Lessons we can learn from City Harvest in Singapore
By Stephen Ng
To many people, Pastor Kong Hee was a powerful preacher. He was the founder and former president and senior pastor of City Harvest Church in SIngapore.
It came as a shocking news that Kong Hee and five other church leaders under his guidance were convicted of Criminal Breach of Trust in 2015. He was sentenced to eight years in jail for using $24 million of church funds and misusing another $26 million in a cover-up. At the time of writing, Kong Hee is still serving imprisonment at Changi Prison.
Arising from this incident, what can the Malaysian Church learn? Let’s be brutish with the questions we have to ask:
(1) Was it because of some disgruntled church members operating under “Satanic influence” had brought Kong Hee behind bars? Did they go beyond their biblical mandate to “wash the dirty linen in public” when Paul, based on the often quoted 1 Corinthians 5:, appears to be warning the Corinthians not to bring their grievances before an unbelieving judge?
(2) Otherwise, was it God who put Kong Hee behind bars? Does God even put His ministers behind bars?
Important Principles
To answer the above two questions, we have to look at various principles in the scriptures.
1) God is a holy God and He does not tolerate sin. This biblical principle is undisputed as it is taught throughout the scriptures.
2) Because God is holy and He cannot tolerate sins, God will discipline His children but He does it as a Father disciplines His children (Hebrews 12: 4-11).
3) God used foreign powers (the Assyrians and the Babylonians) to punish Israel and Judah for their sins. In 586 BC, even the Jerusalem Temple was razed down by King Nebuchadnezzar. The second temple was also destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. The Jews had to go into exile and it took nearly 2000 years before they finally came together to form a nation in modern times.
4) God’s holiness is also expressed in the cleansing of the Jerusalem Temple. Jesus overturned the tables of the traders who defiled the holy Temple of God. Scholars suggest that Jesus was angry with their dishonesty scales (Matthew 21:12-17). As Proverbs 11:1 puts it, “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight.” Cheating was happening even inside the Holy Temple.
5) God is the one who places law enforcement agencies in place (Romans 13:1). Just as He raised Nebuchadnezzar as His servant for a specific mission (Jeremiah 27:6), God can also use the authorities to discipline His children who fail to safeguard the church treasury.
What can we learn from here?
Now, the question is: what can we learn from this?
Anything that is dedicated and given to the Lord is holy and anyone who is negligent in managing the tithes collected by the church will ultimately have to face the consequences.
Senior pastors, elders, deacons or church board leaders have a very solemn responsibility before God to manage the money that has been given for the extension of God’s kingdom. No one escapes the punishment under the law of the land by being a Yes man to the senior pastor as the City Harvest church case teaches us.
Their manipulation of church finances which led to Kong Hee’s jail sentence had been dealt with according to the law of God and the law of the land.
No one is above the law. If unbelievers can be prosecuted for criminal breach of trust, how much more the minsters of God? James has established a stricter standard by which God judges the leaders He appointed (James 3:1).
Perhaps, the CBT case involving our Brother Kong Hee is a lesson and a warning for all of us who are charged with a responsibility to manage the church finances.
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