I’m not from City Harvest Church (I attend New Creation Church) although I attend their meetings occasionally. I attended the Asia Conference last month and was very inspired by it. In this blog, I’ve always maintained that I think City Harvest is an amazing church and that I respect Pastor Kong Hee a lot. I disagree with a lot of things they do too, but that would not take away the great respect I have for them.
I’m writing this post for the same reason I’ve written a lot of posts on this blog in defense of New Creation’s teachings – because I think there’s been a lot of unjust criticisms against the church and the pastor. I definitely believe there’s a place for constructive criticism – and I think I’ve done a lot of that in relation to New Creation’s teachings, whether one agrees with my views or not. So it’s not that I don’t think there’s a place for criticism. But I’ve just seen too many negative criticisms and words going around – especially by fellow Christians – and so feel compelled to write this post and more importantly write a positive prayer of blessing for the church and the pastor, as well as invite others to do the same.
I personally believe Pastor Kong Hee is innocent – this is relating to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) investigations. I do so because I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. I’d be surprised if a pastor like him was out to make money. I believe his vision for God’s kingdom trumps his desire for person gain. On the other hand, if he’s found out to be involved in intentional deception for personal gain, then I wouldn’t be too surprised because I’ve been a Christian long enough. People fail – just look at you and me. Great leaders fail too. I respect and honor him and Pastor Prince, but my faith is not in them or any human leader.
If Pastor Kong Hee is guilty, then I would still support him, as I would support any other Christian leader in the same situation. Support as in pray for him and honor him for the work he has done – not agree with what he did. I’d welcome him back to ministry (perhaps after some time) if he repents. But if he doesn’t repent, then I’d still love him as a brother, pray for him and speak positively about him, while of course hoping he repents. There’s no need to cast more judgments upon him. God’s love to me is unconditional and we’re called to offer that unconditional love to all. That’s what grace and mercy is about.
Now isn’t really the time to come to premature conclusions as many are already doing. We should be praying for him and especially his church. If some of his church members seem immature in idolizing him, seeing him as infallible and the investigations as purely the work of the devil, well, then disagree with them but pray for them. Many young people in New Creation idolize (or seem on the verge of idolizing) Pastor Prince too – but I wouldn’t want anyone to stop listening to Pastor Prince’s sermons because of that. In the same way, let’s not be too critical of City Harvest because of some overzealous members when we can channel our energies positively to pray for the church.
While I think it’s an over-reaction to say that this investigation is purely the work of the devil, it’s equally an over-reaction to say that the devil has absolutely no role in this matter. We’re fighting a spiritual war, not one against flesh and blood. Nobody knows the proportion of the devil’s involvement in all this. And we don’t really need to know. We can be sure God will work things for good and we should just be praying for the church and the people involved.
Whatever happens, I really hope City Harvest continues on with their great vision to impact the world. I’ve always said this to my friends: I see in City Harvest Church people that I know no other English speaking middle-class church could reach out to. And I thank God for their ministry. We definitely need churches like City Harvest in Singapore and it has been a huge blessing to Christianity in Singapore and the world. May they continue to do so with or without Pastor Kong Hee.
Let me end with a prayer for Pastor Kong Hee and City Harvest Church:
Dear Father, I thank you for City Harvest Church and Pastor Kong Hee. I know the church and him are precious in your eyes. They are as much your children as other Christians from other churches. And I know you grieve with them because of what some of their leaders are going through.
I don’t know whether Pastor Kong Hee is guilty or not, but bless him mightily during this time. May he stay faithful to you and draw closer to you. If he has done wrong, may we all know there is always grace available for where sin abounds, grace superabounds – and may that grace lead him to repentance. Whatever happens, just pour out your grace and love upon him and the other leaders and the church in a tangible way. Cause them to come out of this situation even stronger for Your Kingdom.
May City Harvest Church continue to grow. Let no member fall away whatever the outcome of the investigations. While they continue to give their support and appreciation to the leaders under investigation, cause them also to look only to, and trust only in, the One who is all perfect and all beautiful – Jesus. May Jesus be glorified in all this.
I speak good and wonderful and beautiful things to City Harvest Church. Bless each and every member in the church. May the gospel of Jesus Christ continue to shine forth from them and may they continue to be light in a dying world.
In Jesus’ most precious name. Amen.
I invite anyone through the comments section to write a prayer of blessing upon Pastor Kong Hee, the leaders under investigation and the church as a whole.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
thank you for writing this post.
i totally agree with what u said here.
the case of Mike Gugleimucci was the first case which directly impacted me a few years ago, yet the churches in Australia have all come together and responded with so much grace and mercy. The fall of leaders is the perhaps the best way to make a congregation fall, and that is exactly what the enemy loves and aims to do. But we are stronger and wiser than that – I hope that us as members of Christ can come together and respond with love, forgiveness, grace and mercy, and not be judgemental, critical, angry. When we do, we are falling prey to the enemy too! Ps Prince has had his fair share of persecutions too, but he and his congregation’s faith in the Lord can overcome everything. And I believe the same for Ps Kong as well. I will definitely pray for CHC and its congregation.
Allow me to pray from your prayer.
Father,
Cause them (CHC members and non members alike) also to look only to, and trust only in, the One who is all perfect and all beautiful – Jesus. May Jesus be glorified in all this.
In Jesus’ most precious name. Amen.
When I heard about this issue, the thought which came to me was that our Lord upheld BOTH justice and mercy upon the cross. I stand with you in believing that both will prevail again.
Hey, I’m so amazed by what you wrote because it’s precisely how I feel, in a very eloquent, well-written way. I was a CHC member when it was a budding youth church and had seen how militantly Pastor Kong loved God. You couldn’t have said it better – would be surprised if he’s out to make money, and wouldn’t be too surprised if he’s found guilty since he too is a fallible man. Like what you’ve penned, I support Pastor Kong, not in agreement of what he’s accused of, but deep in my heart, I believe that he’s not guilty.
Hi there. Thanks for being so supportive even though you are from another church. I am from City Harvest Church, but my relatives are from New Creation Church. Even though 2 churches have different teachings, which happened to caused some disputes, but we still pray to the same God. This is how Christians should be like. No matter which denominations you are from, which church you are from, we should be standing strong together, with 1 ultimate purpose, that is to bring the Gospel throughout the world and bring a mighty revival in Singapore. If we are criticising each other, aren’t we working for Satan? Hence, I believe that we as Christians should maintain the peace and harmony between one another despite certain different ways of teachings. Thank you once again for standing with City Harvest Church and for this great posting. God Bless.
When I read this post, I wanted to shout Hallelujah. This is what Christ-like-ness is all about; unity in the body of Christ. There is so much hate going on in cyberspace among the Christians that I’m almost ashamed to be one.
I think it’s good that God is using the authorities to clean up the way we handle money and preach (poking fun at other religions).
I do feel, however, that there is a double standard. I’m talking about the content that’s on TV and in the bookstores that ‘blasphemes’ Christianity. That’s seems to be okay here.
I think it’s important to understand while God’s grace abounds, the laws of the land will punish the guilty ones. And unfortunately, the extent of the punishment depends on the severity of the crime. In a nutshell, what CAD is investigating is called Fraud. I don’t need to remind you how serious that can be as it concerns cheating people of their hard-earned money. Now, I’m not saying CHC is guilty. But if they’re innocent, I’m not sure why they need prayer.
We tend to dramatise and spiritualise matters when it’s basically a very simple affair- guilty or not. The late preacher Smith Wigglesworth once had an encounter with the devil when he was sleeping. Upon seeing the devil, he simply went back to sleep.
And if I were in Kong Hee’s position and being innocent, I would not even need lawyers around me to prove my innocence. When it comes to matters of finance, it’s about black and white. Meantime, I would wait for the results to come out and my only prayer is that justice is served.
Innocent or guilty, we should pray for them.
True prayer is an act of love. We are called to love God, and also to love our neighbour as ourselves.
I believe most of us, if wrongfully accused of a crime we did not commit, will pray for God to vindicate us, help us through, and so forth – something like David prayed in the Psalms when he was pursued by Saul. And if we pray for ourselves in similar situations, then why not for the leaders of CHC, who are after all family too?
Rather than through our own eyes, lets all endeavour to look at the situation and the people through the eyes of God.
David’s prayer was justified as he was running away from someone trying to kill him. In this case, bear in mind, CHC has not been accused of any crime yet. What’s there to pray for in this area when there’s nothing to vindicate?
That’s why I find it puzzling when ppl pray for CHC during this time. If I were innocent, I would be most happy to go through such a period because I know I won’t be punished for a crime I did not commit. And more importantly, everyone will know the truth of my good deeds. Instead of praying, we should all celebrate, I mean those in CHC.
Trento,
I think you missed my point. It is not so much about whether one is innocent or guilty, then we pray.
In Acts 12:5, it says “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”
Peter was put in prison because Herod wanted to persecute the church and please the Jews (Acts 12:1,3). One could say Peter was innocent. Yet the church “prayed earnestly”. And Peter was saved by an angel of the LORD in the following verses.
If Acts 12:5 was omitted from the passage, along with other verses that call us to pray in similar situations, I would certainly agree with you that if the CHC leaders were innocent, there is nothing to pray about.
But it wasn’t omitted.
And while I agree with you that we should pray for justice, I must say that God is also concerned with His children growing into maturity. This is reflected in verses praying for maturity etc. No matter how innocent and strong a leader is, going through a time such as this is not exactly a walk in the park. There is always more of God’s grace to be had, and prayer is a way of receiving that grace and strength.
Lastly, it is said in Ephesians 6:18 ‘(And) pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.’
We are exhorted to pray not for some saints, but for all the saints, not on some occasions, but on all occasions, and not with some kinds of prayer, but will all kinds of prayer.
The situation and people at CHC without a doubt do fall under the ‘all’ categories.
A core teaching of the letter to the Ephesians is on unity and love in the Body of Christ. Like I said in my first reply, it is about love.
Prayer has too many facets, and so too the situation with CHC now. To not divert from the intent of SHF’s original post, it is best we take this offline. I will be happy to further discuss this over email or coffee. You can drop SHF an email to request my email.
Shalom!
[Note from shf: As Tim rightly said, do take this discussion offline as this isn't really a thread to debate whether or not to pray for City Harvest! Cheers!]
I have never been in City Harvest, but I feel very angry and sorry for them to have to go through this. (I’m Catholic, btw).
The way I see it is very simple. It’s all to do with a very insidious hatred and JEALOUS mindset which sees a huge congregation that has lovingly observed the Protestant principle of ‘first fruits of labour’.
These people see how this Blibical principle has translated, and are now very jealous of it. And we all know what evils this deadly sin (envy) will result it.
Somehow, people are jealous that vast amounts are being collected and have absurdly concorted this ridiculous notion that religious organisations somehow cannot be seen to “make their money work for them”. And must instead, go park their investments in fixed deposits (do you realise that you’ll be earning less than 1% currently for fixed deposit.)
This, I feel, has been at the heart of all the hatred towards mega churches like City Harvest, and now Pastor Prince’s church.
I feel sick just seeing what is going on, and the ridiculous things that come out of the new paper each day that go to fuel this.
I had already been feeling sick for the past few years, just reading online rants in various forums that take potshots at City Harvest. And the weird thing is that no one takes these people to task for sedition under the Religious Harmony Act.
I really agree with with a previous poster who mentioned that blasphemies against Christianity seem to just go on. To me in fact, questioning the amount collected and how they are used, is in fact an act of sedition under the Religious Harmony act because, they are questioning Christianity’s “first fruits of labour” principle.
I think these are trying times and the devil often comes in unusual disguises. Unlike trento, I believe we really should be praying because I see end times in such trials.
You know, it’s funny becuase as a Catholic, the Catholic church has NEVER seem to urge us to give 10% at all. In fact nothing is mentioned of that, but I’ve experienced and seen the effects of giving your first fruits of labour to the Lord, and it does work. Now to see heathens and others mocking it in online forums, the press etc, just makes me really sick and fear for the future. Because as we all know, there is still the Old Testament (which even makes some Christains uncomfortable)- God’s revenge will come and it is His alone.
To SHF
May I know what I can discuss about in here then? Obviously, you wrote an article on the need to pray for CHC. I thought it’s ok to post comments on anything related to the topic, whether it’s of a debating nature or not. But as you are the owner of this site, I’ll respect your rules but I’m also confused about what I can or cannot write about. Appreciate your clarification.
(Note from shf: Hi trento, I was actually hoping for Christians to pray for CHC and speak something positively over CHC – I do believe words are powerful. I wasn’t even hoping for any discussion, but since there has been comments about CHC, I don’t want this thread to escalate into too much of a debate. For other posts, I’m happy to see an intense discussion. But for this one, I just feel that there’s been too much negativity going around about CHC on the blogsphere and don’tt want any more here. Thanks for understanding.)
You echoed my thoughts n tears! I started off with New Creation, a few years with missionary n m now in City Harvest.
I m very grateful to Jesus for both Pastor Prince and Pastor Kong, for the wonderful messages and works they are willing to put their lives out for in answering their call.
In the Bible, our Father showed us time and again how our forefathers like David, Solomon, Jacob, Abraham sinned n yet ironically feared n loved HIM.
My family idolises only JESUS. Your thoughts are so balanced n i m sure is exactly how alot of matured Christians feel.
“How can a house divided prosper” and let us not be so arrogant to think that the house means our church! The house is the House of Christ and it is very ironic that men of our Great God who are willing to do great works for Him are constantly throwing brickbats at each other against each other’s teaching about cheap grace and overzealous works.
Well His ‘cheap’ grace is exactly what we need now and there is no doubt that City Harvest has certainly worked very hard to win over souls and made many lives better.
Our Father may not be done yet with His housekeeping.
It always pained me when i see the two largest churches in Singapore constantly bickering with each other.
I suspect seeing His children at loggerheads is no fun n perhaps that grace period for those who refuses to learn is over. So until we truly understand that we are Christians in the same family He will have to continually guide us to maturity.
Prayer is our form of communication with our Father in heaven.
At all times we pray. Even our Lord Jesus prays.
I m not about to leave City Harvest and yes i will constantly pray for Pastor Kong, Pastor Prince and true unity within the Christian world.
We love you Trento and we will pray for you too.
To I Love Jesus
Thanks very much for your prayers. I’ve always thought the bickering came from CHC than NCC. In any case, if there’s a prayer I want to make, it’ll be for the members of CHC, that none would fall away whatever the outcome. At least, it’ll be a test of strength and resolve, and most importantly, if CHC is all about Jesus or KH. There’s quite a bit of restriction here in terms of what views can be posted. In such a forum, only likable comments get posted and this is not exactly a healthy platform. It’s interesting that other non-Christian forums have greater freedom of speech and while there are always limits, I’m quite surprised it’s quite restrictive here. Nonetheless, I’ll keep the author in prayer too. He needs it.
Hi trento,
Thanks for your prayers – I always appreciate prayers :)
Yes, this is my blog and I made a decision a while back not to allow people to hijack the direction of the comments. You can certainly find other Christian blogs that will allow you post almost anything you want.
I already explained that for this thread, I don’t want a debate about City Harvest. You can do so in other blogs. There’s been too many bad things spoken against City Harvest and I want to see something positive here.
And if you think only likable comments or comments in agreement with me are posted here, you haven’t been around this blog for long :) I’m all for discussion and debate – as long as it’s in line with what the post is about (not just bringing one’s agenda in), but for this post I already stated I’m not going to allow debate because what’s needed is words of blessings towards City Harvest. You’re welcome to post your disagreements with City Harvest (of which I have said I have many) if there’s a post relating to that in future. Cheers!
Abba Father,
I thank you for CHC and Ps.Kong. We know that you are always with us and you are the controller. You never leave us nor forsake us.
Let them focus on you alone Jesus and you be glorified always and your name be lifted up!
Strenghten Pastor and his team and our brothers & sisters in Christ. we speak forth blessing for everyone, divine protection, Wisdom and let you grace be conserved in them.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Your Christian spirit and love is commendable and a very good example for us. I couldn’t agree with you more on such a response =)
Re: CHC .. no one complained or investigated the founders when they all could see and experience the fantastic Church building in Jurong. At this point any finger pointers’ knew it would be futile to say .. where has the money gone? .. it had clearly gone to the Glory of God – not unlike St Paul’s Cathedral or thousands of other examples (places of worship build to accommodate thousands and millions over the course of time)where an individual leader or leaders have motivated others to carry through to completion a magnificent works in honour of God.
Singapore as a Christian nation must be proud of the achievements of this one man and his Church.
Hi , i know i may be a little late in giving my comments but i just want to say that from your blog, you have proved yourself to be a true disciple of God. I am from CHC, i thank God for this church and this is the place where i find love, faith and destiny. i agreed with you that there have been too many negative reports going all around, let us speak positive words. Be it christians or non-christian, when we criticised aren’t we actually “glorifying” the devil?
It doesn’t matter which church you are from, as long as you are a true follower of Christ. No church is the same, we all have different ways of teaching but most importantly we are all from the same Body of Christ.
Thanks for showing your love and this is in fact the time when we see who are really for the Kingdom of God.
God bless
thank u for praying for pst kong
pst kong have being save
and ever have he land
god bless
jasmine lim
form n455
I attend NCC and have never heard negative things about CHC. I know for a fact, the leadership (NCC) doesn’t talk bad about any other churches for that matter.
While some members (from both sides) may have negative comments about each other, I am sure this goes on in other denominations as well. What is personal should not be embodied as the corporate
My point really is, “accusing the brethen” is the work of the devil, and I don’t think we should engage in it. Even the archangel Michael doesn’t rebuke Satan but will leave it to the Lord when contending with him over the body of Moses (Jude 1:9).
Jesus’ command is for us to love one another so that the world will know we are his disciples (John 13:35).
Nothing new here. Paul and Barnabas couldn’t agree with Mark. Both men or churches couldn’t agree on some doctrines. Both men (Kong & Joseph) are giants. Both are flawed (which men, great men at that are perfect?) yet God is still continuing to use them mightily in their own respective fields. No one is perfect! No not one! Neither you nor I! Neither the supporters nor the critiques. Live and let live. Both churches have been criticised heavily. But I only this to be truth. Christ when He was alive too had His detractors and haters! So let us pray for both churches and for both men so that the Kingdom of God can move forward!
I went to City Harvest Church .I went there to pray Jesus.I don’t care about the place.As it was first time in singapore, I don’t know where the church is.I don’t know what kind of church teachings they give.I was not even christian.
Whenever the place is , my aim is to pray to God Jesus and God leads me to CHC .So ,I accepted and I don’t care about the people from CHC.I like to hear from Paster Kong ,I feel free after I have heard lots of words from him.So,I won’t forget where my christianity has started and I won’t forget to someone who is Paster Kong ,the person who makes me different.I appreciate that.