| Kong Hee | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 23, 1964 Singapore |
Kong Hee (Chinese: 康希)(born August 23, 1964) is the founder, honorary and volunteer senior pastor of City Harvest Church in Singapore. Kong is a Christian in the Charismatic Movement, with a philosophy of ministry that emphasizes the Great Commandment, Great Commission, and Cultural Mandate.[1] City Harvest Church has an average of 23,256 attendees as of December 2010.[2] It also has 47 affiliate "Harvest" churches. There are 29 affiliate churches and 6 Bible schools in Asia, namely Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan. Another 18 affiliate churches in the East and West Malaysia are under the Malaysian Harvest Fellowship which Kong Hee has co-founded.[3][4][5][6] Kong has also co-founded an education center, a performing arts school, a publishing house, a missions agency, a ministerial fellowship and a magazine.[7] Kong is a "motivational speaker" and is the director of a fashion apparel business, Skin Couture, which he runs with his wife.[8][9][10] He calls himself a "businessman" on the church website.[11]
Kong Hee’s wife, Sun Ho, is a pop music singer. They have a son, Dayan Kong. They reside in Singapore
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Kong is the fifth child of Kong Leng, a professional engineer, and Toh Poh-Eng, a diamond trader. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore in 1988. In May 2008, Kong was conferred an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration from Hansei University in Seoul, Korea.
From 1975 to 1988, Kong was a member of Marine Parade Christian Center, an Anglican church located in eastern Singapore. During his university years, he worked part-time for the Chapel of the Resurrection under the oversight of Anglican vicar, Reverend Dr. Canon James Wong. During that tenure, he helped Canon Wong set up a new congregation, Orchard Christian Centre. Upon graduation from the university, Kong worked a short stint in a local publishing house as a programmer.
In 1989, Kong was a staff evangelist with “Christ For Asia,” a missions organization in the Philippines led by Assemblies of God minister, Reverend Randy Sing. At that same time, there was an opportunity for Kong to pioneer a new church in Singapore. With the support and encouragement of some senior pastors in the city, Kong decided to relocate back to Singapore and helped set up a new congregation with 20 youths. On May 7, 1989, City Harvest Church was founded as a department (known as "Ekklesia Ministry") of Bethany Christian Centre (Assemblies of God).[12]
Since 1997, Kong is the executive director of the Festival of Praise, an annual event that brings together churches for united prayer and worship.
Kong is a board member of Dr. David Yonggi Cho’s Church Growth International (South Korea) and Dr. Luis Bush’s Transform World (Indonesia).
Kong Hee and his wife Ho Yeow Sun own two companies, International Harvest, which is a provider of "corporate training" services and "motivational" courses, and a fashion company called Skin Couture.[11]
Kong's weekly 30-minute television program “Harvest Time” is broadcast on 8 Cable Television Networks and satellites.
On 31 May 2010, the Office of the Commissioner of Charities and the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police began investigating more than 18 individuals linked to the City Harvest Church, including church founder Pastor Kong Hee and his wife, Sun Ho, after receiving complaints alleging the misuse of church funds.[13][14][15] The police was looking into financial transactions involving the possible falsification of accounts and criminal breach of trust amounting to millions of dollars which dated back a number of years. The authorities said that regular church activities and services for the congregation need not be disrupted during ongoing investigations, which is expected to take several months.[16][17][18]
In March 2010, a blogger identified plagiarism on Kong Hee's 'Daily Devotionals' as they were similar to writings to another publication, "The Leadership Bible" which was published 10 years ago. The copied text were published as physical copies into two books, "Renewing Your Spiritual Energy in 90 Days" without accreditation to the original authors. Apart from "The Leadership Bible", the blogger also alleged other works that have been plagiarized, include content by well-known Christian authors Derek Prince, Neil Anderson, Professor Sid Buzzell and Dr Kenneth Boa. Prof Buzzell, a dean of the school of theology at Colorado Christian University, had warned that continued plagiarism may force them to seek legal advice.
Kong Hee's daily devotionals were originally compiled from his personal reading notes and printed as supplementary reading for his members, free of charge. Some years later, due to popular demand overseas, a local publisher compiled and released foreign language translations of the devotional for sale.
Kong Hee posted a note on his website and explained that the devotion was "originally meant only for internal circulation among the members of my church. As such, there was an oversight in not quoting the sources of some portions that borrow from the writings of other Christian authors." There was also an apology for the oversight.[19][20][21]
The publisher of "Renewal" has since made amendments to the soft copies to include accreditation. The publisher who is also a member of City Harvest Church, acknowledged that at the time of publication, both himself and Mr Kong were aware that certain portions of the content were not original.[20][21][22]
"Kong Hee's Biography". City Harvest Church. http://www.chc.org.sg/english/founder/bio.cfm. Retrieved 2007-05-29.