City Harvest Church Under Investigation

Get Real.....you call this a Church?

CITY HARVEST church is somewhat different from an ordinary place of worship - it uses stars and pop culture to stay relevant, counts a number of prominent business leaders among its congregation and its events have links all around the world.

Even founder Kong Hee calls himself a businessman on the church website and, together with his singer wife Ho Yeow Sun, owns two companies.

One is International Harvest, which company records say is a provider of corporate training services and motivational courses.

The other is fashion company Skin Couture, which has three boutiques - Ed Hardy at Heeren, Skin at Great World City and Christian Audigier at Ion. Clothes sold are described as 'glam rock' and follow trends in cities such as New York and Japan.

This rock theme is even extended to City Harvest's church services, which some members say are akin to attending a rock concert.

Church members have been known to go as far as adapting the most current Lady Ga-Ga or Black-Eyed Peas songs for concerts and celebrations, swopping out original lyrics for some of a more religious nature. These shows are complete with full-scale sets, costumes and coloured lighting, which go beyond an amateur production.
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.....you call this a pastor?


Then this must be the Pope.

MEMBERS of Singapore's City Harvest Church are being investigated for the misuse of funds.

The Office of the Commissioner of Charities (COC) and the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) is looking into some financial transactions involving several individuals and companies related or connected to the church. This was revealed in a joint statement by the COC and the Singapore Police Force.

Seven individuals were detained in a raid at 6.30am on Monday by the CAD. During the raid, CAD visited their offices and secured records and accounts as part of the investigation.

By lunch time, 12 people were said to be assisting in investigations which involve charges of falsification of accounts and criminal breach of trust. The charges are said to be unrelated to previous investigations into City Harvest's purchase of a $310 million stake in Suntec City Convention Centre.

The COC had received complaints of misuse of church funds and informed the CAD after assessing that some financial transactions may need to be investigated.

In the joint statement, the COC and CAD said: 'Notwithstanding the ongoing investigations, normal services and religious activities of City Harvest Church need not be disrupted and can continue for its congregations.'
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THE Commissioner of Charities has questioned City Harvest Church (CHC) about its $310 million stake in Suntec Singapore.

The 33,000-strong megachurch announced two weeks ago that it had become a co-owner of the downtown commercial property, which houses a convention and exhibition centre.

The complex's full name is Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The money spent includes renovation and rental costs, the church said. CHC has not created a separate business entity for the purchase of the property.

But in the wake of the announcement, questions surfaced among the public about whether religious organisations - which are registered as charities - should be allowed to go into business using what are essentially donor funds.
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hovivi:
Can non church goers hv some public space! Even a popular shopping/commercial area us been taken over! What's next? And do shoppers hv to risk facing preachers trying to change your religion when going shopping?
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ChickenFeat:
How is collecting fees or donations from members and using the money to invest in commercial real-estate and businesses different from a pyramid and "Madoff" combined scheme?

Aren't the ones who truly own and reap all the profits not the members but the human owners registered under the guise of some business or religious entity?
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coolguy8888 wrote:
last time in 2007, there was an article, Sun Ho and her hubby Pastor Kong Hee have 13 units of Horizon Gardens, each one is 2M....haha that time already need to whistle blow liao....wait until now; Here is the section of the ST article published on 29 Sept 2007....

"The majority owners who signed the sale deal, represented by senior counsel Chelva Rajah from Tan, Rajah & Cheah, want that decision overturned.

But two other parties said they wanted to have their say as well.

One is a group of individuals – including pop star Ho Yeow Sun and her husband, Kong Hee – who own 13 units. All signed the sale deal and said they wanted to participate in the hearing to ensure the sale goes through.

The other is the consortium led by Hotel Properties (HPL) that signed the $500 million deal in February to buy the estate."

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GeylangGang:

Government should look very carefully into this.

Waterloo Temple, take in millions of donations, but donate to charity and public needy. Donated hundred of thousands of dollars to President Charity Show and Community Chest every year

Loyang TuaPek Kong Temple, received millions of dollars, but donate to various organisations, including non-taoist. They brought dozens of ambulances and donate to various hospitals.

That is truly a "divine" religious organisation.
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digitalman:
The money obtained by CHC is through donations and thithes of church members. These donations do not qualify for tax deductions from the contributors, even as churches were classified as Charities. For this reason, the capital for paying off such commercial enterprise does not receive any tax rebates.

The right thing to do under these circumstances, should be that all money collected as thithes and goodwill offerings should be diverted wholly to missionary work, paying of pastors, full-time church workers, pastoral staff and the daily maintenance and orderly running of the churches and their sister churches in the region.

all religous organizations should moderate their growth, especially commercially, they are in the business of soul saving and not on making money. Their focus seems to be distorted, and will need to be put right by their spiritual leaders or government........
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lock2009 wrote:
To ensure sg can live comfortably with all religions and races, the govt should never allow an religious organisation to grow bigger and bigger. There will be consequences. I believe the govt must change the laws and take action now. Else there will big ripples in the next few years.
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Mick wrote:
i am very sure the govt will take action. They do not want to see their position being threaten in the near future. It makes very logical sense for them to pass a law for charity organisations to have restrictions in the business world. If the govt leaves it to the market, they will have themselves to blame in the future. The consequences is for the govt to bear.
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elysian:
Do you think a savvy organisation such as CHC would NOT do a thorough homework before investing over 300 million dollars ? It was reported that their search was ongoing for several years before they decided on Suntec - it was not a implulse decision based on a moment's whimper.

It's pretty obvious that the deal must have been given a nod of approval by authorities, who jolly well knew the implications, before it was allowed to proceed.
As for the probe, its just a q&a session - its not an investigation.

In the worst case, CHC's lease&operate model may have to be tweaked to make it more palatable to the watchful general public - thats all.
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moderate168 wrote:
How about JV between Capitaland and Rock Productions (business arm of New Creation Church) to spend a whopping S$660million to develop an integrated civic, cultural, retail and entertainment hub at Vista Exchange, One North?

From commercial point of view-to buy an existing underutilised commercial building is better than no end digging that obviously against the idea of eco- friendly.

After all, Singaporean has been complaining the island is flushed with FW, FT.....CHC resort to rejuvenate the underutilised place is just doing the businessman in town a favour.

From religion point of view...if it is willing buyer/willing seller basis, why people from other religion bother to intervene.

Buying a stake can eliminate problem like inefficiency in allocation of construction cost as seen in many other projects. Indeed the church -goers should have more peace of mind that money has less chance to be "mismanaged". All shareholders and stakeholders interest will be more well taken care of vs private development.
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More craps from Kong Hee.

From: Zanzibar
Subject: Re: Why are churches allowed to coerce members into paying 10%
On Mar 20, 11:36 pm, "truth" wrote:

> I find this practice of the churches in Singapore disgusting.
> Members are subtly coerced into donating 10% of their
> monthly salary to the church.
> This should not have happened. It must be stopped. It is a
> form of extortion like gangsterism.
> If the church is good and sincere, it should stop this practice.
> Some churches in Singapore has become so rich thru such
> coerce collections that they are sitting on a huge pile of
> cash. These money should be used to help the poor and
> underpriviledge of society. That it has now been abuse to
> go into mega business venture is a very worrying trend.
> Why are the papist leegime so reluctant to rein in these
> unethical activities of the churches ? Are there too many
> christians in the papist cabinet ?

To my knowlege there is no forcing of donations. Generally most of the
attendee dont pay except the rich who got their salary or income very
easily through effortless holding of multiple high powered posts with
influences, thus making themselves look sinful if they dont donate
some away.

Donation is a personal thing. No one checks on you or to see if hand
in any money or not. In some the donation box is there for anyone to
put in or into the "coffee strainer bag"..

And so, seriosuly speaking, no one needs to walk over to the box put
in anything. And no one checks on you or train their eyes to track on
you if you dont it. In short nobody will ask you to do it.

Even in waterloo street temple, the donation box is there for anyone
to put in their donations, and no one will ask you to do it.

To many the problem of giving is between them and the God. If oyu have
no money dont give. give only with a willing heart.

One can still lgive to the poor or charity directly and this also
means they also have their own priority of heart to give.which one
first.

Most chirches who have alot of moeny are donated by the rich people
who have too much money and they prefer to donating very little to
charity or the poor, and then more to the churches. It is a metter of
their preferences and choices.
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From: baldeagle

The Church offer eternal life and a place in heaven
to the believers.

Like all things in Singapore, we have to pay for the good
things. ... there is no free lunches, you know...not even
in Heaven.

Naturally, Singaporeans do not complain about paying 10%
of their earnings to the Churches....they regard it as booking
fee for a place in heaven and for eternal life.

Of course the rich in Singapore donate little to help the
poor.... By donating more to the church...they could buy
a better place...may be a nice villa in Heaven with great
scenery.
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From: "Grandprix"

Subject: Re: Why are churches allowed to coerce members into paying 10%

This is called tithe, an age-old practice.It is used to perform religious
and community services. Now it is to invest and show off. To conquer the
world.
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Indonesian Christians invasion of Singapore - A man is glorified here, not God.

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