Rise of new churches. By Ong Sor Fern.

2,756 words 21 July 2002 Straits Times STIMES English (c) 2002 Singapore Press Holdings Limited New-style churches are run like businesses and boast big congregations and buildings. They say they are only keeping up with the times and meeting aspirations ON A stage in a cavernous auditorium in Suntec City, a seven-piece band complete with two female backup singers launches into an infectious drumbeat-driven melody. A giant screen behind them projects the performers to those seated at the back of the hall. One thousand people in the audience rise to their feet. Clapping, cheering and singalongs ensue. No, this is not a pop concert. Rather, it is a church service at New Creation Church's The Rock Auditorium. But the mood feels more like a celebration than a solemn service where the leader lectures from the pulpit. Pastor Joshua Lee's sermon is peppered with personal anecdotes and self-deprecating jokes about his thinning hair which draw appreciative roars from the churchgoers. One ardent churchgoer describes the service jokingly as 'standup Bible'. On Sundays, the line to get into this church's services starts as early as 6.30 am. By 8 am, it can snake up to over 200 m. Mr Matthew Kang, 42, a church deacon and secretary of its council, jokes: 'Initially, people thought the queue was for Hello Kitty.' But churchgoer Jack Woo, 29, a bank officer, does not mind waiting. 'We know that seats are limited. Anyway, I can always take the time to get to know fellow church members in the queue,' he says. With a congregation of over 8,000, New Creation is hard pressed to accommodate its growing flock even though it has four Sunday and two weekday services. Page 1 of 8 2011 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

It is one of at least three 'independent' Christian churches - they are not affiliated to more established denominations like Methodist and Anglican - in Singapore that are growing at an exponential rate. Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) at Marine Parade boasts a 10,000-strong congregation. City Harvest Church at Jurong West has some 13,000 members, and claims on its website to be the largest church here. With full-time staff, multi-million-dollar budgets and shiny new buildings, these mega-churches have raised eyebrows for being run more like businesses than religious organisations. At City Harvest Church's sophisticated website, for example, the faithful can pay their tithes - the practice of giving the church 10 per cent of one's income - online through a secure server. Welcome to Christianity, third millennium style. POP SOUNDBITES DR SIMON CHAN, 51, dean of studies at Trinity Theological College at Bukit Timah which provides Christian education for pastors of all denominations, observes that the number of independent Christian churches has grown in the past few years. There is now almost a 50-50 balance between the traditional and independent churches, he says. According to Singapore Every Home Crusade, which publishes a church directory, there are over 150 independent churches in Singapore. The main denominations include 44 Anglican, 43 Methodist, 42 Presbyterian, 31 Bible Presbyterian, 30 Catholic, 30 Baptist and 14 Lutheran churches. The number of Christians in Singapore is on the rise. According to census figures, Christians - including Catholics - formed 10 per cent of the population in 1980. In 1990, the figure rose to 12.7 per cent and in 2000, it was 14.6 per cent. 'These churches serve as a very positive bridge between faith and the unchurched,' says Dr Chan of the independent churches. The rise of such churches, he adds, is 'part of a global phenomenon, very much a part of urban culture in modern societies'. But he also worries that with their street savvy and pop culture soundbites, these churches give the impression Christianity is 'just another marketable commodity'. Led by charismatic and relatively youthful pastors, these churches are attracting many young first-time converts. Page 2 of 8 2011 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

City Harvest's website says that 63 per cent of its congregation is under the age of 30. FCBC does not keep track of such statistics. New Creation, says Mr Kang, has a fair distribution across all ages. Besides their relaxed atmosphere, the churches' practical approach to religion appears to be a major draw. City Harvest churchgoer Nikolaus Ong, 31, a project manager with a telecommunications company, says he was attracted by 'the way they reached out to the community and outside their community'. Fellow churchgoer Yvonne Koh, 26, a public relations consultant, says: 'What the church teaches is focused on destiny. They align every member's destiny with God, in life and as part of society. It's more of a vision.' That vision apparently spurs churchgoers to practise what they are preached. All three churches volunteer both money and manpower actively. FCBC, for example, set up Touch Community Services, a non-profit, voluntary welfare association in 1992. Staffed mostly by church volunteers, Touch offers services like home care for the elderly and learning support for children with special needs. City Harvest Community Services, founded in 1997, offers similar services and gives $2 million a year to 4,000 needy Singaporeans. New Creation has raised more than $2 million to help the National Kidney Foundation build a dialysis centre in Bukit Batok. It is raising another million to defray the centre's operating costs. Mr Kang says that 'spiritual employment' in his church is very high, and this is also true of the other churches. Participation in church activities, whether it is being an usher on Sundays or helping out with the children's church, is encouraged. Practising rather than just preaching makes religion tangible, say many of the 15 churchgoers of the three churches interviewed. Mr Ong, who tutors and helps out at Sunday school, says: 'This is the key thing: Going to church does not become a religious ritual anymore. It's not just the rules where you are not supposed to do this, you don't do that.' City Harvest churchgoer David Yong, 32, a product manager at a computer company, says: 'We want to show we love and care for people. It's not going into Christianity as a fad, but meaning business and changing lives.' MUSIC MINISTRY Page 3 of 8 2011 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

RATHER than traditional Bible-thumping, these churches adopt a more subtle touch when it comes to evangelising. FCBC has an entertainment ministry, called Touch Media, which provides Christian-friendly stage and movie productions like last year's musical Magic Of Love and an English-language movie, In Her Image, now being shot. So far, Touch Media has also produced nine Chinese-language telefilms. These productions softsell religion to a secular audience. FCBC's leader, Apostle Lawrence Khong, 50, could not be interviewed as he was busy rehearsing for Magic Of Love, which is being restaged. An amateur magician, he will star in the musical with his 21-year-old daughter, Priscilla, who helped conceptualise it. He is not the only performing pastor in town. City Harvest is home to singing pastor Ho Yeow Sun, 31. Ho, who is known as Pastor Sun to church members, has sold over 50,000 copies of her debut album of Mandarin pop, Sun With Love, in Taiwan. She gave two sold-out concerts at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in June. She is also married to the church's founder, Dr Kong Hee, 38. Activities such as hers change the stereotype of Christians as 'Victorian and straitlaced', says Mr Ong. Ms Koh says: 'A lot of people have the perception that Christians can't have fun.' But Pastor Sun is an example of how Christians are loosening up, she says. 'She proves there's clean fun to be had, there are clean songs to be heard.' MONEY IS SENSITIVE THESE churches have also drawn attention for their perceived wealth, if you go by their buildings. City Harvest made headlines with its seven-month-old church building in Jurong, which cost a whopping $42.3 million. The eight-storey building boasts a $583,000 fountain, a 18,300-sq ft underground auditorium and a titanium-clad facade. Founder Kong Hee was out of town and could not be reached for an interview over the past two weeks. But on the church building, he told The New Paper in June: 'We try not to be extravagant. The aesthetic part probably costs only $2 million.' In a recent intervew in a local entertainment magazine, Pastor Sun, his singer-pastor-wife, confessed a weakness for boots, 'especially from Hugo Boss and BCBG', and said she hung out regularly at Renewal Day Spa. Page 4 of 8 2011 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

FCBC's premises are more modest although the church does have two buildings with a direct video link. Its first 1,600-capacity church was opened at Marine Parade in 1993 and another building, a refurbished cinema in Jalan Bukit Merah, opened in 1998. New Creation made waves when it bought the 232,000-sq ft East Coast Recreational Centre for $10 million and turned it into a resort-style family attraction now called Marine Cove. Open to the public, it has an amphitheatre, a park area as well as more than 20 food and beverage outlets, a snooker centre and 24-lane bowling alley. The New Paper also reported last month that some churchgoers were unhappy that they were not consulted over the purchase. The original intention was to build a church on the land, but permission was denied. The church council secretary, Mr Kang, declares the matter 'a closed issue'. When pressed, he explains: 'We bought it because the price was low $10 million. The valuation was $14.5 million.' The church council, comprising three church leaders, including Pastor Joseph Prince and three lay people, made the decision to buy the land as an investment so that it could afford a new church building, Mr Kang adds. 'Whatever profit we make, we will be ploughing back into our new church. We want to be able to pay for the new building as much as possible upfront.' Money is a touchy issue in these mega-churches. Tithing, given their vast headcount, adds up to quite a sum even by most conservative estimates. The 15 churchgoers Sunday Plus spoke to were quick to emphasise that their churches do not force them to practise tithing. In these churches, the practice is part of a belief in a 'prosperity gospel' - that is, by giving 10 per cent now, the Christian will reap the fruit of his investment later in higher returns, both spiritually and materially. Ms Koh acknowledges: 'If this sermon is preached the wrong way, it may sound very materialistic.' STAYING RELEVANT Page 5 of 8 2011 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

THE materialistic aspect of this prosperity gospel was what prompted another New Creation churchgoer, Mrs P. W. Ling, 45, to leave the church. The public relations consultant says: 'They preach things like abundance and prosperity, which is okay and forward-looking. But now I think they are preaching prosperity for themselves.' She disapproves of the fact that New Creation's leader, Pastor Prince, 'drives a BMW'. But church deacon, Mr Kang, who is a financial planner, points out: 'I drive a Mercedes 300 - why is it nobody says I can't drive that? Pastor Prince is just like you and I, working and drawing a salary. The church did not buy him the car.' The disapproval is echoed by some others in the Christian community. Ms Mae Lyn Urquhart, 26, a Singaporean magazine editor, stopped attending New Creation because she felt that the prosperity message 'set people up for disaster'. 'If you teach that things will be good if you have faith, and things don't happen, does that mean you don't have enough faith?' she asks. Trinity Theological College's Dr Chan says the prosperity gospel is very attractive since 'the message panders to our consumerist culture'. But he is concerned that this sort of 'seven steps to spiritual success' is a 'spiritual version of McDonald's'. 'This kind of thing is not going to sustain people for a long time. When real crises come, people will not be able to cope with it.' He observes that the success of the mega-churches' contemporary approach has prompted some traditional churches to adopt some of their methods. But some Christians point out that using pop tunes in services is not new. Writer Colin Cheong, 36, who calls himself 'a lapsed Catholic and nominal Methodist', was a choir member in Wesley Methodist Church in the early 1990s. The repertoire, he recalls, included pop tunes as well as more traditional hymns. Churches like Wesley and Barker Road Methodist offer both traditional and 'pop' services, as do some Catholic churches. As Dr Chan puts it: 'Nowadays, you can't tell a Methodist from a Charismatic service.' He also points out that growth spurts for churches are not a new phenomenon. Page 6 of 8 2011 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

'In the 1970s and 1980s, Assembly Of God had rapid growth with the Charismatic movement. Anglicans had similar experiences with the Charismatic movement that brought in a lot of people.' As City Harvest goer Mr Ong sees it, the appeal of the new churches boils down to keeping the faith alive and applicable in a modern context. 'It comes back to being religious and relevant,' he says. 'The way we are today is also because we want to be relevant.' SETTING UP A CHURCH CHURCHES in Singapore have to register with the Registry of Societies. But theoretically, anyone can set up a church as long as there is a constitution and there are enough signatories on the application. Once registered as a society, the churches have certain legal obligations. For example, they are required to file minutes of their annual general meetings as well as their accounts with the registry. Churches of certain denominations, for example, Roman Catholic and Methodist, will be subject to self-policing as there is a central hierarchy to which all the various churches report. Independent churches like City Harvest, Faith Community Baptist Church and New Creation do not report to a central authority. Such churches have councils made up of church leaders and lay people which are supposed to self-police any possible abuse. ABOUT THE THREE CHURCHES NEW CREATION CHURCH A non-denominational church founded in 1983 by a group of young pastors, including Joseph Prince, Henry Yeo and Joshua Lee. It is led by Senior Pastor Joseph Prince, 39, a Singaporean who was appointed senior pastor in 1990. He began preaching at 19 and is married to housewife Wendy. They have a daughter, Jessica, three. Church meets at The Rock Auditorium in Suntec City. Congregation is estimated at 8,000 strong. INTERESTING FACTS The church bought East Coast Recreational Centre for $10 million in May Page 7 of 8 2011 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

and renamed it Marine Cove. CITY HARVEST CHURCH Founded in 1989 by Dr Kong Hee, 38, who holds a doctorate in theology. The former Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College student holds a science degree from the National University of Singapore. Its congregation, numbering over 13,000, is one of the largest in Singapore. It is located at a new $42.3-million building at Jurong West Street 91. INTERESTING FACTS Dr Kong is married to Ho Yeow Sun, 31, who has been dubbed the singing pastor. Ho signed on with Taiwanese label Decca for a two-album deal last September. On June 12 and 13, she held sold-out Mandarin pop concerts at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. FAITH COMMUNITY BAPTIST CHURCH (FCBC) Founded in 1986, the independent Baptist church originated as a breakaway group from Grace Baptist Church at Mattar Road. It is led by Apostle Lawrence Khong, 50, who is one of the founding pastors of the church. He holds a masters in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Singapore. He and his wife, Nina, who is also a pastor at FCBC, have four children aged between 15 and 21. The church has two buildings: Touchcentre in Marine Parade Central and Touch Community Theatre (TCT) in Jalan Bukit Merah. The congregation is about 10,000. INTERESTING FACTS The church was one of the first to venture into the performing arts and entertainment industries. It started Touch Arts Company in 1998 to stage theatre performances and turned the 1,000-seat Dhalit cinema in Jalan Bukit Merah into TCT. Apostle Khong is an avid amateur magician. He was executive producer, creative director and lead actor for the musical Magic Of Love, which Touch Entertainment staged last year at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. He will be starring again in the show, which will be restaged at TCT on July 27. Document stimes0020020722dy7l0002e

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