Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

City Harvest Church

 
Wikipedia: City Harvest Church
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
City Harvest Church
CHCJW.jpg
Country Singapore
Denomination Independent
Website www.chc.org.sg
Clergy
Senior pastor(s) Rev. Dr. Kong Hee
CHC logo.jpg

City Harvest Church (simplified Chinese: 城市丰收教会) or CHC is a megachurch located in Singapore.[1] It bases its values on Charismatic and Pentecostal teachings, with doctrinal emphasis on the Great Commandment, the Great Commission and the Cultural Mandate. It has been described by Charisma as "one of the largest congregations in Asia."[2] It is the largest independent church in Singapore, with 27,086 regular members and a record monthly average of 33,812 attendees in April 2009.[3] The church's highest record attendance was 57,691 during City Harvest's Christmas services in 2008.

The church is a full member of the National Council of Churches, Evangelical Fellowship of Singapore and Festival of Praise Fellowship. It has multiple, multi-lingual weekend services at two locations, its church building in Jurong West and the Singapore Expo. In Singapore, it operates various internal ministries and five affiliate organisations and companies. Overseas, CHC serves as the spiritual resource centre for related churches based in Asia, and has active relationships with churches and bible schools in Asia, conducting joint conferences and seminars with them annually.

Contents

Mission statement

The church has a mission "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."[4]

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

History

City Harvest Church was founded by Kong Hee with 20 people on May 7, 1989. During the early years, CHC met at various venues such as the Katong Park Hotel, NTUC Auditorium, Ministry of Environment Building, National Productivity Board Auditorium, Hotel Grand Central, Orchard Hotel, World Trade Centre and the Westin Hotel.

On June 4, 1995, CHC leased the former Hollywood Theatre at Tanjong Katong Road and held services there for six years.

On April 29, 2004, City Harvest was awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification for quality management and process management.[5][6]

On December 15, 2001, the church moved to its permanent 2,300-seater venue at Jurong West Street 91. On December 11, 2005, the church rented another worship site at Singapore Expo Hall 8 for its weekend English services to accommodate its growing congregation. In addition to its services at the Singapore Expo, CHC introduced two additional weekend English services at its Jurong West premises on 2 December 2007, increasing the number of English services to four.

City Harvest Church currently has more than 33,000 attendees in its weekend services.[3] 55% of its members are below the age of 25 years.[7]

Staff & Committees

The senior pastor of the church, Kong Hee, holds an honorary position and is not on the church’s payroll. The church has 10 licensed pastors on its payroll, with eight of them ordained as Reverends. The church employs 127 full-time staff at two locations - its Jurong West premises and its corporate office at Suntec City.[8]

City Harvest Church has 15 committees:

(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

Weekly services

The church holds different weekly services in English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Indonesian, and Tamil. It also has weekly services for children and the mentally challenged. [9]

Ministries

CHC operates 36 internal ministries that ensure the smooth functioning of church services and various church-related activities and events. Almost all functions of the ministries are run by church members on a volunteer basis. The church believes that “every member is a minister in the house of God” and that each member should use his or her unique gifts, talents and abilities for the house of God. [10] It has various internal ministries in areas like media, technology, music, service and community services, the Boys Brigade and the Girls Brigade.[11]

Usher

The Usher ministry is the largest ministry in CHC, with over 800 members. The ministry renders practical support to facilitate the efficient running of every service and meeting. Aside from their role as greeters and ushers, they also prepare the hall for services; such as the chairs, bulletins, offerings and communion elements. [12]

Strikeforce

A unique ministry in CHC is the Strikeforce ministry. It is part of the church’s music ministry and its purpose is to “train people to serve God in various expressions of rhythm, movement and drumming.” Strikeforce has taken part in many national events like the annual Chingay parade and also various church-wide conferences and events. Members do not need prior musical experience before joining this ministry as training would be provided. [13]

Millennial Orchestra

This is a ministry started by CHC members, and was known previously as the City Harvest Symphony Orchestra. It performs in various church-wide conferences and events, and held its first performance under its new name, entitled “Sketches of Singapore” at the Asia Conference to an audience of 15,000. [14]

Talking Hands (For The Hearing Impaired)

This ministry seeks to help to meet the needs of the hearing impaired with support groups, recreational and tuition programs.

The volunteers befriend the hearing impaired and help them in developing their social skills. To be a volunteer in this ministry, they will be trained in Sign Language courses conducted by City Harvest Community Services Association. [15]

Terminally-Ill

Realizing the need to help the terminally-ill who are usually shunned by society, this ministry was started to provide practical and emotional support to this group of people.

The volunteers make regular visits through home or hospital visitations in groups to patients including those suffering from Multiple Sclerosis and HIV/Aids.

In order to be properly equipped for this ministry, the volunteers will attend training courses at the Communicable Disease Centre before they start to serve.[16][17]

Affiliate Organizations

City Harvest Bible Training Center

The City Harvest Bible Training Center (CHBTC) was started in 1994 with the purpose of training up pastors, missionaries and church workers for the establishing of local churches in Asia. [18] It conducts a five-month, full-time programe offering an Advanced Certificate of Theology. CHBTC is accredited with the Ministry of Education in Singapore and CaseTrust for Education. In the past 12 years, more than 2,000 graduates from more than 30 countries have graduated from its courses. [19]

City Harvest Community Services Association

Main article: City Harvest Community Services Association

[20]

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. The current President of CHCSA is Toh Poh Chin Eileen. On April 29, 2004, CHCSA attained the ISO 9001:2000 certification. In 2008 alone, CHCSA provided 20,932 services to 15,239 unique individuals of which 6,314 were assisted on a regular basis. [21]

City Harvest Education Centre

Co-funded by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports[22], Singapore, City Harvest Education Centre (CHEC) has been registered with the Ministry of Education since 2002.[23] The purpose of CHEC is "to provide effective and affordable education to private candidates sitting for the GCE 'N' and 'O' level examinations." In 2006, CHEC's students made up about 7 per cent of all private candidates in Singapore that sat for the O-level examinations. CHEC is also the first school in Singapore to offer dance as a GCE O-level subject. CHEC is especially noted for employing unconventional teaching styles to aid students who did not fare well in mainstream schools[24], as well as having Singapore's youngest school principal[25].

O School

O School, a performing-arts center, is a "social enterprise" supported by MCYS ComCare Enterprise Fund ([1]).[26] A social enterprise is a sustainable business with a social mission, where business is used to serve its social cause. O School was started with three social objectives in mind:

  1. To generate funds for City Harvest Education Centre as bursaries for lower-income students.
  2. To use dance as a befriending tool to reach out to youth-at-risk.
  3. To provide training and employment placement for youth.

Culture

Cell groups

Cell group (CG) is a major part of the church's ministry. The CG meeting is a time where members meet in smaller groups for worship, prayers and Bible studies. The meetings are usually held once a week, on a day decided by the CG leader and its locations can be found throughout Singapore. Currently, there are 600 CG leaders with some running more than two CGs. CG leaders are mostly lay members of the church who have gone through the church's discipleship and leadership training. Cell groups are divided into youth and adult cell groups, with youth cell groups comprising adolescent individuals of ages 12 to 18.

Accordingly to CHC's senior pastor, as the Church grows larger in numbers, "Cell groups provide the optimum context for effective discipleship"[27], where members can still forge close relationships with fellow Christians in a much smaller setting. Positive peer pressure can also be exuded in smaller cell groups, fostering strong bonds of friendship among church members.

Missions & Church Planting

City Harvest Church has 45 affiliate "Harvest" churches in 2008. CHC has direct supervision over 27 of them, while 18 come under the oversight of Harvest School of Ministry led by Rev. George Ong. In 2007, CHC sent out 1,070 mission teams to help Christian agencies overseas.[28]

Recordings and stage productions

Like most Charismatic churches, CHC uses contemporary music and settings for praise and worship, with a choir and a wide range of musical instruments.[29] It also has a strong drama team for its stage productions. [30] In 2008, CHC's music style was featured in ChannelNewsAsia prime time program 'Get Rea!'

  • 1994 : Against All Odds (CD Album)
  • 1995 : Remember Us (CD Album)
  • 1996 : Life (CD Album)
  • 1997 : Moments (CD Album)
  • 2000 : Future (CD Album)
  • 2001 : Angel—"The Story Of Singapore" (Stage Production)
  • 2002 : Megastar.com (Stage Production)
  • 2005 : Mid-Autumn's Love (Stage Production)
  • 2005 : Cross (CD Album, DVD)[30]
  • 2006 : Emerge (DVD)
  • 2006 : Glory (DVD)
  • 2007 : When I Grow Up (Musical Production)(DVD)
  • 2007 : When I Grow Up (Soundtrack)(CD)
  • 2007 : First Vol. I (Chinese DVD)
  • 2007 : First Vol. II (Chinese DVD)
  • 2007 : Destiny (CD Singles)
  • 2007 : Breakaway (CD Album)
  • 2007 : Breakaway (Chinese)(CD Album)
  • 2008 : Special (Musical Production)(DVD)
  • 2008 : Special (Soundtrack)(CD)
  • 2008 : Light Of The City (CD Album)
  • 2009 : Light Of The City (Chinese)(CD Album)
  • 2009 : Fly High (Chinese) (CD Album)
  • 2009 : Writings On The Walls (CD Album)

Broadcasting

In 2004, the church’s webcast of its services reached approximately 578,560 viewers from 131 countries, or 11,126 viewers per weekend. The church also has a 30-minute television broadcast program called "Harvest Time," which is broadcast on 13 Cable Television Networks and satellites, with a potential viewership of about 640 million[31] . Harvest Time is available in its original English-language or Chinese-language translation, depending on the broadcast station.[32]

Publications

The church publishes a magazine quarterly called Harvest Times (founded in 1999).[33][34] It has a readership of 60,000

In 2006, a Chinese version of Harvest Times - Chinese Harvest Times was started and has a readership of close to 45,000.

On 1 April 2009, Harvest Times is launched online and is available at www.harvesttimes.com.sg

Awards

List of awards received.[33]

  • 2002 : 3rd Annual Intelligent20 Award [35]
  • 2004 : ISO 9001:2000 Certification [5][6]
  • 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

Conferences

Emerge Conference

City Harvest Church is the organizer of Emerge, a four-day youth conference. In 2007, 8,830 youth leaders and delegates from a total of 16 nations attended the event. CHC also co-hosts Emerge conferences in Malaysia and Taiwan every year. There are 61 competitions including Spelling Bee, Math Olympaid, Word Power, Singing Contest, Preaching Challenge, Blog Design, Short Film, Make-up & Costume Design, Extreme Sports, etc. The May 31 opening night of the Singapore Emerge 2007 was broadcast "live" on GOD TV to 122 million homes in more than 200 nations and territories.[37]

Asia Conference

Asia Conference is a biannual five-day conferences with workshops and sessions. Speakers, Bible teachers, Worship leaders and Christian artists were invited to teach and perform at the conference.

The inaugural Asia Conference was held in November 2008 and drew over 20,000 foreign delegates from 68 countries. Speakers include Kong Hee, Phil Pringle, Chris Pringle, Ulf Ekman, A. R. Bernard and Benny Hinn. Don Moen, C3 Band, Carola Häggkvist and True Worshippers also performed during the conference.

The event used up 3 halls and 26 rooms for the 10 conference sessions and 53 elective workshops.

The next Asia Conference will be held in May 2010. Confirmed speakers include Kong Hee, Phil Pringle, A. R. Bernard, Steve Munsey, David Yonggi Cho and Reinhard Bonnke.

Church building

The church building located at Jurong West Street 91 was completed in 2002. Construction of the building costs S$48 million (US$26.6 million) and seats up to 2,300 attendees. [38]

It is the first titanium-clad building in Asia and is modelled after the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Special limestone for part of the building was imported from Europe. The frontage of the building has a fountain wall which is lit up at night. There are more than 200 parking lots within the building.

The lounge area on the first floor has plasma television monitors built into the walls featuring local news program or video recordings of past church services. There is a café, a rooftop garden, a children’s playground and wading pool, a baptism pool as well as a small putting green for golf enthusiasts.

The auditorium (which is underground) covers 1,700 square meters and is totally column-free. There are two artist make-up rooms directly behind the stage. The stage was created by Dan Hess, a designer who formerly worked with Christie’s Auction House in New York.

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 8,100 attendees. Currently the church is on a building fund drive for another bigger building to house its increased attendance.

References

  1. ^ "West Meet East", MinistriesToday (January,February): Pg:32–33, 2004 
  2. ^ "Why Isn't the American church growing?". Charisma Magazine. http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=10291. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  3. ^ a b "Our Church". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/church/church_stats_attendance.php#10. Retrieved Jul 17 2009. 
  4. ^ a b "Statement of Faith". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/church/church_missionStt.php. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  5. ^ a b Cheok Soh Hui (2004-06-30). "Harvest Times-City Harvest Church:PSB ISO 90012000". The Straits Times. 
  6. ^ a b "PSB Certification". PSB. http://www.psbcert.com/CompanySearch.aspx. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  7. ^ "Average Weekly Salvation & Rededication Decisions". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/english/agm_attendance_decision_04.cfm#8. Retrieved May 30 2005. 
  8. ^ "City Harvest Church's Organisation Structure". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/english/our_church/organization_chart.cfm. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  9. ^ "City Harvest Church Service Schedule". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/english/our_church/service_times.cfm. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  10. ^ "City Harvest Church - Our Ministry". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/ministry/ministry.php. Retrieved December 5 2008. 
  11. ^ "City Harvest Church – Join A Ministry". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/ministry/ministry_joinMinistry.php. Retrieved December 5 2009. 
  12. ^ "City Harvest Church – Ushering Ministry". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/ministry/cm_Ushering.php. Retrieved December 5 2008. 
  13. ^ "City Harvest Church – Strikeforce". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/ministry/cm_Strikeforce.php. Retrieved December 5 2008. 
  14. ^ "Biography of Kelly Tang". NIE. http://www.vpa.nie.edu.sg/music/kelly. Retrieved December 5 2008. 
  15. ^ "City Harvest Church – talking Hands". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/ministry/cm_talkingHands.php. Retrieved January 20 2009. 
  16. ^ "City Harvest Church – terminally-Ill". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/ministry/cm_terminallyIll.php. Retrieved January 20 2009. 
  17. ^ "CHCSA – terminally-Ill". CHCSA. http://www.chcsa.org.sg/terminally_ill.htm. Retrieved January 20 2009. 
  18. ^ "City Harvest Bible Training Center". City Harvest Bible Training Center. http://chbtc.chc.org.sg. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  19. ^ "City Harvest Bible Training Center Cumulative Student Intake". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/english/our_church/agm_chc_missions.cfm#01. Retrieved May 30 2005. 
  20. ^ "City Harvest Community Services Association". City Harvest Community Services Association. http://www.chcsa.org.sg. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  21. ^ "About Us". City Harvest Community Services Association. http://www.chcsa.org.sg/about_chcsa.htm. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  22. ^ "YOUTH LINK PROGRAMME TO PROVIDE SUPPORT AND OUTREACH TO OUT-OF-SCHOOL YOUTH". MCYS. http://app.mcys.gov.sg/web/corp_press_story.asp?szMod=corp&szSubMod=press&qid=2294. 
  23. ^ "City Harvest Education Centre". City Harvest Education Centre. http://www.chec.edu.sg/index.php. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  24. ^ "School of Hard Knocks". Youth.sg. http://www.youth.sg/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=392&Itemid=29. 
  25. ^ "Youngest principal". Record Breakers Singapore. http://www.singaporebookofrecords.com/singapore_records_individual.php?id=NjAwMDAwMTM3MA==. 
  26. ^ "O School". O School. http://oschool.com.sg. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  27. ^ "West Meet East", MinistriesToday (January,February): Pg:32–33, 2004 
  28. ^ "City Harvest Church – CHC Missions & Church Planting". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/church/church_stats_missions.php. Retrieved December 5 2009. 
  29. ^ "Facts & Figures", Asia Conference 2008: Pg:3–7, 2008 
  30. ^ a b Taken from http://www.cross.com.sg
  31. ^ "Harvest Times Broadcast". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/church/church_stats_missions.php. Retrieved Feb 02 2009. 
  32. ^ "Harvest Times Broadcast". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/media/media_satellite.php. Retrieved Feb 02 2009. 
  33. ^ a b "City Harvest Church's Fact Sheet". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/english/founder/factsheet.cfm. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  34. ^ Taken from http://www.chc.org.sg/harvesttimes/default.asp
  35. ^ Leong Khay Mun (January/February, 2003). "3rd Annual Intelligent20 Award". Inteelligent Asia. 
  36. ^ "Hitwise Singapore". Hitwise Singapore. http://sg.hitwise.com/index.php. Retrieved May 29 2007. 
  37. ^ "Distribution". God TV. http://eu.god.tv/Group/Group.aspx?id=1000012649. Retrieved June 5 2007. 
  38. ^ "Other places of worship slash out too". Electric New Paper. 2005-08-29. http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,93714,00.html.  By Skye Tan

See also

External links

v • d • e
Churches in Singapore
Protestantism
Roman Catholicism
Orthodox (Eastern & Oriental)

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


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "City Harvest Church".  Read more