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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Kong Hee a director of fashion company!</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt_89 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>9:29 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 1) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>33924.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Jun 1, 2010
Pastor and wife have their admirers and detractors
<!-- by line -->By Ben Nadarajan & Carolyn Quek
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With the church's growing size came greater public scrutiny for Pastor Kong Hee (above) and his wife, singer and fellow pastor Ho Yeow Sun (second picture), whose celebrity lifestyle and raunchy music videos were not appreciated by some. -- PHOTOS: CITY HARVEST CHURCH, LIANHE ZAOBAO
View more photos http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20100601/a8-3.jpg
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JUST 10 hours before he was brought in for questioning, City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee had wrapped up one of the megachurch's biggest conferences on a high.
Renowned international Christian speakers, over 30,000 foreign delegates and Hong Kong and Taiwanese celebrities had flown in for the five-day event, which is held every two years.
Touted as a 'life-changing event', it occupied three halls at the Singapore Expo, had several sponsors and even an official hotel.
Pastor Kong, an alumnus of Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College, was well-known in the Christian world as a conference speaker.
He also calls himself a humanitarian and businessman on his website.
He moulded City Harvest Church, which was started in 1989, into one with reserves of more than $100million and with a swelling congregation of 33,000.
And while his wife, singer Ho Yeow Sun, has added a touch of celebrity status to his profile, Pastor Kong, 46, has long been the face of the church, which has its fair share of fans and detractors.
City Harvest started out as Ekklesia Ministry under the Bethany Christian Centre, an Assemblies of God church.
Back then, it did not have its own place and worshipped out of conference rooms in hotels and commercial buildings. Church employees used to operate out of small offices in areas such as Little India and Joo Chiat, but things changed rather drastically in 2001.
The church moved its headquarters to a 14,000 sq ft office in Suntec and opened a $47.6million building of its own in Jurong West.
From about 10,000 members before the opening of the Jurong West church, membership doubled to 20,000 five years later and now stands at 33,000. It also has 45 affiliate churches in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Taiwan and Australia with a total of 48,000 members.
With its growing size came greater public scrutiny.
People found fault with Pastor Kong's wife, who was a pastor at the church, for her celebrity lifestyle and her raunchy music videos.
With that came a general sense that the church was spending much more than it needed to, especially when it came to paying its staff. In the last financial year, the church spent about $40million.
City Harvest has made it widely known that its founder has not received pay from the church since November 2005 and has relied on his own businesses for his income.
Pastor Kong is listed as a director of fashion apparel store Skin Couture, which he runs with his wife. He is also a director of International Harvest.
But, as of last year, the church still paid its 150 staff about $9.3million.
The church is run by a management board consisting of 10 members. There is also a Board of Independent Advisers and a Board of Trustees.
City Harvest member Wayne Chan, 31, a public relations practitioner, describes the pastor as 'humble, caring and family-oriented'. 'He always emphasises family values and loving God and people.'
Miss Teo Chin Ghee, 21, an undergraduate, said he leads by example, like when he pledged to donate $1,000 each time he preached over a few months to the church's building fund.
Pastor Kong was also a savvy Internet user, with his own website, blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
His last post on Twitter before he was brought in for questioning: 'The Cultural Mandate is to make us Model Citizens of society!' - a quote from an American speaker at the conference.
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Pastor and wife have their admirers and detractors
<!-- by line -->By Ben Nadarajan & Carolyn Quek
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar -->
<!-- story content : start -->
JUST 10 hours before he was brought in for questioning, City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee had wrapped up one of the megachurch's biggest conferences on a high.
Renowned international Christian speakers, over 30,000 foreign delegates and Hong Kong and Taiwanese celebrities had flown in for the five-day event, which is held every two years.
Touted as a 'life-changing event', it occupied three halls at the Singapore Expo, had several sponsors and even an official hotel.
Pastor Kong, an alumnus of Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College, was well-known in the Christian world as a conference speaker.
He also calls himself a humanitarian and businessman on his website.
He moulded City Harvest Church, which was started in 1989, into one with reserves of more than $100million and with a swelling congregation of 33,000.
And while his wife, singer Ho Yeow Sun, has added a touch of celebrity status to his profile, Pastor Kong, 46, has long been the face of the church, which has its fair share of fans and detractors.
City Harvest started out as Ekklesia Ministry under the Bethany Christian Centre, an Assemblies of God church.
Back then, it did not have its own place and worshipped out of conference rooms in hotels and commercial buildings. Church employees used to operate out of small offices in areas such as Little India and Joo Chiat, but things changed rather drastically in 2001.
The church moved its headquarters to a 14,000 sq ft office in Suntec and opened a $47.6million building of its own in Jurong West.
From about 10,000 members before the opening of the Jurong West church, membership doubled to 20,000 five years later and now stands at 33,000. It also has 45 affiliate churches in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Taiwan and Australia with a total of 48,000 members.
With its growing size came greater public scrutiny.
People found fault with Pastor Kong's wife, who was a pastor at the church, for her celebrity lifestyle and her raunchy music videos.
With that came a general sense that the church was spending much more than it needed to, especially when it came to paying its staff. In the last financial year, the church spent about $40million.
City Harvest has made it widely known that its founder has not received pay from the church since November 2005 and has relied on his own businesses for his income.
Pastor Kong is listed as a director of fashion apparel store Skin Couture, which he runs with his wife. He is also a director of International Harvest.
But, as of last year, the church still paid its 150 staff about $9.3million.
The church is run by a management board consisting of 10 members. There is also a Board of Independent Advisers and a Board of Trustees.
City Harvest member Wayne Chan, 31, a public relations practitioner, describes the pastor as 'humble, caring and family-oriented'. 'He always emphasises family values and loving God and people.'
Miss Teo Chin Ghee, 21, an undergraduate, said he leads by example, like when he pledged to donate $1,000 each time he preached over a few months to the church's building fund.
Pastor Kong was also a savvy Internet user, with his own website, blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
His last post on Twitter before he was brought in for questioning: 'The Cultural Mandate is to make us Model Citizens of society!' - a quote from an American speaker at the conference.
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