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THE CITY HARVEST STORY |
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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 27,086 attendees in its weekend services and is
still steadily growing. Locally, the church has 37 ministries for its members to volunteer
actively in.
CHC has 46 affiliate "Harvest" churches in 2008. CHC has direct supervision over 28 of them, while 18 come under the oversight of Harvest School of Ministry led by Rev. George Ong.
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.
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