I was from CHC

I'm back from Hong Kong. We touched down at 1am on 12 June 2010, but only got home at about 3am as we went for our dinner before going home.

I will have to go get an external hard disk today (today's the last day of PC Show) so that I can 'export' all my pictures and memories on another source before this old faithful computer crashes on me again.

What prompts me to blog now is not the wonderful Hong Kong, but what I read on the internet about City Harvest Church.

Truth be told, I attended CHC services and cell group meetings when I was thirteen.

It was then known as as Ekklesia Ministry. "Ekklesia" in Greek (or was it Hebrew?) means 'the called out ones'. It originally refers to the Israelites who were called out from the ancient Egypt. Led by Moses, they went through various trials and tests before they reached their promised Land of Milk and Honey.

It's always reported that the church started with just 20 people in 1989. I'm not sure where Pastor Kong got his figure from, but when I joined them in July 1989, there must have been at least 200 people in the congregation.

As I recall, Pastor Kong had always been a man of integrity. Very intelligent. Dressed smartly (and still does) and knew his own strengths and weaknesses very well. For so many years, he has preached in the services faithfully, almost every week without fail. In his early days when building the church, he preached a few times a week. I remember him preaching the same message at least 3 times, consecutively, on the same Sunday, because there were 3 services, one after another. And within the same week, he had to share the cell group sermons with the cell group leaders, have prayer meetings. These are just the few things I knew as I never was in a leadership position. But I knew it wasn't easy. It takes a lot of passion, the right kind of passion that drives you on all the time, and effort to keep it going. Many fell away, but he continued to be fervent in the love of God. You can tell he truly loved God.

True. He preaches in an emotional way. Perhaps that's the way he attracts people, or perhaps that's his style. But can't a preacher choose the way he wants to preach?

He was only 25 then. The only working adult among us. The next oldest youths were one or two undergraduates and a few others like his then-girlfriend-turned-wife-to-be who completed A levels but did not manage to go to the university.

There were 'confirmed' and 'unconfirmed' members. You have to be very committed to the church, attend cell group meetings, prayer meetings, church services and other church activities, pray for an hour every day and exhibit positive attitude towards the church before you can become a confirmed member. After becoming one, you would be asked to tithe. Back then, the cell group leader explained to me, using bible verses on how the newer churches were asked to tithe additional amount on top of the usual 10% of your income. It was 23.something percent then. On top of that, you would have to make a monthly pledge of an amount of money you would like to give.

I read that members were pressured to the extent of being chased after by their cell group leaders, and asked to see their payslips to make sure they are paying the 'correct' amount. During that time, we were just students receiving pocket money from our parents, so the issue wasn't so compelling. However, I did feel the invisible pressure of giving too little compared to a cell group leader who was also my friend and a schoolmate. She would ask,"No income huh?" as she would know the amount I tithed. But being a miser as I always have been, tithing has always been an issue with me, so it never occurred to me that the problem could be with anybody else.

I read from the various forums and posts that the members are asked to tithe 10 percent of their income now. I'm not sure what happens but perhaps the church decided at some point that they had too much money and could afford to lower the amount they asked people to tithe. I don't see the move as an inconsistency. Any move to reduce the financial strain on anybody is a good move.

Towards the end of my departure from the church, there had been more and more of prosperity gospel preaching. I didn't know what to make heads or tails of as like many others, I was just an impressionable teenager. But it did sound right that pastors do not need to be 'as poor as a church mouse', and God wants to prosper us. It sounded right that princes and princesses ought not be dressed in rags. Give 10 fold and receive a hundred - doesn't that sound biblical? I have to admit that I am not rooted in the bible, nor do I study deeply into the verses, so I'm not able to discern if these lines are really of God's will, but they do sound right, don't they? If Christianity is meant for us to live in poverty, then who will want to be a Christian? If Buddhism is meant for one to suffer without attaining any form of enlightenment, who will want to be a Buddhist?

I left the church when I was 19. I didn't think that the church was horrible or anything like that. In fact, I made some great friends there. They were, and still are, the greatest people I ever know. I just could not attend the church with all the questions in my head anymore. I remember the church started out advising us not to visit nightspots or be involved in sexual, provoking dances. In terms of dressing, girls were banned from wearing tight-skirts - it was a kind of short, denim skirts with a little split at the hem at the back of the skirt. But when I attended its service at the Indoor Stadium one day, Pastor Sun was dancing on the stage, dressed in skin tight tops which emphasised her well-endowed chest. To a certain extent, I was disillusioned. I couldn't appreciate or understand the intent of the changed messages, spoken or unspoken. I have nothing against the pastor I once knew personally. Despite my disillusionment, I never for once doubt her personality. She was a jovial, warm and helpful person despite her cool apppearance.

I didn't know if The Straits Times had misquoted her, but in an interview, Pastor Sun was quoted as saying that she never addressed herself as a pastor, when all the while, she was introduced as Pastor Ho, or more affectionately to the members, Pastor Sun. However, I would give her the benefit of doubt as The Straits Times is notorious for misquoting or quoting the interviewees wrongly. I had an expatriate NIE lecturer who told us he was very angry with The Straits Times for quoting him wrongly and he vowed never to be interviewed by The Straits Times again. And I think he really meant it, because he left Singapore for another job in another country after that.

In my heart of hearts, I hope that Pastor Kong will come out clean from the investigation. No ordinary man would feel untempted in the face of millions of dollars. It takes a God-knows-how-much amount of integrity to be stoic with this kind of money. But still, I hope that Pastor Kong has stood the test.