Wednesday, June 02, 2010

City Harvest Church

It all started with this…

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A simple notice of our office closure for the week after Asia Conference. The Straits Times described it as a “massive five-day seminar involving 30,000 people, foreign evangelists among them…”

I think this is a case of underreporting. Haha! “Massive” doesn’t quite cut it. Our staff and team of hardworking volunteers toiled HARD. Pastor is also super gracious towards us, and decided to give  the staff a week off, and the cell leaders two weeks off from leading their cell meetings. That was how intense the 5 days were.

But yet, in the hands of the media, this is played up to be something it TOTALLY is not.

They reckon the off was given after the news broke out.

Nah, it was already determined way before that, and announced on Sunday, May 30.

Of course, I was also looking through some of the reports and paranoid ramblings on the forums, as well as some rather skewed reporting.

A “breaking news” report by Straits Times said that 
"Seven individuals were detained in a raid at 6.30am on Monday by the CAD. During the raid at their offices, the CAD secured records and accounts as part of the investigation.”

Well, I guess the reporter tried to be “flamboyant” with the usage of words, cos the actual police statement issued said “CAD officers visited the offices of the individuals and the companies under investigation this morning and have secured records and accounts for the purpose of the investigations.”

A visit is pretty different from a raid, if you ask me.

Straits Times also changed the language use after three hours of posting it online, back to the original, milder meaning.

I’ve attended City Harvest for the past 11 years. And this probably will be the greatest test (to date) for us as a church. I am proud of my church, for the past 11 years in the face of different situations and problems, and I do know that genuineness is only tested through fire. My prayer is for the various ones involved, be it the CAD or the COC, to be fair and unbiased. As for the media frenzy, well, in this little small island-state, nothing like a “scandal” to grab the attention of the papers. I expect it would continue (till the next big thing erupts), but I hope that they show grace in their words. We are innocent till proven guilty, ya know. In the media’s eagerness to play up the negative and sensationalize things, a little sensitivity and balanced reporting is probably very much needed.

As for the rest of the church members, I am proud to call myself a CHC member. I love my church and I love my pastor. :) We are not perfect people, and definitely not a perfect church, but as we love and serve Him who is perfect, I have faith in Him. It’s going to be a rocky few months ahead, let us all gird ourselves and prepare for the road ahead!

7 comments:

龙哥 said...

amen!! indeed!

Anonymous said...

too many things to say but i will say one thing, a pastor makes much more by taking no salary but gives to one another in the circuit talks. It is under the radar and attracts no taxes.

edmund said...

Sounds like the Straits Times is trying to sensationalize things again.

Did u see the picture of the security guard at the office door...trying to hint that the office was closed due to the visit (ST would say "raid") by the CAD officers.

JH said...

Easy way out for the public and media: to draw own conclusions based on their own observations.

The thing is, it is 3rd party observation... How accurate can that get?

Why don't they try asking the people who work w CHC? The vendors, the contractors, the families? Surely their words stand more than this current lot who are doing what I did in Oral Exams: picture description.

:)

Sheryl said...

Hey San,

love your article to the max! I have no doubts that ST is making money just by reporting on CHC. It's a sure profit strategy to report on us... anything... anything at all...

It just goes to show the values this society uphold. All the more we need to rise up and be the "Model Citizen"!

If mocking at your fellow Singaporeans is something that this society uphold, then think again. How then can you rely on the same group of people to stand for Singapore?

Haha... I'm getting ahead of myself. I've been with CHC for 13 good years, been to SOT, been a CGL before, been on staff before. Having been there done that took the picture. I still stand by the church, stand by my beloved pastors and fellow brothers and sisters!

We are well trained to face attack like that. It's not something new, it's just something bigger. The magnitude of the incident is not going to bring us down but it's going to get us stronger! We are not even a 3fold cord, we are 33,000 fold, you think we are easily broken? NO!

Unknown said...

Exactly! Similar words used can convey such different ideas... hope our newspapers can maintain a bias stand in their reporting!

Grace Rays said...

San, thanks for sharing! agree with you to the max! they can try all they want but we'll still stand for one another! =)