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City Harvest Church (Chinese: 城市丰收教会) or "CHC" is a Singapore mega church that serves as the spiritual resource center for related churches based in Asia. It has been considered by some to be "one of the largest congregations in Asia. "
The church is a full member of the National Council of Churches in Singapore, Evangelical Fellowship of Singapore, and Festival of Praise Fellowship. CHC is a multi-site church with multiple, multi-lingual weekend services at two campuses, Jurong West and Singapore Expo Hall 8. The values of CHC are based on the Charismatic and Pentecostal teachings, with doctrinal emphases on the Great Commandment, the Great Commission and the Cultural Mandate. There are 24 different nationalities represented among its congregation.
In Singapore, CHC has spawned religious agencies such as a Bible school, a community service association, an education center, a Christian television department, a performing arts school, and a marketplace ministry for businesspeople. Overseas, CHC has active relationships with churches and Bible schools in Asia, conducting joint conferences and seminars with them annually.
There are a dozen mega churches in Singapore, with the more prominent ones being Faith Community Baptist Church, New Creation Church, Trinity Christian Center, Wesley Methodist Church, Church of Our Savior, etc. CHC has cooperative relationships with many of them.
Mission Statement
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
The fundamental teachings of the congregation are reflected in the following Statements of Faith.
History
City Harvest Chuch was founded by Kong Hee with 20 people on May 7, 1989. During the early years, CHC met at various venues such as Katong Park Hotel, NTUC Auditorium, Ministry of Environment Building, National Productivity Board Auditorium, Hotel Grand Central, Orchard Hotel, World Trade Center, and the Westin Hotel.
In 1995, CHC leased the former Hollywood Theater at Tanjong Katong Road and met there for six years. 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 to accommodate its growing congregation.
On April 29, 2004, City Harvest was awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification for quality management and process management.
City Harvest Church currently has 23,000 attendees in its weekend services. 55% of its members are below the age of 25 years. The church has 36 volunteer ministries for its members to participate in.
Organisation Structure
The church has 12 pastors, with five of them ordained as Reverends. The church employs 140 full-time staff that works at the church premises and its administrative office at Suntec City.
The City Harvest Church Management Board and Committee consists of:
- Board of Independent Advisors
- Board of Trustees
- Building Committee
- Committee of Ordained Pastors
- External Auditors
- Finance Committee
- Legal Advisors
- Marketplace Ministry Committee
- Missions Committee
- Remuneration Committee
The CHC Office is divided into 2 main departments:
Pastoral Departments
- Children’s Church
- Dialect Church
- English Church
- Indonesia Church
- JAMs Church
- Mandarin Church
Administration Departments
- Chinese Language Department
- Creative Arts Ministry
- Facilities Operations
- Finance
- Graphic & Design
- Human Resource Management
- Management Information Systems
- Nursery & Childcare
- Office Administration
- Pastoral Administration
- Public Relations
- Publications
- Senior Pastor’s Office
Weekly Services
The church holds different weekly services:
- English Services
The English Services are held at Singapore Expo Hall 8 on Saturdays and Sundays.
- Chinese Church
The Chinese Service is held at Jurong West Main Auditorium (Basement 4) on Sundays.
- Dialect Church
The Dialect Service is held at Jurong West Main Auditorium (Basement 4) on Sundays.
- Children's Church
The Church has 490 workers and volunteers that reach out to children through weekly home visitations and educational tuition.
On weekends, about 2,300 children attend the Children's Church services and nursery playgroup classes.
- JAMs Church (Jesus for All Minds)
The English Services are held at Jurong West Children's Church Hall (Level 4) on Saturdays and Sundays.
- Indonesian Service
The Indonesian Service are held at Jurong West Rooms 5 & 6 (Level 4) on Sundays.
Affiliated Organisations
City Harvest Bible Training Center
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. It offers a five-month full-time program in Advanced Certificate of Theology jointly with Oral Roberts University. In the past 12 years, more than 2,000 graduates from more than 30 countries have graduated from its courses.
CHBTC Mission Statement: City Harvest Bible Training Center is committed to offering theological and practical training courses of high quality, comparable to internationally-recognized standards, so as to equip students in doctrinal and practical aspects of church ministry. For every course program we offer, we seek to understand and meet the requirements of students' needs and to inspire, impact and maximise the potential of each and every student.
City Harvest Community Services Association
City Harvest Community Services Association (CHCSA) currently employs 12 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 Executive Director of CHCSA is Tan Ye-Peng.
On April 29, 2004, CHCSA attained the ISO 9001:2000 certification. For 2006, it provided 17,123 humanitarian services to more than 11,421 Singapore residents of various races and religions.
City Harvest Education Centre
City Harvest Education Centre (CHEC) has been registered with the Ministry of Education since 2002. The purpose of CHEC is "to provide effective and affordable education to private candidates taking the GCE 'N' and 'O' level examinations." In 2006, CHEC's students make up about 7% of all private candidates in Singapore taking O Level Examinations.
CHEC is also the first school in Singapore to be offering Dance as a GCE O Level subject.
O School
O School, a performing arts center, is a "social enterprise" supported by MCYS ComCare Enterprise Fund (). 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 an youth befriending tool.
- 3. To provide training and employment placement for youths.
Culture
Cell Groups
Cell groups are a major part of the church's ministry to its members. Currently there are more than 600 cell group leaders (each leading a group in a week) with some running more than 2 cell groups in a week. The cell groups meeting locations can be found throughout Singapore and are where members can meet for worship, prayers and bible-study sessions. Cell group leaders are generally handpicked lay members of the church who are trained to run cell groups. As the church grew larger in numbers, cell groups serves as a place where church members can still forge closely knitted relationships with fellow Christians in a much smaller setting.
Missions
Overseas, CHC has 31 affiliate churches and Bible schools in the Far East, including the following:
- India: Emmanuel Fellowship, 2 churches, 12 missions
- Sri Lanka: Canaan Fellowship, 2 churches
- Malaysia: City Harvest Church Kuala Lumpur, Skudai Harvest Church and City Harvest Missions, Kuching
- Indonesia: Harvest Church Medan; bible schools in Surabaya, Medan, Tanjung Piunang and Malang
- Taiwan: Harvest Bible School, Hsin Tien Covenant Church
- Japan: Fukuoka Harvest Church
According to its own statistics, between October 2003 and May 2004 CHC sent out a total of 1,663 missionaries, converting 103,683 people.
Recordings and Stage Productions
Like most charismatic churches, the church uses contemporary music and settings for praise and worship, with a choir in an environment similar to a rock concert with the related music instruments. It has also a strong drama team for its stage productions
- 1994 : Against All Odds (CD Album)
- 1995 : Remember Us (CD Album)
- 1996 : Life (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)
- 2006 : Emerge (DVD)
- 2006 : Glory (DVD)
- 2007 : Destiny (CD Singles)
- 2007 : Breakaway (CD Singles)
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 637 million. Harvest Time is available in its original English language or Chinese translation, depending on the broadcast station.
Publications
The church publishes a magazine called Harvest Times (founded in 1999) every 3 months. 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
Awards
- 2002 : 3rd Annual Intelligent20 Award
- 2004 : ISO 9001:2000 Certification
- 2005 & 2006 : Hitwise Award - Ranked #1 in the category: Lifestyle - Religion for most visited website
Emerge Conference
City Harvest Church is the organizer of Emerge, an annual youth conference. In 2007, 1830 delegates from a total of 15 countries, namely Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Macau, India, Brunei, Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Seychelles and Uganda, flew to Singapore for this conference. City Harvest Church has also co-hosted Emerge conferences in Malaysia and Taiwan.
During Emerge Singapore, there are various competitions to help develop the talents of the youths. One of them is Spelling Bee which aims to lay a strong foundation in the command of language. Other competitions include Talentime, Blog Design, Short Film, Make-up & Costume Design.
Emerge is broadcasted through a total of 12 TV stations one of which is the 2nd largest Christian TV network, God TV. It has 15 satellites beaming from Jerusalem, broadcasting 24-hours-a-day and is connected to 121.5 million homes to over 437 million people in more than 200 nations and territories
Affiliate Harvest Churches
- "Heart of God Church (Singapore)"
- "Emmanuel Fellowship, Nadiad (India)"
- "Emmanuel Fellowship, Madhikupipada (India)"
- "City Harvest Church Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)"
- "Indonesia Harvest Church, Pancubatu (Indonesia)"
- "Indonesia Harvest Church, Medan (Indonesia)"
- "Indonesia Harvest Church, Binjai (Indonesia)"
- "City Harvest Christian Fellowship, Kuching (Malaysia)"
- "Rhema Church, Sitiawan (Malaysia)"
- "The Life Church, Penang (Malaysia)"
- "City Harvest Christian Fellowship, Sibu (Malaysia)"
- "New Life Church, Taipei (Taiwan)"
- "Taipei Revival Church, Taipei (Taiwan)"
- "Taipei Truth Church, Taipei (Taiwan)"
- "Hsin Tien Covenant Church, Taipei (Taiwan)"
- "Rhema Christian Church, Tainan (Taiwan)"
- "Pingtung Peace Church, Pingtung (Taiwan)"
- "Good News Center (India)"
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The church has hosted some established evangelists such as the late Dr Edwin Louis Cole, Dr Phil Pringle, Dr Ulf Ekman, Dr AR Bernard, Dr John Avanzini, Dr Richard Roberts, Dr Joyce Meyer, Rev Ed Silvoso, Rev Benny Hinn and Rev Casey Treat etc. CHC also invited renowned music ministries like Don Moen, Delirious, Hillsong Australia, Reuben Morgan and Sidney Mohede. Since 2004, they also participated in Ulf Ekman's Israel Study Trip, which includes Christian holy sites and towns, except West Bank.
Church Building
The church building, unveiled in 2002, is located at Jurong West Street 91. Construction of the building cost S$48 million (US$26.6 million) and seats up to 2,000 members, accommodating less than 10% of its 23,000 weekly membership, thus many services are held every weekend to fit all its members.
It is the first titanium-clad building in Asia and is modeled after the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Special limestone for part of the building was imported from Europe. The Riviera walkway was designed by a world-famous artist. The elevators go from B4, which is where the auditorium is located, all the way up to level 5, which is the roof top area. There are more than 200 parking lots within the building itself.
There is a lounge area on the first floor area, and large plasma television monitors are built into the walls featuring the local Channel NewsAsia or video recordings of past services. There is a café, fountain, a rooftop garden, a children’s playground, a children’s wading pool, a baptism pool and a small putting green for golf enthusiasts.
Cool Mist fans blast out moist air that can cool down the entire rooftop area to ward off the daytime heat. The bathroom facilities were designed by French designer Philippe Starck. Even the toilets “exemplify the very meaning of style”
The auditorium covers 1,700 square meters and is possibly the largest column-free church hall in the Southeast Asia. There are two artist make-up rooms directly behind the stage. A team of the church's own volunteers operate the Audio and Media equipment. The original 60-channel sound console has been moved to the Expo, while being replaced with a smaller SoundCraft unit. The stage was created by a designer who formerly worked with Christie’s Auction House in New York. It features a bright LED screen.
It has a S$583,000 fountain (1.2% of the building cost) and a 1,700 square-metres basement auditorium which seats 2,000.
While the entire congregation was still at its Jurong West building, 280 buses were chartered weekly to ferry church members in from various parts of Singapore, making a total of 1,842 stops.
The Church has moved its weekend English services to Singapore Expo Hall 8 (which is able to hold approximately 8,100 people) since 10 December 2005 with a Saturday service at 5.00 pm and a Sunday one at 10.00am, while the Church building is still being used for the other language services, meetings and its Bible School (School of Theology).
References
- "Why Isn't the American church growing?". Charisma Magazine.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Statement of Faith". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "City Harvest Church ISO Certification". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Our Church". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Average Weekly Salvation & Rededication Decisions". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "City Harvest Church's Organisation Structure". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "City Harvest Bible Training Center". City Harvest Bible Training Center.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "City Harvest Bible Training Center Cumulative Student Intake". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "City Harvest Community Services Association". City Harvest Community Services Association.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "City Harvest Education Centre". City Harvest Education Centre.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "O School". O School.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Mission Outreaches". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - Taken from http://www.cross.com.sg
- "Harvest Times Broadcast". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "City Harvest Church's Fact Sheet". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - Taken from http://www.chc.org.sg/harvesttimes/default.asp
- "City Harvest Church's Fact Sheet". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Hitwise Singapore". Hitwise Singapore.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "City Harvest Church's Fact Sheet". City Harvest Church.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Harvest Times". Harvest Times July-December 2002 Edition.
- "Other places of worship slash out too". Electric New Paper. 29 August 2005. By Skye Tan
