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CHC History |
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In 1989, Kong Hee 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.
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 24,000 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 2,200-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.
It also owns another plot of land at Jurong West Street 74 that is earmarked for another
church building.
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 8,200-seater Singapore Expo Hall 8.
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 15 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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