The Church is the hope of the world –Singapore - 16 March 09 (Dawie)

When we arrived in Singapore I asked the Lord to direct as to a Spirit led Church. I was tired after two months of travel in Europe only visiting churches as museums and not representatives of the risen Christ. Paul said to Timothy to stay away from those who have "a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Tim 3:5)

I visited the websites of various different churches, but this story caught my attention:

(I made a copy of it for you from the website…you can read so much more on the website yourselves)

"THE CITY HARVEST STORY

The Call of God In 1989, Kong felt the call of God to enter into full-time Christian service. Kong had, by then, graduated with a degree in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore and was working for a publishing house. Having held several small, but successful, evangelistic campaigns in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, Kong wanted to become an itinerant evangelist to assist the churches in Southeast Asia. In April that year, he left the Anglican church he was attending since he was a child and set out to become a staff evangelist with "Christ for Asia," a Singapore-based missions organization. The Birth of CHC After leaving his local congregation and embarking on a walk of faith in the mission field, a group of young people that Kong had previously ministered to gathered around him. They wanted him to be their shepherd, to pastor and lead them. With the support and encouragement of numerous senior pastors in the city, Kong decided to pioneer a new work, and hence, put aside his desire of becoming a traveling minister. Today, City Harvest Church has more than 25,000 attendees in its weekend services and is still steadily growing. Locally, the church has 36 ministries for its members to volunteer actively in. Overseas, CHC has 27 affiliate churches and 10 Bible schools in the Far East. The Malaysian Harvest Fellowship Kong co-founded has another 17 affiliate churches in East and West Malaysia. In 2001, CHC built a 2,300-seater, titanium-clad church complex in Jurong West Street 91 for S$48,000,000. Apart from that, it has offices and schools in five different locations. CHC is effectively a multi-site church with worship services at multiple sites, conducted at various times. Its main English language services are held every Saturday and Sunday at the 8,100-seater Singapore Expo Hall 8. The Vision of Our Pastor Kong is known throughout Asia as a dynamic speaker, communicating the message of faith in a very relevant and contemporary way. He has a strong vision to train 21st century leaders who would plant strong local churches everywhere in Asia. Each week, his half-hour television program "Harvest Time" is broadcasted many times in 145 countries through 13 television networks. With effect from 1 November 2005, Kong has asked to be taken off the church payroll indefinitely. He is now officially a pastor strictly on an honorary and volunteer basis. These days, he travels around the world as an entrepreneur, educator and conference speaker."

For the past two weeks we had the privilege to visit the City Harvest Church, three times, here in Singapore. Let me just highlight a few aspects we have learned from the church: Kong Hee founded the church with a few youngsters in 1989 Their current membership is more than 25 000 people Just less than a 1 000 active small groups are functional On weekends up to 50 000 people attend their services Their yearly income from donations are more than N$200 million They have more than N$180 million in the bank They spend more than 50% of their total income on ministries "to the outside" More than 1000 people are in the process of signing up for their yearly Bible School (extensive discipleship training) In 2008 they recorded more than 10 000 new (from the street) salvations They currently focus (as I see it) on spirit led weekend services, small group participation, strong families, discipleship, leadership development, cultural diversity, being relevant in a recession and a technical world, being involved in the need around them and to fulfill the great commission Their weekend services are well planned, transferring lots of biblical knowledge and the application thereof, strongly supported by drama, music, technical (audio, video, DVD), worship and fellowship. What can I add? They are not playing church. They ARE church..and they are changing lives and impacting their city and country.To Jesus all honour and glory. Bill Hybels said: "there is nothing like the local church ,if the local church is working right!" But then the local church should work right! Paul said in 1 Cor 4:20 "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power" Leadership and to see God's glory shine in Namibia and Africa is my passion, but every time when I see the local church that is working well (or not),something strange is happening in my deep inner being…some day , maybe some day….