The Lighthouse Of Asia.Second Largest Church In Asia

[alanraj]

In 1989, the Spirit of the Lord moved mightily in the heart of Rev. Kong Hee, impressing him 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.

However, having held several small, but successful, evangelistic campaigns in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, Kong wanted to become an itinerant evangelist and be a blessing to the churches in this part of the world.

Sometime in April that year, he left the church he was attending since childhood and set out to become a staff evangelist with "Christ For Asia," a local missions organization. But God's ways are always higher than man's and sure enough, the Lord had other plans.

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 surrounded 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 this new work, putting aside his dream of becoming a successful traveling preacher.

To date, City Harvest Church has more than 20,000 people in its weekend services and is still growing rapidly. CHC has nine affiliate churches. Its SGD$48,000,000 titanium church complex in Jurong West(Singapore) was fully paid for and is utilised for some of its ministries. CHC has offices and centers in five locations and it also owns another plot of land at Jurong West Street 74.

Kong is known throughout Singapore and Asia as a dynamic faith teacher, preaching an uncompromising prophetic message for this generation. He has a strong vision in his heart to train workers with a single purpose to see strong local churches planted everywhere in Asia. His television program "Harvest Times" is broadcasted many times weekly in 145 countries through 11 television networks.

Kong is married to Sun, a professional singer and recording artiste with a career based in the United States and Taiwan.

With effect from November 1, 2005, to help save cost for the church, Kong was taken off the church payroll indefinitely. He is now officially a pastor on an honorary and volunteer basis.

Hands from all over the World Come to help to build the Lighthouse / Mission Base for Asia .

Interesting Facts of City Harvest Church Building

at No. 1 Jurong West Street 91

1. Largest Column-Free Sanctuary

The main auditorium, with an area of 1,700 square metres, is the largest column-free church sanctuary in the Southeast Asian Peninsula.

2. Largest "Transfer Beam" in the World

6 floors of the building are resting on the "ceiling" of the column-free auditorium. The ceiling, technically known as a "transfer beam," is the largest ceiling structure in the world with an area of 3,500 square metres and a depth of 3 metres. Sato Kogyo and Bachy Soletanche jointly built it.

3. First Titanium-Clad Building in Asia

The front facade of the building is clad with the same titanium that wraps the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The renowned museum is reputed to be the most beautiful contemporary architecture in the world today. According to the Swiss museum specialists, this building in Singapore is the first architecture with such titanium cladding in Asia.

4. Largest Church Building

From the lowest basement to the top of the steeple cross, the building is 54 metres in height, or equivalent to 18-20 floors of a HDB flat. This is the biggest church structure in the Southeast Asian Peninsula.

5. To prevent the two HDB flats (within 9 metres from the perimeter of the building) from collapsing, or even having a hairline crack, a 1-metre thick diaphragm wall was constructed all around the boundary of the property before excavation works were carried out. The complexity of the construction was further intensified by the fact that the 4 basements had to be built "top-down" (constructing downward in the order of ground floor, basement 1, basement 2, basement 3 and then basement 4) rather than the conventional "bottom-up" approach.

6. Tallest Partition Panels in the World

The sanctuary can be compartmentalised or partitioned into 7 smaller halls. While working on this project, Goldbeck GmbH designed the tallest partitions or "operable walls" in the world with each panel in the sanctuary measuring at 11.5 metres in height. (The previous tallest panel measured at only 9.5 metres.)

7. First Broquard Fountain in Southeast Asia

Mr. Jerome Broquard from Los Angeles, USA, is widely recognised as the number one fountain maker in the world. Mr. Broquard is the designer of the fountain wall at the front of the building and this assignment is his first fountain project in Southeast Asia. (Japan has the only other Broquard fountain in Asia.)

8. Largest Stainless Steel Church Cross in the World

At 12 metres high and 800 kg in weight, the stainless steel cross is the largest in the world.

9. Largest Sound Console in the World

Mr. Steven Le Roux, the sound and lighting consultant of the Sydney Opera House, provided consultancy services to City Harvest Church with relation to acoustics of the main sanctuary. The auditorium is fitted with a 60-channel sound console, which is the largest and only one of its size in the world.

10. Mr. Dan Hess, a former top stage designer from Christie's Auction House in New York, is the designer of the auditorium's stage.

11. The front lawn of the building has a reflecting pool .

12. Most Advanced Fire Evacuation System in the World

The fire evacuation public announcement system, designed by Klotz Digital, is widely touted to be the most advanced and efficient in the market today. They designed this specially for the new Munich Airport which is due to be opened in 2003. The church was approached by Klotz Digital to be the first architecture in the world to be fitted with such a system.

13. Largest Church Donation Campaign in Southeast Asia

The land purchase and building construction costs a total of $47.6 million. This amount is raised locally and entirely from City Harvest Church's own congregation in Singapore over a period of 7 years. Only 45% of the congregation are working adults, the rest are mainly schooling youths, housewives and retirees.

14. Largest Busing Programme in Southeast Asia

Every weekend, 406 bus trips are made to ferry our members.

Missions

In early 2000, City Harvest Church received a mandate to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations of Asia and beyond. This call required everyone in the church to take a step of faith into the unknown with an eight-month mission project that would eventually result in thousands of souls being added into the kingdom. With this word, the church rallied together in a united effort through much prayer, fasting, personal involvement as part of the mission team, and preparation for God

Edited February 20, 2006 by alanraj

[Leonard]

Praise God for all you are doing!