHC's 36 internal ministries are run by church members on a volunteer basis. The church believes that “every member is a minister” with unique gifts, talents and abilities.[15]

  • Drama Ministry All scripts and music scores used in drama productions are originally written and composed by members of the church.[16]
  • Marketplace Ministry This is a ministry outreach to working professionals and business people, whose members meet to study God’s Word as well as to strengthen business networks.[17]
  • Nursery Ministry Baby and toddler care is provided while parents attend the worship service.[18]
  • The Millennial Orchestra A 40-member orchestra that performs in various church-wide conferences, including the Asia Conference 2008.
  • Ministry To The Hearing Impaired This ministry reaches out to hearing-impaired church members. Regular recreational and social activities are also organised to help them adapt better to mainstream society.
  • Strikeforce Ministry Strikeforce is part of the church’s creative ministry and its purpose is to “train people to serve God in various expressions of rhythm, movement and drumming.”[19]

Strikeforce performed at Singapore’s National Day Parade in 2006 and 2009. The group also performed at the NDP Appreciation dinners hosted by the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence force, as well as the Chingay Parade.[20]

Affiliate Organizations

School of Theology

The School of Theology (formerly known as City Harvest Bible Training Center) was started on January 18, 1994 with the purpose of training up pastors, missionaries and church workers for the establishing of local churches in Asia.[21] It conducts a six-month, full-time program offering an Advanced Certificate of Theology. In the past 16 years Since 2009, 4,323 graduates from 32 countries have graduated from its courses.[22]

City Harvest Community Services Association[23]

Main article: City Harvest Community Services Association

City Harvest Community Services Association (CHCSA) currently employs 8 full-time staff and was registered with the Registry of Societies (ROS 162/97 WEL) on August 16, 1997. It received full membership with the National Council of Social Service on January 7, 2000. On April 29, 2004, CHCSA attained the ISO 9001:2000 certification. In 2009, CHCSA’s 889 volunteers provided 19,196 services to 14,227 different individuals in Singapore and made 5,107 home visitations to its clients. That same year, CHCSA received the Outstanding Community Partner Award 2009 for its partnership with Singapore’s Southwest CDC.[24]

Culture

Cell Groups

Cell groups (CG) are a major part of the church's ministry. Divided into youth and adult cell groups, meetings are mostly led by trained lay members. As with all cell groups, they are meant to help members forge close relationships in a small setting.

Missions & Church Planting

CHC has 47 affiliate churches, with a total membership of 24,898.[25] Apart from these affiliates, CHC also works with many other ministries in the missions field. In 2009, CHC sent out 1,758 members in 301 teams to 70 cities to help Christian agencies overseas.[26]

The missions department organizes conferences and seminars throughout the year, strengthening CHC’s affiliate churches. Many of the church members are also involved in humanitarian causes, such as, disaster relief work and medical aid to countries like China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Honduras, and more recently, Haiti.[27]

Media and Productions

Recordings and Stage Productions

Like most Charismatic churches, CHC uses contemporary music and settings for praise and worship, including a choir and a wide range of musical instruments.[28] It also has a strong drama team for its stage productions.[29] In 2008, CHC's music style was featured in Channel News Asia prime time program 'Get Rea!'

Broadcasting

The church has a 30-minute television broadcast program Harvest Time, which is televised on 14 Cable Television Networks and satellites. Harvest Time has a potential viewership of about 1.486 billion, and is available in its original English-language or Mandarin, Korean and Japanese translations, depending on the broadcast station. In 2009, the church’s webcast of its worship services reached approximately 484,723 viewers from 107 countries, or 9,322 viewers per weekend.[30][31]

Publications

The church previously published a magazine known as Harvest Times (founded in 1999), with a readership of 60,000. In 2006, a Chinese version of Harvest Times - Chinese Harvest Times was started and had a readership of 45,000.[3] On April 1, 2009, Harvest Times magazine ceased its print edition.

In addition, City News, a Christian news broadcasting sector of the church that publishes its newspaper weekly was started in 2009 and celebrated its first-year anniversary in February 2010.

Awards

List of awards received.[32]

  • 2002: 3rd Annual Intelligent20 Award[33]
  • 2004: ISO 9001:2000 Certification[34][35]
  • 2005 : Hitwise Award - Ranked #1 in the category: Lifestyle - Religion for most visited website
  • 2006: Hitwise Award - Ranked #1 in the category: Lifestyle - Religion for most visited website[36]
  • 2007: Hitwise Award - Ranked #1 in the category: Lifestyle - Religion for most visited website
  • 2008-2009 Hitwise Award - Ranked Top 10 in the category: Lifestyle - Religion for most visited website

Conferences

Emerge Conference

Emerge is a youth conference organized for youths and young adults from 13 to 25 years old.

A total of 8,830 youth leaders and delegates from 16 nations attended the last Emerge Conference from May 31 to June 3, 2007. The opening night meeting was broadcast “live” on GODTV to 122 million homes in more than 200 nations and territories.[37]

CHC also co-hosts Emerge conferences overseas with its affiliate churches in Malaysia and Taiwan.[38]

Asia Conference

Asia Conference is a biennial conference bringing together pastors, Bible teachers, worship leaders, and Christian artists to educate, equip and empower Asian Christians. Apart from the plenary sessions, the conference also features elective workshops for the delegates.

The inaugural Asia Conference held from November 19 to 23, 2008 drew 20,356 delegates from 68 countries. Speakers included Kong Hee (Singapore), Phil Pringle (Australia), Chris Pringle (Australia), Ulf Ekman (Sweden), A. R. Bernard (USA) and Benny Hinn. The event also featured worship leaders such as Don Moen (USA), C3 Band (Australia), True Worshippers (Indonesia) and Carola Häggkvist (Sweden). The event used up three halls and 26 rooms at the Singapore Expo for the 10 plenary sessions and 53 elective workshops.[38]

The 2010 Asia Conference was held from May 26 to 30, 2010, some 25,245 delegates coming from 70 countries representing 2,086 churches attended the free-admission conference.

Church Building

The church building located at Jurong West Street 91 was completed in 2002. The entire building cost S$48 million (US$26.6 million). Occupying almost 38,000sqf on a 30-year leasehold land, its main hall seats up to 2,300 attendees and has two 250-seat halls.[39]

On December 15, 2005, CHC began renting Hall 8 of Singapore Expo as an additional worship venue with a seating configuration that accommodates a maximum of 8,200 attendees.[40]

From 19th March 2011, CHC will be moving to the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre. The plan was for a 12,000-seat auditorium to be built, but it was scaled down to to 7,500 shortly before the actual move[41]. Besides the auditorium, the place will also hold meeting rooms, a multi-purpose hall, theatre and concourse on the top floors. The church had earlier acquired a significant minority stake in the consortium that owns the building.[40]

Controversies

Association with healing evangelist Benny Hinn

City Harvest Church has on a number of occasions hosted healing evangelist Benny Hinn to conduct miracle healing sessions.[42][43] While some Singaporeans criticized the invitations due to Hinn's controversial reputation, the church dismissed the criticism.[44]

S$310 million Suntec investment

On March 6, 2010, City Harvest Church announced that it has purchased a significant stake in Suntec Convention Centre and will be using its facilities for church services, the project will cost an estimated S$310 million, including shares acquisition, renovation and rental costs.[45][46][47] Church founder Kong Hee said in a statement that the move "allows [the church] to move from a present expensive rental model to a more financially sustainable ownership model for the long term".[48] However, some brought up the point that as a registered charity, CHC's income - expected to include profits and dividends from space rental and tenant leases in Suntec Singapore in the future - is non-taxable. Questions surfaced among the public whether religious organisations, which are registered as charities, should be allowed to go into business using what are essentially donor funds.[45]

The Commissioner of Charities (COC) sought clarifications on the transaction.[46] The church stated it was under a non-disclosure agreement which required the details of the transaction to remain confidential, but explained that the investment was made through a holding company that is not a charity organization and does not enjoy tax breaks; and had disclosed details of the deal to the COC as well as the Urban Redevelopment Authority upon request.[49] The church also said that there was a "strong and unfounded allegation" floating online that the Management Board and Kong were "deliberately concealing a number of embarrassing facts from its members" with regard to the Suntec investment, saying that the allegation was "furthest from the truth",[47] and later released a notice stating that Charities and foundations often use donor funds to invest and generate sustainable income for their intended causes.[50]

Fund Probe

On 31 May 2010, the Office of the Commissioner of Charities and the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police announced that 17 individuals linked to the City Harvest Church, including church founder Pastor Kong Hee and his deputy, Pastor Tan Ye Peng, were under investigation after complaints alleging the misuse of church funds. The joint press statement stressed that the investigations are neither linked nor initiated from its acquisition of a stake in the Suntec Convention Centre[51][52][53] The police also visited the offices and homes of these individuals and brought back computers and financial records for investigations. The police were looking into some financial transactions among these individuals and related companies,[54][55] involving the possible falsification of accounts and criminal breach of trust amounting to millions of dollars which dated back a number of years. The authorities said that regular church activities and services for the congregation need not be disrupted during ongoing investigations, which is expected to take several months.[56]

The investigation followed requests by church members for the COC to review the church's constitution, which denied ordinary members the chance to attend general meetings, or be privy to its annual reports and financial statements. Some members felt that the church board had utilised the church's building fund and committed it to "future liabilities" without consulting members at its latest AGM.[57]

See also

References

  1. ^ "AsiaOne News". No 12,000-seat auditorium at City Harvest. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  2. ^ a b http://news.asiaone.com/News/the%2BStraits%2BTimes/Story/A1Story20100602-219622.html
  3. ^ a b "City Harvest Church's Factsheet". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  4. ^ a b "Statement of Faith". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  5. ^ Lam Leng Hung, John; Chew, Eng An (November 5, 2003). "A Pastor in a Broad Sense". Streats.
  6. ^ a b c d "CHC Milestones". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  7. ^ "CHC Story". Kong Hee. Retrieved May 22, 2010. [dead link]
  8. ^ "City Harvest Church's Organisation Structure". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  9. ^ "CHC Story". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 2, 2010. [dead link]
  10. ^ "Why Isn't the American church growing?". Charisma Magazine. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  11. ^ "THE CITY HARVEST STORY". City Harvest Church. Retrieved Nov 8, 2010.
  12. ^ "CHC Factsheet". Kong Hee. Retrieved Mar 07 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  13. ^ "City Harvest Scales Down at Suntec". The Straits Times. Retrieved Feb 19, 2011.
  14. ^ "Average Weekly Salvation & Rededication Decisions". City Harvest Church. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  15. ^ "City Harvest Church - Our Ministry". City Harvest Church. Retrieved December 5, 2008.
  16. ^ "Drama Ministry". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  17. ^ "Marketplace Ministry". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  18. ^ "Nursery Ministry". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  19. ^ "City Harvest Church – Strikeforce". City Harvest Church. Retrieved December 5, 2008. [dead link]
  20. ^ "The Strikeforce Live @ NDP 09". City Harvest Church. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  21. ^ "City Harvest Bible Training Center". City Harvest Bible Training Center. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  22. ^ "CHC Missions & Church Planting". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  23. ^ "City Harvest Community Services Association". City Harvest Community Services Association. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  24. ^ "About Us". City Harvest Community Services Association. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  25. ^ "CHC Story". Kong Hee. Retrieved May 21, 2010. [dead link]
  26. ^ "CHC Missions & Church Planting". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
  27. ^ Judith Tan (2010-01-23). "Make Time For The Less Fortunate". The Straits Times. p. B8.
  28. ^ "Facts & Figures". Asia Conference 2008. 2008. pp. Pg:3–7.
  29. ^ Taken from http://www.cross.com.sg
  30. ^ "Our Media". City Harvest Church. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  31. ^ "Harvest Times Broadcast". City Harvest Church. Retrieved Feb 02 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  32. ^ "City Harvest Church's Fact Sheet". City Harvest Church. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
  33. ^ Leong Khay Mun (January/February, 2003). "3rd Annual Intelligent20 Award". Inteelligent Asia. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ Cheok Soh Hui (2004-06-30). "Harvest Times-City Harvest Church:PSB ISO 90012000". The Straits Times. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  35. ^ "PSB Certification". PSB. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  36. ^ "Hitwise Singapore". Hitwise Singapore. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  37. ^ "Distribution". God TV. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
  38. ^ a b "CHC Milestones". City Harvest Church. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  39. ^ "Other places of worship slash out too". Electric New Paper. 2005-08-29. By Skye Tan
  40. ^ a b "New Building". Kong Hee. Retrieved May 4, 2010. Cite error: The named reference "New_Building" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  41. ^ "City Harvest Scales Down at Suntec". The Straits Times. Retrieved Feb 19, 2011.
  42. ^ http://www.chc.org.sg/harvesttimes/ht_25/ht_25_03.asp
  43. ^ http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/church/church_eventsCal.php?YRID=2007
  44. ^ Hanqing, Liew, "Visit by hotshot US reverend draws flak on the Net", The New Paper, Oct 10, 2008
  45. ^ a b http://news.asiaone.com/News/the%2BStraits%2BTimes/Story/A1Story20100320-205694.html Charity commissioner questions City Harvest. Mar 20th, 2010
  46. ^ a b "City Harvest's expansion plan". Today Online. 2010-03-22.
  47. ^ a b http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1047863/1/.html City Harvest Church responds to questions over non-disclosure of Suntec deal. April 4th, 2010.
  48. ^ Esther Teo (2010-03-07). "City Harvest paying $310m to become Suntec co-owner". The Sunday Times. p. 1,3.
  49. ^ "Details could not be disclosed, says church". Today Online. 2010-04-05.
  50. ^ "NOTICE TO MEMBERS OF CHC" (PDF). City Harvest Church. 2010-05-22.
  51. ^ http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4121597
  52. ^ http://news.asiaone.com/News/the%2BStraits%2BTimes/Story/A1Story20100607-220579.html
  53. ^ http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1063720/1/.html
  54. ^ http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1060093/1/.html
  55. ^ http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20100531-219380.html
  56. ^ http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100601-0000111/City-Harvest-probe
  57. ^ http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100609-0000124/Ordinary-members-have-no-right-to-attend-general-meetings

External links

1°20′35″N 103°41′31″E / 1.343041°N 103.691915°E / 1.343041; 103.691915

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