SINGAPORE, 22 NOVEMBER 2008 — Walking past a row of refurbished warehouses at Kallang, one would notice the throbbing bass of techno dance tracks assailing the peace and quiet of the surroundings. No, this was not the newest watering hole in town; after all, it was only 9am in the morning. This was something better: Asia Conference’s 5-a-side Futsal tournament, held at The Cage. A fateful battleground for the morning’s matches.

From 42 preliminary matches, 48 participating teams were whittled down to the final eight, slugging it out for the top three prizes of S$500, S$400 and S$300. Two foreign teams from City Harvest Johor Bahru and Bethany Indonesia Manado were also gunning for the top prize. Teams comprised of church members and friends alike, united by their passion for soccer and an unquenchable thirst for victory.

Cheering supporters at the sideline were not disappointed by the explosive action, incisive passes and near-impossible goals that ruled the 16 matches for the day. By noon, it was down to four teams vying for the top three positions.

PHOTOS: Lee Boon Bee & Li Jingwen

The fierce battle that ensued during the 3^rd and 4^th placing match concluded with a 2-1 score as players played fast and intense with many goals attempted. The grand finals finished 1-0 as teams fought long and hard to crack the opponent’s defense until a well-footed shot entered through the top left corner of the goalpost.

Victorious captain Peter Luen revealed that his team’s secret lay not in any single person’s effort but the teamwork of every player who gave their 200 percent best for the entire tournament. Despite the ferocity of the competition, smiles and handshakes abounded as prizes were awarded and parting photo shots were taken.

For sure, everyone is looking forward to the next rematch at Asia Conference 2010, which promises to be bigger, bolder and better!

SINGAPORE, 22 NOVEMBER 2008 — Japanese teenagers are widely credited for their great dress sense and colorful J-pop culture but the opening question from Tan Ye Peng drove home the urgency for revival. He asked, “Why aren’t these youths in church?”

During the 90-minute “Meet-the-Pastors” session with about 50 delegates, mainly Japanese, Tan emphasized two key points. He said that the church must step out of its four walls in order to effectively reach out to youths, and that everything starts with relationship.

PHOTOS: Daniel Poh

Tan said that the church must eschew the loftiness of religion if they want to attract their youth to God. He explained how the “church without walls” concept has helped City Harvest grow from 1,500 to 3,000 members within a year. And this growth was fueled by reaching out to marginalized members of society — namely the elderly, intellectually disabled, prisoners and HIV patients.

At the same time, he stressed that they must not be impatient in increasing the size of the church. Instead, church leaders must take time to build strong foundations of prayer, fellowship, ministry, discipleship and evangelism in each member, while the church is still small. Only when members are grounded in these foundations can the church sustain revival-scale growth.

Tan also fielded questions on practical know-hows of starting a cell group, discipleship and reaching out to the youth. He reminded them to invest in the youth of their society and build relationships with them without being judgmental of their outward appearances. Giving a practical example of reaching out to teenagers, he said that many of O School’s students were once street kids. As City Harvest Church tapped into their love for dance and got them involved in church activities, these youths felt loved and appreciated, opened their hearts to the gospel and were subsequently saved.

Most of the delegates who spoke up said they were impressed by CHC members’ hospitality as well as the congregation’s unified style of praise and worship. But many of the delegates, as church leaders, were also concerned about discipleship. This was because many of their pastors back home were already in their 50s and 60s.

To address this issue, Tan said that they had to start identifying and discipling their young as soon as possible. He encouraged the crowd to send their children to the following year’s School of Theology (SOT) so that they might return to Japan with the fresh renewal needed for revival. Additionally, he stressed the importance of discipling based on biblical principles and not on personal preferences.

These lessons were indeed very relevant and timely, particularly for the largely Buddhist and Shinto Japanese population. Kunio Nishida from Fukuoka Harvest Church agreed that discipleship was the key to building a strong church, while Kumamoto Harvest Church’s Yoji Nakamura said, “Our church has just started its first cell group this year, and now is indeed the time to build them up with the five foundations mentioned by Tan Ye Peng.”

According to Bobby Chaw, CHC’s mission team to Japan headed by Wu Yu Zhuang has conducted many cell group trainings, seminaries for pastors and classes on organizing large-scale events. And since 2007, SOT has incorporated Japanese interpretations into its lessons to great effect. Last year’s SOT saw a large number of Japanese enrolling for the first time ever.

Reiterating his faith in Japan churches, Tan ended the session with a prayer for revival and breakthrough, as well as anointing upon the church and marketplace leaders.

SINGAPORE, 22 NOVEMBER — EMBRACING CHANGE WITH a renewed mindset, loving others despite differences and building strong relationships — these were the emphases of
Tan Ye Peng’s message to the Malaysian delegates during a Meet-the-Pastors session on Saturday.

Tan, who is City Harvest Church’s deputy senior pastor, brought every delegate to a higher, more contemporary level of thinking when it came to evangelism and focused on City Harvest’s core message: The Cultural Mandate.

He made special mention of O School, a dynamic dance school which was formed for the purpose of reaching out to dancers by building relationships with them and inviting them to church.

In order for churches to see exponential growth, a church’s leaders need to focus on five aspects: prayer, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. The quality of lives is valued far above the quantity of members.

“In raising leaders, you need to invest and believe in them, grow with them. That’s just the way Phil Pringle from Christian City Church saw our church leaders in City Harvest Church grow to what they are now,” Tan shared.

There was also a spirited exchange about the controversial topics of dressing, hair color and tattooing. Tan stated that dressing up was not a compromise of values. The method and style may change, but the message should always be sacred. Instead of expecting the world to be like the church, the point of change can start the other way round.

PHOTOS: Michael Chan

However, Tan stood firm on his Christian values and stressed that a person should not compromise just to reach more people.

He also shared that in carrying out projects on a bigger scale such as community involvement programs, it was necessary to build a network and ensure program sustainability. It was important to have a point man who could carry the responsibility, and to have sufficient finances for the program to hold out.

Matthew Foo, youth pastor of Damansana Utama Methodist Church in Petaling Jaya, said that the session changed his mindset and that he now saw that there was so much more to be done. The challenge was to bring the message to the senior leaders of the church — the youths were more receptive to change.

“The session also gave us a new mindset, as we lead a Tamil church of people with traditional thinking and all. We now need to train and change not just their dressing but also their thinking. However, in reaching more people, we cannot be critical just because they look different, but to love and include them,” remarked David and Rebekah Simon, pastors of Jirehs House of Prayer.

Indeed making a difference is a massive step to take, but the Malaysian delegates were convinced that results spell hard work. With spiritual discipline and transformed minds, they went home from Asia Conference, ready to take their churches to a whole new level.

SINGAPORE, 22 NOVEMBER — THE SATURDAY MORNING provided a short mid-conference breather for Asia Conference delegates were relaxing after three intensive days of messages, competitions, workshops and performance. But for church pastors from India, Sri Lanka and Cambodia, Saturday morning was the time for a much-anticipated Meet-the-Pastors session with City Harvest Church’s (CHC) deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng.

Although the session was scheduled to begin at 8.30am, most of the pastors had already arrived by 8am, clearly full of anticipation for the meeting. K Yogarajah of Smyrna Church in Sri Lanka said he was keen to learn more about CHC’s ministry work, especially in his own country.

Before the meeting started, Bobby Chaw, the Dean of School of Theology (SOT), spent time getting to know the foreign delegates. It was heartwarming to see different nationalities engaged in hearty conversations, united in a common goal of bringing the glory of God to their respective nations.

PHOTOS: Daniel Poh

When Tan addressed the pastors, he affirmed that CHC treasured the relationship it shared with every foreign delegate. Driven by a desire to strengthen the churches, he stressed the importance of sending their members to CHC’s School of Theology (SOT). He further challenged the pastors to set aside a budget and send one to two church leaders every year to better equip them to serve in their churches. This will also go towards creating a stronger connection between CHC and those churches, which will lead to more effective overseas mission work.

Before the session ended, Tan briefly touched on CHC’s strong mandate in reaching out to the lost in Asia. Tan said it was CHC’s privilege to render help to their foreign friends when circumstances allowed it. However, he emphasized that it must not to be done in haste, because whichever church CHC works with, that must prove to be a growing church.

SINGAPORE, 21 NOVEMBER — MARK 16:15 SAYS, “Go into all the world (kosmos) and preach the gospel to every creature.” This is all about bringing Christ into culture and being in a position of influence, and the very topic of the workshop “Starting a Marketplace Ministry” conducted by Choong Tsih Ming.

Choong was one of the people to spearhead the Business Breakthrough Group (BBG) in 2003. He shared that they started with just 10 people, with five of those being bankrupt at that time. The purpose of BBG was to reach out to the business people in church as most of them could not fit into the normal cell group system. From 10, BBG has grown to 500 people now. They have weekly meetings not to hold business talks, but to preach simple messages on faith, hope and love. An interesting thing to note was that their early BBG meetings only lasted for an hour, but fellowship could continue on for three hours after. BBG even conducted yearly camps to Malaysia just to unwind and relax.

PHOTOS: Albert Soh

Choong cited biblical figures like Daniel who gained favor before the king, and real-life examples like Elim Chew who is a top businesswoman who runs a social entrepreneurship program at the same time.

The goal of the marketplace ministry is to equip members to make an impact in the marketplace. And that can only be done by being a problem-solver.

Hendri Suteja The, a full-time pastor in Indonesia, said after this workshop, “This lesson gave me inspiration to manage the business people in my church. A few months ago, God gave me a word to handle the marketplace ministry, but I didn’t know how to start. Now I feel charged up to train up the marketplace people in my church. I feel very blessed by this session.”

SINGAPORE, 21 NOVEMBER — ASIA CONFERENCE 2008 hotted up this evening as a dazzling parade of couture, fantasy makeup and high style entertained the audience in Fashion Fiesta.

The 11 finalists, aged 19 to 46, of this highly anticipated costume and make-up competition were introduced at the beginning of the night with their makeup-free models. Following that, the contestants were promptly ushered into a makeup room where they were given 90 minutes to transform their models into catwalk creatures according to the theme of “The Orient”. Contestants were judged for their skills, creativity and originality. The results were phenomenal as each contestant drew inspiration from a variety of Oriental icons such as the peacock, dragon and geisha.

PHOTOS: Samantha Tay

The magnitude of talent and creativity displayed drew deafening cheers from the audience when the contestants came on stage with their transformed models. The models paraded on stage with elaborate headdresses, dazzling makeup and exotic costumes, before the panel of celebrity judges which included bridal couturier Frederick Lee.

“It is simply fantastic and unexpected that these contestants, most of them without experience, could churn out such results. All I can say is that these are very talented people,” commented Sharon Tan, former Miss Singapore Universe who is a judge for the competition.

At the end of it all, Serene Goh walked away with the first prize of S$600 worth of vouchers from Heeren Mall. Her model sported a sensual and elegant brocade gown, matched with makeup that created an intensely pretty and modern geisha. The elated winner said, “Joining this competition for the first time was a big step of faith. It was God who has given me creativity and seen me through the entire competition. Praise God!”

SINGAPORE, 21 NOVEMBER 2008 — IT’S NOT THE “end of the world” as we know it. That’s a myth Kong Hee’s eye-opening message for this seventh session of Asia Conference sought to dispel. Hollywood and pop culture have spun the belief that the end of the world means the whole earth will be destroyed. But the reality could not be further from the truth, says Kong. God isn’t going to demolish the world, because “God so loved the world”.

PHOTOS: Daniel Poh

Hebrews 11:13-16 talks about God preparing a city for the heroes of faith. Heaven is a holy city. Our destiny is to be expressed in a heavenly city, which has two names in the Bible: “Holy City” and “New Jerusalem”.

In Isaiah 60:9, there are vessels that bring wealth to the City of the Lord: the ships of Tarshish, camels (carrying gold) and the cedars of Lebanon. These are symbols of economic power and military might — and they are also symbols of pagan worship.

Isaiah 2:9-13 says “He will bring down the tall cedars of Lebanon”. God does judge the world. Verse 14 says He will destroy the ships, which are symbols of power and greed. In Psalm 48, the psalmist says that God will break the ships of Tarshish.

But, asks Kong, do we know the heart of God? When God judges, is it for destruction or construction? When God sends fire, is it for annihilation or for refining? When God breaks, is it destroyed or is it tamed, like when a horse is broken — that is, tamed and subsequently able to do great things with its speed and strength?

How does God deal with the stuff in pagan culture? Kong reveals that first, they must be stripped of pagan nature, then they are to be used again for the glory of God.

In Isaiah 60, it says the ships of Tarshish will bring the wealth of the nation for God. Pagan things will be used to beautify the New Jerusalem.

The heart of Kong’s message is this: God does not destroy pagan things, He redeems them. All will be redeemed by the blood of Jesus for the Holy City. Everything will go back to its original purpose. Revelation 21:26 says “And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.” This “glory and honor” are the manmade things, symbols of the development and progress of our nations.

As Christians our job is to actively seek after Heaven. How? We are to go out and bring healing and comfort to those who are hurting. In Hebrews 13:13-14, it says “Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.”

Jesus was rejected by the religious teachers and cast out of the “camp” — but He went outside the gate of the church, and sought to redeem everything lost, and to use it for God’s glory. Likewise we are to go outside of the church and redeem people and the culture for Christ, and the way to do it is to serve.

In closing Kong shared that his favorite part in the movie The Passion was when Jesus, scourged and bearing His cross, said to His mother, “Behold, I have made all things new.” Indeed, that is what Christ came to do, and we, as Christians are called to do — to prepare the world and to usher in the new City.

It will be the end of the world as we know it now — sinful, dark, blinded — and the new world, or the New Jerusalem, will be filled with light (Rev 21:23-26). Isaiah 58:10 says: ”If you extend your soul to the hungry, And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.”

Jesus is the light of the world, and we are called to be like Him.

SINGAPORE, 21 NOVEMBER 2008 — IN TODAY’S WORLD, depression is ranked as the number two most common health problem, after heart attack. Five out of 100 Singaporeans suffer from clinical depression at least once in their lifetime.

Not surprising, then, that this elective on fighting depression was one of the Asia Conference’s most popular. Helming this session was Dr Ang Yong Guan, an experienced psychiatrist in Singapore.

Dr Ang started the lecture by explaining what depression is, and talking about Bible personalities who suffered from depression, like King David, Job and Elijah as well as some famous political leaders. He also described the different types of depression. For example, Singapore’s fourth President Wee Kim Wee suffered from reactive depression which is caused by stress. American President Abraham Lincoln suffered from endogenous depression, caused by genes passed down by his parents.

Dr Ang mentioned that the chief cause of depression is our mood, that is, negatives thoughts. Late detection also can lead to worsening the state of depression. He also pointed out that many people did not want to seek medical help because of the social stigma associated with depression.

PHOTOS: Richard Cheng

In closing, Dr Ang shared seven skills to deal with depression, which form “C.O.N.T.R.O.L”:

1. Controlling stress levels,

2. Opening up to God and to close friends,

3. Neutralizing negative thoughts,

4. Time management,

5. Relaxing and exercising,

6. Overcoming problems and learning from them and

7. Living life according to one’s priorities.

He reminded the audience that ordinary sadness is not clinical depression. Only if our daily lives are affected would we need help to cope with a possible case of clinical depression.

SINGAPORE, 21 NOVEMBER 2008 — The vibrancy of Choong Kar Weng, the founder of Macy Home Furnishings, reverberates through the conference hall as he eagerly greets the delegates with enthusiasm and passion. A lawyer by training, he acted on God’s call to be an entrepreneur and founded the company that has impacted the market in Malaysia. This is the man who has successfully build a company that won the Super Brand Award in 2005.

Starting with the basics, he expounds on the essentials in building a business. It all boils down to planning. “If we fail to plan, we plan to fail”, Choong said. As such it is important for budding entrepreneurs to understand their motivation and values when starting a new business. It is also crucial for them to differentiate their business as well as having the right business partner who shares the same value and beliefs system. By pairing each point with an experience of his own, he communicates and engages effectively with the delegates.

Align with the City Harvest Church’s values, Choong emphasizes the importance of the company to “find a need and meet it, and to find a hurt and heal it”. As such, meeting a need in the market is one of his core business strategy which helped to grow Macy Home Furnishing into one of the leading companies in Malaysia.

He also peppered his presentation with inspiring quotes from an array of successful and famous individuals such as the likes of Mark Twain, Richard Branson and Dwight Eisenhower to encourage the delegates to take risks and be creative.

PHOTOS: Maggie Chng

Choong’s wife, Sharon Seah, continued to share insightful and profound business tips while encouraging eager delegates to keep their feet on the ground. “Major on the major and minor on the minor”, she tactfully said. In as much as passion is important, a good focus in business is equally crucial in ensuring a successful business. Yet, one must also understand the crucial role that business finance plays in supporting the growth of the business. She sagely reminds the delegates that a business must be able to make a profit in the end.

Choong also generously shared 3 secrets of his success — 1) to have a group of mentors whom we can be accountable to, 2) have people who can support us, and 3) be a faithful steward of God. All in all, the delegates were left inspired and full of faith in embarking on a new venture in the marketplace. Indeed, as Choong firmly believes, it is truly possible to be a Christian businessman, having the values of God and impacting the marketplace to bring His glory to the world and to fulfill the cultural mandate.

SINGAPORE, 21 NOVEMBER — LEARNING HOW TO help someone break an addiction was the purpose of the attendees of the elective held at Expo Hall 2, Conference Hall G. The venue was filled till there was standing room only, demonstrating the need and importance to understand how addiction affects our world today.

PHOTOS: Nigel Tan

In the hour-long session, Jeremy Choy, board member of City Harvest Community Services Association (CHCSA) and Victor Lim-Fei, director of CityCare, shared their experiences with substance abuse addicts and gave insight to providing practical assistance to such victims.

The attendees learned how to recognize the different types and natures of addiction, as well as the negative effects and consequences of an addiction. The speakers engaged the crowd in written exercises, and answered the rapid flow of questions coming from the audience.

The steps to help someone break an addiction can be summarized in the acronym D.A.R.E. (Dream; Take Action; Reinforcement in breaking the addiction; Encourage them throughout the entire process). Choy repeatedly emphasized that helping someone with their addiction is a long-term commitment and one will face many setbacks in the process. However, he also encouraged all to continue extending genuine and sincere friendship, and that love can break through any barrier and resistance.

Gwendolyn Tan, 16, attended the elective with the purpose of helping her friends quit smoking. “I have a better understanding about addiction now, and I feel more confident and equipped in helping my friends.”