SINGAPORE, 20 NOVEMBER 2008 — IT WAS A rip-roaring start to Day 2 of the Asia Conference: the church woke up to the rocking sounds of Joe Pringle and the Christian City Church Band. Their set comprised songs such as ‘Today’ and ‘Help Me’ taken off their latest album For Your Glory, which had the crowd up on their feet. CCC Band was followed by the timeless Don Moen. With crowd favorites such as ‘God is Good’ and songs from his album I Believe There Is More, the 9,000-strong crowd were in a great, expectant mood for the message.

PHOTOS: Desmond Tan & Daniel Poh

It was astonishing to see a huge crowd on a Thursday morning — the second such session in which the overflow room, Hall 10, had to be used.

Hands were lifted and voices raised as the people’s praise and worship reverberated throughout the hall, excitement evident in the air as everyone anticipated another exceptional session with guest preacher Phil Pringle, Senior Minister of Christian City Church Oxford Falls, Sydney.

From the get-go, the session was transformed into a revival meeting as Pringle called on the Chinese delegates in attendance to join him on stage. Tears filled their eyes as Pringle began praying and prophesying over many of them, speaking words of encouragement for them to take their churches to the next level.

Delegates from nations such as Pakistan, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand followed suit, an impartation of boldness, courage and expansion from Pringle placed upon their lives. It was truly a powerful time of prophecy and the power of God. Many audience members were seen with hands clasped and eyes closed, deep in worship as they were strengthened and encouraged by the man of God.

Pringle ended with a short Word calling upon the congregation to know who they are by revelation and not to compromise by wanting to be somebody we are not. His sermon about individuality, in knowing who we are and what we have, was ever so timely in driving home the message of the Cultural Mandate that is the thread through this inaugural Asia Conference.

SINGAPORE, 19 NOVEMBER 2008 — City Harvest’s inaugural Asia Conference got off to a resounding start with the first “miracle”— the feeding of 5,000 delegates. For free.

Singapore Expo Hall 7 was transformed into a banquet setting with 500 tables exquisitely laid out, accompanied by blue velvet chairs.  Participants were seated as early as 10.30am in anticipation for the lunch activities which would kick-start Asia Conference today.

Largely designed to help promote interaction amongst the attendees from over 70 countries, activities such as the Human Bingo game had contestants rushing up to complete strangers to request for signatures.

Lunch was a 10-course buffet consisting of intercontinental favorites such as roasted baby potatoes covered in dollops of sour cream and stir-fried chicken in black pepper sauce.

Following a welcome video aimed at orientating attendees to the various conference sessions and locations, Kong Hee, founder of City Harvest Church (CHC), the host of this massive conference, took to the stage to greet foreign delegates and introduce them to his fellow workers at CHC.

PHOTOS: Xavier Tan

Next, Kong launched into a rousing exhortation for the young people, declaring that they are the “future of the church”.  He followed with a stirring sermon on the Fourth Dimension and invited participants to write out personal goals for their health, finance and career.

The power of thinking, visualizing, believing and speaking was evident in Kong’s personal testimony about the amazing growth that has taken place in CHC the past 19 years.  Kong’s final encouragement for the participants to “believe in their best and let loose their mustard seed faith” was greeted with cheers and clapping from the packed crowd.

With such a rousing start, one can only wait in eager anticipation for the commencement of the first session by Kong tonight at Asia Conference 2008.

Having been trained by the late Liu Kang, the legendary Chinese painter; and by the late Lim Nang Seng, who had sculpted Singapore’s very famous Merlion statue, it is no wonder that Mr Koh Hong Yiang’s near 50-year career as an artist glitters with achievements.

The first thing that strikes you about Mr Koh is his overwhelming generosity. Though 67, age does not seem to be a problem for the spritely gentleman as he engages in a lively presentation of his artworks, housed in his bedroom.

His passion and love for his art pieces (some date 40 years) also shine through his vivid recollections of places he’s been and inspirations he’s had when sculpting or painting. The lifelike portraits and intricate forms of his sculptures carved out of cement are fascinating; the range of his works span wall-sized paintings to tiny greeting cards.

His sculptures bear limbs that extend to express emotion — like love, or nurturing. Working with cement, Mr Koh takes close to a month to complete an average meter-tall sculpture, from concept to the finished piece.

Born to Chinese immigrants who were artists themselves, Mr Koh had a natural born gift for painting. It was also during his childhood that he began to experiment with clay to make vases, and discovered his love for sculpting.

The pursuit of his dreams was not an easy journey for Mr Koh. With 10 brothers and sisters, his school fees at NAFA proved to be a constant source of worry. Instead of being discouraged, Mr Koh met these challenges head on, stopping school at times and taking on odd-jobs to pay for his lessons and art materials. It was those days of hardship and toil that fanned the flames of Mr Koh’s passion for art, and made him determined to make it as an artist.

His hard work and dedication paid off, as he came under the pupilage of Liu Kang upon graduating from NAFA with flying colours. What followed was a host of awards and achievements that began coming his way.  For a year, Mr Koh was invited to a Canadian arts school to teach and he also fulfilled a life-long dream when he set up his very own Arts Studio which presided in Tanglin Park in the early 1960s.

Today, Mr Koh still works on his sculptures and paintings but spends most of his retirement enjoying time spent with his three daughters and grandchildren. Occasionally, Mr Koh makes greeting cards for festive seasons, free-of-charge, for students in the schools near his flat in Chinatown. Last Chinese New Year, he even created a greeting card for all the members of City Harvest Chinese Church, the church he attends faithfully every Sunday. This writer benefited from Mr Koh’s hospitality as he tried to give him as many little pieces of artwork as he could during the course of the interview.

PHOTOS: Lee May Chuen

Mr Koh is living proof that hard work and determination gets you ahead in life.  It was not easy being a full-time artist while having a family to support; taking up part-time jobs just to make ends meet. But in the words of Mr Koh, “Taking one step, making one footprint at a time, is how to proceed on the pathway to success.”

On a recent episode of Channel NewsAsia’s Asian Dragons Rising, a six-part series that presents insights on the success strategies of local companies, Pinnacle Motors International was singled out as one of Singapore’s fast-growing businesses.

Surprisingly, what dominated screen time were scenes of City Harvest’s Pastor Goh Yock Kiang conducting his weekly devotion sessions at the offices of Pinnacle Motors!

Pastor Yock Kiang’s weekly devotions at the company began with just a handful of staff in September 2007.  The meetings grew rapidly in size, and today, Pinnacle’s key management, sales and operations staff attend the meetings every Friday morning.  As the employees started applying Biblical values imparted to them at the weekly devotions, the company also began to experience stalwart financial growth.

Valerie Tan, a City Harvest member and Managing Director of Pinnacle Motors, cited the company’s focus on investing in the welfare of its people as one key reason for its success. The program then went on to highlight the company’s weekly office devotions as the main channel via which business ethics and good work habits were imparted to every employee.

It was truly a first on national television, so much airtime spent showing a pastor share the Word of God in an office environment.  The programme effectively positioned Pinnacle Motors as a company which is able to marry strong Christian values with a secular workforce and achieve remarkable business success.

This truly is the Cultural Mandate being lived out and fulfilled by City Harvest’s rising sons and daughters.

And Jesus said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’ – Luke 19:17

PHOTO: New Life Church

On 15 September 2008, ministry and small group leaders in City Harvest Church were treated to a special screening of a documentary Rev. Kong Hee had put together on his recent trip to New Life Church, Taiwan.

This church has seen exceptional growth since its inception two years ago. From a couple of hundred members in the beginning, they are currently averaging at a weekly attendance of close to 1,750 members. Among those attending New Life Church are celebrities such as Liu Geng Hong, Real and Faye from F.I.R. and even legendary songstress, Cai Qin.

The documentary tracked a four-month long project undertaken by the members of New Life Church to reach out to high schools and junior colleges throughout Taipei. This project, known as The Rainbow Connection, drew students from all over to participate in short courses conducted by the church members. Some of the courses included cutting a CD, guitar lessons and musicality, drama, dance, fashion, makeup and grooming, and just about everything that is of interest to today’s youth. The Rainbow Connection ultimately led to the recording of a music video composed, choreographed and produced by the church’s members, in collaboration with celebrities and participants from the schools.

This proved to be extremely effective in presenting the church as a place of creativity, freedom and life. The new friends were given a chance to know more about the vision, goals and organization of the church as they were led around on a rather unique tour of the church premises which was set up like a maze with various stations and booths. At some stations, the students could participate in quizzes and games; at other stations, they were treated to grooming sessions and DVD screenings. There was even a small room filled with music and strobe lights — a holy dance club! Here, people could settle down at the tables and have a drink and enjoy the music. Nothing was spared to make the new friends feel comfortable and welcome in New Life Church.

It was an experience to see how the entire church rallied around one cause: to see lost souls saved for Jesus. Their excellent organization and execution of the entire project, coupled with months of hard work, prayer and preparation, paid off as hundreds of students gave their hearts to Jesus. On top of that, the church members, including the celebrities, experienced the joys of being committed to and serving the Kingdom of God.

After the documentary, Pastor Kong shared that New Life Church and their senior pastor, Rev. Abraham Ku had very little resources, but they used everything they could think of and came up with excellent creative ideas on how to win the lost. From the documentary, it was plain to see how the members of the church boldly engaged the marketplace and the celebrities. They shone as salt and light in the way they confidently carried themselves and in the way they took care of their appearance.

It was an inspiration for many of CHC’s leaders — they started to think about the resources that God has placed in their hands through their members. As Sharon Tan, cell group leader of E417 commented, “I had always thought that my efforts to reach out to the lost were restricted by my lack of resources. But seeing how the leadership in New Life Church really involved every single member in the church, I began to realize that I too have lots of resources available in the form of my members, if only I inspire every single member to be involved.”

Truly a little can become much in the Master’s Hands, if we can have the faith to believe and run with the Gospel, and carry out the Cultural Mandate.