This piece is a follow up from our previous article:
Another CityNews interview with CHC Advisory “Pastor” Phil Pringle
Phil Pringle said:
‘That’s one of the greats [sic] difficulties in church life, because you have unscrupulous people who say, “Trust me, I’m a Christian, gimme $100,000, I’ll invest it for you.” So the person gives him $100,000 and he doesn’t [sic] invest the money but does something else with it, and then he comes back and says, “I’m sorry, I’ve lost it.” And those people get very hurt and leave the church. As pastors, we say to people, “Whenever you’re doing business together, make sure you’ve got contracts signed.” Don’t just say “He’s a Christian, I’ll trust him.” Some people have no shame. How can you take so much money and lose it, and say you’ll fight the person you owe?’
Has anyone else spotted what Phil Pringle has done here? Has Phil Pringle described to City News what Kong Hee has done?
1. “Trust me, I’m a Christian, gimme $100,000, I’ll invest it for you.”
Kong established a building fund with the understanding, naturally enough, that money contributed to that fund would be used to purchase a building for CHC. Then he importuned his congregation to give him money “until the tears [ran] down [their] face[s]”.
Kong Hee Is Not About “Building Buildings” But “Building People”? Really?
It’s sad if you think about it.
2. “So the person gives him $100,000 and he doesn’t invest the money but does something else with it […]”
Kong’s followers gave him buckets of money, and it appears he took SG$24,000,000 and spent it on “something else”, namely his wife’s pop-star fantasies.
And those fantasies where indulged to the very utmost, and in the most obscenely profligate manner. For example, Sun Ho lived the high life in Hollywood, staying in a mansion that cost $28,000 per *month* to rent – and this while Kong’s faithful sheep were downsizing their own housing in order to give him more money!
Of course, Kong missed his wife, so he just had to fly over to the U.S. to see her on a regular basis – and he clocked up airfares to the tune of $700,000, all paid for with hard-earned money that was given to him by the trusting and sincere members of CHC.
An Insightful Analysis To The CHC System (Part 5)
(Apparently Kong even took money from children: he wanted the contents of their angpows – red packets containing money that are given as gifts on special occasions in Chinese and other Asian societies. Obviously, when a jet-setting “pastor” has big bills coming in, no gift is too small – could a so-called “man of God” possibly stoop any lower than to do such a thing?)
3. “[…] and then he comes back and says, “I’m sorry, I’ve lost it.”’
Kong hasn’t got around to admitting his guilt yet, much less apologising to his thousands of victims; however he may well crack as the trial continues and the pressure on him builds. Nonetheless, Kong has certainly lost all the money – there is nothing to show for it other than a handful of tacky and tasteless “music” videos by his talentless partner, Sun Ho.
4. “And those people get very hurt and leave the church.”
A lot of people have left CHC, and many are extremely angry that they have been duped by Kong Hee, and understandably so.
5. ‘As pastors, we say to people, “Whenever you’re doing business together, make sure you’ve got contracts signed.” Don’t just say “He’s a Christian, I’ll trust him.”
So, according to Phil Pringle, we should be thinking along the lines of “Don’t just say ‘Kong’s a Christian, I’ll trust him'”. That’s excellent advice, “pastor” Phil – it’s just too bad that you didn’t give the good people of CHC that warning *before* Kong Hee and his accomplices took that money from them.
6. ‘”Some people have no shame. How can you take so much money and lose it, and say you’ll fight the person you owe?’
It’s true: Kong has no shame. Firstly he has the hide to stand in front of his followers and tell them that he “maintains [his] integrity” (as though he has ever shown any). Then he attempts to deflect the blame for his conduct onto his associates and underlings in a cowardly and pathetic attempt to save his own skin.
How indeed could Kong misappropriate such a huge amount and then turn around and swear blind that he is innocent? How could he be so shameless as to throw his fellow staff under the bus when it is plain as day that he and his wife were the principal beneficiaries of this outrageous scam?
Phil’s words raise an interesting question: was his oblique enumeration of events at CHC deliberate, or was it something unconscious?
Maybe the scriptures can help us answer this question.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” 2 Peter 2:1-3
“For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Philippians 3:18-21
C3 Church Watch 
*Whenever you’re doing business together, make sure you’ve got contracts signed.” Don’t just say “He’s a Christian, I’ll trust him.” Some people have no shame. How can you take so much money and lose it, and say you’ll fight the person you owe?*
Now that’s an interesting *take* on trusting people with your money, isn’t it? I’m wondering if Phil Pringle should begin to take some of his own advice and *sign a contract* with the people of this C3 organisation.
In that document, he would promise that their *tithe* money will only be spent on certain things [excluding a luxurious living standard for himself and other ministers] and that a full rendering of accounts will occur say, quarterly?
He he he he he he he ha ha ha ha ho ho ho!!! [I feel some *holy laughter* coming on!] Of course that’s going to happen, isn’t it? It is far easier to be a cynic than a critic although some people wouldn’t see the subtle differences there.
These ramblings are the height of hypocrisy.
I don’t need to say anything – perfectly done.
*Of course, Kong missed his wife, so he just had to fly over to the U.S. to see her on a regular basis – and he clocked up airfares to the tune of $700,000, all paid for with hard-earned money that was given to him by the trusting and sincere members of CHC.*
I’ve seen other commentators suggest that it is time for the City Harvest Church members to move on, and I would also suggest that it may well be time to do that.
If it doesn’t take your fancy to go to another local church, perhaps you could gather in your already established home groups for a time.
It sounds a little scary to just walk out and go it alone, but such times in smaller groups can be blessed times as well, as each one realises that they don’t need large [expensive] buildings, that each one has something to offer and that the Lord will be faithful and raise up true leadership in their own midst, without interference from the CHC hierarchy.
Honestly, my brothers and sisters of Singapore, who needs Kong Hee and his gang of charlatans anyway? If you stay, in all likelihood someone else who shares his basic beliefs may well take over the *church* and then you are back to square one.
If you leave and *vote with your feet* then at least you will be honouring the Lord in not supporting this charade that has passed for a church and you will no longer be bowed down under Phil Pringle’s false teaching on tithes or other false New Age ideas.
I can hear the excuses going around in some people’s heads, [I’ve got family here, It’s been my church for twenty years, it’s close to home and work, I have hope for the future.] I’ve met ex Hillsong people who stayed for all of those reasons and eventually left. Most of them now regret the fact that they didn’t move on at the time.
This post is not about *dividing the church* as that has already happened. It’s about making decisions for the future, so have a thought in that direction, and be bold in your faith. Find or form another church and let matters in the courts take their course. You do not deserve the *baggage* that will come in the aftermath, regardless of whether Kong and his cohorts are found guilty or not.
The Christians of CHC who have had their larder stripped bare, deserve better than Kong Hee’s self serving dribble when this is all over. If you truly are the Lord’s sheep, then you deserve cool water and green pasture under the watchfulness of true shepherds, who have a heart for the sheep and nothing less.
Dear, oh dear, oh Dear.
Phil, what have you done? We all remember how you likened yourself to the Old Testament prophet Elijah, and we all understand from Scripture that “The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets”. So what on earth has happened between your ears that you have come up with a dead-set solid-gold clanger like this?
I’m sure that your candidness is a most refreshing change for the long-suffering faithful at CHC who were relieved of their money by Kong, but I’d say that Kong himself would be choking on his weetbix at what you have said – I reckon it’s a dead-set certainty that you’ll be off his Christmas card list for the next ten or twenty years at least. Honestly, if you’re going to continue in this vein, you should volunteer your services to the team prosecuting Kong – the trial would probably be wrapped up within a week.
Or maybe it was all a big mistake? Did you perhaps miss a tithe or two in the weeks preceding the interview, and a curse has come upon you as a result? Or is your advanced age taking its toll to the extent that you sometimes find your brain and your tongue heading in entirely different directions? Maybe you could take the “Brian Houston option”, and offer a “clarification” that you didn’t say what you meant and that you didn’t mean what you said (and that anyway it’s all the fault of anyone who’s silly enough to pay any attention to the vapid ramblings of a wannabe).
Anyway Phil, I’m sure you’ve given a lot of people a really good laugh, so it’s all good, right? Talking of laughs, do you know what this episode reminds me of? It reminds me of that movie where Jim Carrey plays a defence lawyer – the scene where he stands in the courtroom and tells the judge in a horrified tone:
“I – can’t – lie”.
To everyone who attends a C3 Church:
This is your chance to demand that the pastor of the C3 church you attend begins to issue monthly financial statements for the Church. Let them know that they need to be clear how much was collected from what (tithes, building funds, other activities etc), and how much was spent on what, including pastor / staff salaries, maintenance, C3 royalties, financial assistance for struggling church members etc).
After all, this is what Phil is saying you should do, do not blindly trust anyone. Pay C3 nothing until the system is implemented (or give to another church, charity etc) because otherwise nothing will get done.
Only good can come out of this initiative, I think you know that. Good luck.
C3 pastors, you can of course make it easier on your congregation by just implementing the above initiative.