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Why is church seeking donations door to door? RECENTLY, I was approached at home by a young teenager soliciting donations. He claimed to be from City Harvest Church. I was surprised as, according to the church’s website, the church has total assets of $65,903,000 as of last year, a figure which has been increasing since 2003. Last year, it received $24 million in donations. Why does the church require its members to go door to door to ask for donations? Lim Shien Wei |
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According to the person who forwarded me this photo, it is taken inside City Harvest’s SunTec City Office, and I originally thought it was a library or someone else’s private ‘Study Room’ I have clearly no clue who took this photo and where so let me qualified by saying that the source and the authenticity is not verified. |
The Chinese have an old saying: 树大招风, which literally translates as, when the tree is too big, it attracts the winds. And this is apparently the case for City Harvest, with erm.. 20000 members the last time I checked? (That was a long time ago anyway.)
First of all, let me point out that this teenager may or may not be a member of this church. After all, it is not unheard of shameless people who goes around soliciting money in the name of temples and gods, or charities, and they are complete frauds.
On the other hand, I am also aware that City Harvest is planning for a new building, and is raising funds for it from its congregation. I have come across an Internet forum in which teenagers, zealous and eager to contribute, are asking where they can get jobs during the holidays so they could also contribute as a testimony of their love and devotion to God.
Therefore it is also possible that one of these teenagers, might have went out to ask for donations on his own, without realising that permits are needed for this, and as a result raised the ire of this Lim person. (Personally, why didn’t Lim just call the church and ask is beyond me!!)
If this teenager belonged to the second group, then from all the postings on the Internet forum, I do personally felt that the church authority and the individual lea-duhs of their member cells, have clearly failed to make it very clear to these teens that their contribution, while definitely valued, is not needed.
erm… i’m very sorry to tell you this but the place that photo is not part of the office that i know of unless my memory fails me…
Neither do I.
If this was done by one of their teens, I do think they have too big a congregation and there’s a bit of a communications breakdown here because I recall being told by a CHC member that the church has indeed make it clear to their teenagers they do not need to contribute to the church building funds.
Or maybe they could tell their members not to engage in such actions in seeking funds. Like really, I’m a Christian and even I don’t agree with this
From the Stooge Times Forum – Dec 22, 2006.
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City Harvest Church not seeking public donations
IN THE letter, ‘Why is church seeking donations door to door?’ (ST, Dec 20), the writer, Mr Lim Shien Wei, said he was approached at home for a donation by someone claiming to be from City Harvest Church.
We thank Mr Lim for bringing this incident to our attention. We would like to inform him, your readers and other members of the public that, from its inception, City Harvest Church has never solicited funds from the public, has never gone ‘door to door’ to solicit funds and has never authorised anyone to do so on our behalf.
The vast majority of the church’s income comes from voluntary donations made by our members.
As a church, we take such misrepresentations very seriously, and we would be most grateful if Mr Lim could contact us to provide more details to facilitate our investigation into the matter.
Should the need arise, we may also refer the matter to the police for further investigation.
Members of the public should verify the identity of any person seeking donations in the name of City Harvest Church, or, for that matter, any other charitable organisation, as there could be some who may be taking advantage of the spirit of generosity during the Christmas season.
In the event of similar solicitations in the name of City Harvest Church, we would advise your readers and other members of the public to obtain the names, personal particulars and contact numbers of such persons, and to contact us immediately either on our hotline on 6737-6266 or via e-mail to feedback@chc.org.sg.
Finally, we would like to wish your readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Suraj
On behalf of CHC
Management Board 2006/7