I am a current City Harvest Church (CHC) member and still in my teens. I do feel anxious and am unsure why I feel this way. To be honest, I do not want to attend CHC and am aware that Kong Hee and the leadership are guilty for their fraud (and rightfully agree so), but I am coerced to attend CHC by my mother who remains a faithful follower even though me and my own father disagrees with CHC and accuse her of blind faith.
I attended CHC since 2002 when I was a kid. To me, staying in CHC or leaving would not make a difference in my thoughts towards them. Compared to Admin 1’s testimony (goo.gl/NDdXri), CHC now is not as “hard sell and forceful” as they used be during Admin 1’s days. However, there is that implicit pressure going on and I do feel stressful hanging out with my cell group (CG).
In the past, my dad had to disconnect the phone line because they kept calling me. As a 12 year old back then, it was really stressful. They would surround me in large groups, but today, my CG leaves me alone most of the time. My mother still coerces me to go, thinking that it can help me in my anxiety and fears. She thinks I’m a hermit. She also coerce my father to attend CHC and will nag and give him sleepless nights if he refuse to attend for too long.
I find their prosperity sermons boring, that it makes me want to sleep, because they always keep talking about the same things. Pastor Tan Ye Peng speaks the best in my opinion, while Kong Hee is just a savvy speaker. The preaching has been less doctrinal for the past 5 years, as most of the time was spent on praising Kong Hee and his wife, Sun Ho. I don’t care about their prosperity gospel much as I knew it was a lie from day one. I am content with what I have.
My connect group leader (different from cell group leader) keeps asking me to donate to this year’s building fund, claiming that I should donate out of “love for God”. On the stage, the message is about donating to receive financial blessings in return. Honestly, the “successful” testimonies they bring on stage are just 1 out of a 1000 people who donated, while the rest who donated suffered badly. It’s basically a sales pitch, a big propaganda machine. I don’t like it and that’s why I don’t tithe. And why should I since I don’t make any income?? They expect me to use my savings or money given to me by my parents. As my dad does not want to argue with my mom, he lets her be and lets her donate. He knew way long ago that the funds were channelled towards Sun Ho before they were exposed.
I lectured my connect group leader a few days ago, when he asked me about my view on the verdict. He isn’t in the position to comment back to me though since I was in CHC way longer than him. I just told him as a matter of fact, the this was indeed a breach of trust. I was very happy when Kong Hee and the leaders involved got arrested. They cheated me of my money when I was a kid.
Both of my mum’s first two cell group leaders left CHC and they were executive and board members. I am also aware the the cell group and connect group leaders themselves are controlled and pressured from the top.
When I tell my CG leader that I am stressed out, they can’t do anything much and my mum tells them that I have anxiety issues, not realising that CHC and she coercing me to go are the cause of it. I even have a psychiatrist letter proving I have that condition.
My mother however has it worse. Since attending CHC, she became very paranoid and very anxious. Anything that does not go her way smoothly, she will make the ridiculous claim that the Devil is acting against her, like having a minor car accident etc. Sometimes when she presses the wrong number on her mobile, she would blame the Devil for it. She keeps worrying about things and scolds me for being anxious when she in fact, is anxious herself! It’s hard to convince her to leave CHC but to be fair, her current CG people are moderate and many of them dislike Sun Ho’s antics.
When the judge said that Kong Hee was capitalising on people’s fear and paranoia to galvanize support for channeling funds in a discreet manner towards the crossover project, he was not wrong. Indeed, look at what Kong Hee has done to me and my mom now. When Kong Hee made the daring claim some time ago that God said sorry to him, he’s hallucinating! Sometimes I wonder if his dreams and visions are hallucinations or vain imaginations.
After the verdict, I saw the service live online where Kong Hee apologised and bowed his head to the congregation. However, his apology sounded more like he was sorry for the inconvenience caused rather than the fraud and the false doctrines he preached. A.R Bernard who is right now in Singapore, continues to praise Kong Hee and Sun Ho. The previous time he came, he even told the church to obey and trust Kong Hee fully.
I do want to leave CHC but I will do so when I get older as I do not want to cause myself anymore emotional turmoil as I am experiencing right now.
Regards,
Jayden (name has been changed to protect identity)
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We thank Jayden for sharing his testimony with us. Please pray for him and his family, and that the Lord will give him the courage to leave and guide him to the truth in His Word alone.
On the plus side, at least Phil Pringle and C3 church are making headlines.
At the bottom of this article, we would also like to show you the absurdity of the defensive claims made by pastors that defend the integrity of Kong Hee and Sun Ho.
The Washington Times reports,
Singapore megachurch founder Kong Hee on trial in religious freedom test case
A.R. Bernard among supporters of City Harvest Church pastor facing corruption charges
Religious freedom? Or misuse of church funds? Those are the questions surrounding the ongoing corruption trial of a megachurch founder in Singapore who has won support from international religious leaders such as Pastor A.R. Bernard.
“Change is taking place in the nation [of Singapore] that is part of a bigger picture,” Mr. Bernard, founder of the 30,000 member-plus Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, said of Singapore’s charges against Pastor Kong Hee.
“We don’t pick and choose history. History happens when social, political, economic and even spiritual forces come together and effect change,” said Mr. Bernard, a staunch supporter of Mr. Kong.
In 2012 Mr. Kong and five other church members were accused of financial misdeeds, and the high-profile criminal trial has kept the 20,000-member megachurch under a cloud.
Last week a former church member who acted as an investment manager testified about an estimated $19 million in church-building funds that were used to buy investment bonds for two church-related companies that promoted the music career of Ms. Ho, the church’s music pastor, and another $21 million that was used to show that the bonds had been redeemed.
Prosecutors, who started investigating the church around 2009, say the investment companies and bonds were “shams,” and church elders are guilty of a conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust with the building funds.
The church says the investment bonds were legitimate and returned to the church in full with interest, and no money was lost in the transactions.
Initial charges against Ms. Ho have been dropped. The six accused elders face up to 20 years imprisonment.
Prosecutors with the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force and the Office of the Commissioner of Charities are conducting the trial before Presiding Judge of the State Court of Singapore See Kee Oon. The judge ruled in May that a “prima facie” case of misappropriation had been made.
Mr. Kong’s international supporters include Pentecostal Pastor Mary Hudson, co-founder of the Keith & Mary Hudson Ministries in Santa Barbara, California, and mother of pop star Katy Perry; Paul Scanlon, founder of LIFE Church, a large charismatic-based congregation in Bradford, England; and evangelist Phil Pringle, senior pastor of C3 Church in Sydney, Australia, and an advisory pastor of Mr. Kong’s City Harvest Church. Each of them has traveled to Singapore to uplift the spirits of Mr. Kong’s congregation.
Pastor Casey Treat, who leads the Christian Faith Center in Washington with his wife, Wendy, said Monday that “Pastor Kong has been a great leader of the church in Singapore and an influence throughout the world.”
“I have never seen a compromise or unbiblical behavior. He and his family have been a blessing to our church in Seattle,” Mr. Treat said in an email to The Washington Times.
Mr. Bernard, who spoke to the Singapore church last week before returning home early due to an untimely death in his family, said: “I talked to them about looking at the big picture — that essentially we are part of something much greater than ourselves.”
The bigger picture, he said, is that Singapore’s religious freedoms are not identical to those in the U.S. Accepted practices here, such as churches and charities using their own films and “crossover artists” who perform religious and secular music for evangelism, are “strange” in Singapore, he said.
So when the Singapore church leaders chose to use Ms. Ho’s music for evangelism — she performed especially well in Chinese markets — and took steps to promote her, those actions were misinterpreted, Mr. Bernard said.
Mr. Kong has “made a few mistakes in judgment,” Mr. Bernard said without elaborating, but he “never did anything illegal, never did anything to the inurement of his own pockets or that of his wife.”
“His case is really setting precedent. It’s a test case” about government controls, Mr. Bernard said, noting that recent news articles have discussed the emerging influence of Christian churches in Singapore — where a third of the people are Buddhist — and have called for the government to restructure itself to be “sensitive” to special interest groups.
Singapore’s blogosphere has followed the trial with keen interest, remarking on everything from Ms. Ho’s up-and-down music career to the ethics of “mixing” secular and religious practices.
The prosecution’s opening statement in May 2013 “ridiculed” the church leaders’ contention that “pop music was a tool of evangelism that would help spread God’s message,” according to The Associated Press.
The “reason you were trying to sweep the transactions with [artist management company] Xtron under the carpet is because that’s what you do if your house is dirty and a visitor might be turning up unexpectedly,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong said to Mr. Kong when he took the stand in September, according to The Christian Post.
The 50-year-old pastor replied that after certain bloggers developed “misconceptions” about what they were doing with their popular Crossover Project, which featured his wife, the church members took steps to clarify the ties between the church and Xtron.
At least one defendant — former member Chew Eng Han — has distanced himself from Mr. Kong’s statements, saying he did not overrule the pastor in financial decisions, and the goal was to promote Ms. Ho.
A final ruling in the trial could come this summer.
Source: By Cheryl Wetzstein, Singapore megachurch founder Kong Hee on trial in religious freedom test case, The Washington Times, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/8/kong-hee-singapore-megachurch-founder-on-trial-in-/; http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/8/kong-hee-singapore-megachurch-founder-on-trial-in-/?page=2, Published 08/03/2015. (Accessed 09/03/2015.)
Dr Yonggi Cho, whom Pastor Kong Hee address to be his “Spiritual Father” and “Senior Pastor” is sentenced to 3-years in jail with 5-year suspension. This means that the jail term is deferred by 5-years and he will go to jail to serve sentence if is found to further misbehave during this 5-year term. It is still a jail sentence.
The court ruled that Dr Cho is guility of the following charges: (1) Tax evasion and (2) causing approximately 13 billion won (US$12 million) worth of losses to Yoido Full Gospel Church by instructing his church officials to buy stocks privately owned by his eldest son priced at 4x higher than market value in 2002.
“The criminal activity would have been impossible without the approval of Pastor Cho, who had ultimate decision-making authority,” the court ruled. “By condoning the documents that were being written while he was the head of the church, he was largely responsible for these crimes.” – The Hankyoreh
Earlier, in a Straits Times coverage of the news when investigations first began into the Korean Mega-pastor, Dr Cho had denied any wrong-doing, and dismissed the allegations as “a smear campaign by a very small group of people in his church” and that “those who filed the complaint will have to take responsibility accordingly” (ST, 22 Sep 2011)
It is not the intention of this blog to judge a great man like Dr Yonggi Cho, who over the past decades had contributed greatly to the growth of Christianity and helped many people. We have our imperfections and do make mistakes, and do eventually pay the price for it.
However, the patterns of denial adopted up to the point of conviction finds close resemblances to what was seen in the “CHC Trial”:
1) Blame Shifting
“While delivering the three-year prison term for the former newspaper chairman, the judge rebuked the younger Cho for attempting to shift the responsibility for his unethical business practices onto his father and other senior church members.” (source)
Church Growth International Korea, the ministry founded by Dr Cho (independent and separate entity from Yoido Full Gospel Church) issued a statement to their Board Members claiming that the Korean judge, Hon. Yongtun Cho said that:
“The court considered that even though Pastor Cho had the final say in the church, he never took the lead in any of the crimes including tax evasion committed on the suggestion of the accounting firm.” (source)
“During the investigation, prosecutors also acquired evidence of tax evasion by David Cho. In 2004, when the Seoul regional tax office judged that this stock sale was a gift and ordered that 10.3 billion won (US$9.48 million) of taxes be paid, David Cho enlisted the aid of an accountant and submitted falsified documents to the tax office to disguise the transaction as a normal stock trade, not as a gift, prosecutors confirmed. He is suspected of using this means to only pay 4 billion won (US$3.68 million) in taxes, evading 6 billion won.” (source)
While he may not be the mastermind, he was unfortunately convicted because he allowed it to happen anyway – apparently rubber stamped whatever his son handed him. The key here is that as a leader, you cannot just claim ignorance and hope to get away. Tax evasion charges aside, he unfortunately gave instruction to siphon the money and ordered the stock purchase – resulting in the inevitable CBT charge which is even more damning and inexcusable – impossible to blame shift this.
Is it true that as long as the fault can be pushed away to another party, it would be “all clear” for the accused? Will it change the mindset of logical thinking adults? Or is it done in an attempt to continue to mislead the unknowing members? Throughout the CHC Trial, we have seen the blame pushed to the auditors, the CAD Investigating Officer and other parties including the media (accused to be bias) – me thinks it’s definitely not true, considering the coverage they gave Serina Wee. News is a business to sell more after all.
The CityNews Article (http://www.citynews.sg/2014/02/chc-trial-defense-establishes-that-evidence-cad-failed-to-seize-was-clearly-relevant-to-case/) was plastered on top of the City Harvest Church website (above the “Special Notices” tab). For the blame on the other parties, just refer to the CityNewsSG articles on their website, and my earlier blog articles. We need to be mindful that such articles coming from a church whose leaders are embroiled in a criminal charge do stir emotions and sentiments among the membership as well as members of the public, depending on where you look at it.
2) Threat and Warning
Such uses were probably aimed to threaten people who speak up with defamation lawsuits? Will this work? Considering the first line of defense against any form of defamation is the reporting of verifiable facts/truth, the threat would also fall on deaf grounds, no?
“those who filed the complaint will have to take responsibility accordingly” (ST, 22 Sep 2011)
Didn’t work for you this time Dr Cho. Your 29 elders have the evidence and spoke boldly without fear of your threat.
CHC have used this to their full advantage over a decade ago in silencing businessman Roland Poon who asserted that church funds were used to fund Sun Ho’s Crossover Project. Roland Poon had to issue a public apology. Glad that he is now vindicated for the court has heard that church funds were indeed used to fund Sun Ho’s singing career from as early as 2001, and definitely in 2003.
Similarly, according to online media, Bobby Chaw, a pastor of CHC, also issued a warning about the media “pre-judging” in relation to the suspension of 9 key CHC staff. This was done through the official statement made by the church on 28 June 2012. It should be noted that as a leader, anything said in public has an influence on its followers. The result of such statements (personally, I view it as a threat, so do some other online media), made in a highly sensitive and emotional context resulted in a witch-hunt and name-calling for the COC by members of CHC. Not too nice to plaster more screenshots, but some are found in earlier posts. Me thinks that COC had been too nice; they should just make public it’s findings there and then – and once and for all put an end to all the name calling on the COC.
3) “Did not make any personal gain”
In an updated statement issued on 22 Feb 2014 regarding the sentencing of Dr Cho, the Management Board of CHC cited “very reliable sources that Dr Cho had no personal gain from any of the investments” (source)
One need not look far to find contradicting reports from the 29 elders who lodged the commission’s against Dr Cho. In fact, they have out forward some very serious allegations in their writing, besides those already charged:
“Ha Sang-ok , who was part of the group for nearly two decades, admits to being involved in some fraud : ” In the last 14 years I have seen and done bad things. I tried to convince the pastor to stop, but he paid no attention. His behavior is not that of a Christian, but like that of a guru of a sect“. (source)
“First, they claim that Cho returned only 64.3 billion won (US$60.2 million) of the 163.3 billion won (US$152.9 million) he borrowed from the church while building the CCMM Building between 1992 and 1998, when he was chairman of the church‘s Mission Society. The remaining 99 billion won (US$92.7 million), they say, was never returned.
It is also being claimed that Cho’s third son Seung-jae’s International Club Management Group bought three floors of the building from the church for 29.5 billion won (US$27.6 million) and sold them back three years later for 37.2 billion won (US$34.8 million) – pocketing the difference of 7.7 billion won (US$7.2 million).
They also claimed that David Cho’s wife Kim Sung-hae, president of Hansei University, has yet to account for 10.5 billion won (US$9.8 million) paid by the church as support for Bethesda Christian University, an institution she runs in the US. The elders also view US real estate purchased by the university for around US$15 million as having been bought with church money.” (Source)
In the corporate statement dated 28 June 2012, Pastor Aries Zulkarnain also states that “no profit was gained by the individuals concerned” (source)
Just highlighting the similarities and at the same time wonder how this has got anything to do with the deeds already done. After all, how would these “reliable sources” know, and can we believe a statement based on unnamed “reliable sources”?
4) Complain is only made by the minority
According to the statement made by the CHC Management Board in 2011, the complain was made by 29 of over 800 elders, hence the implied treatment is that to ignore the minority’s view. If this is not a leading symptom of groupthink, I really don’t know what to call it.
Me thinks that when the minority’s alternate opinion is faced with the majority’s, in a highly charged environment with a charismatic leader, there’s no guessing whose opinion – no matter how truthful or factual will be dismissed. Just think Roland Poon.
Monkey See, Monkey Try to Outdo? Or Flocking Together Birds of Same Feather?
If we examine the associations Pastor Kong Hee has with his group of “spiritual fathers” and good friends (let’s not talk about the advisory pastor pair of Phil Pringle and AR Bernard now – will examine them in due time), it is surprising what we can find:
1) Steve Munsey: Regular weekend service and conference speaker in CHC from 2008 to 2011
– Over-indulgence in personal benefits, while failing to make mortgage repayments, resulting in foreclosure order
Kong Hee – The Successor to Abraham Alex and Yonggi Cho
In the May 2010 Asia Conference, Dr Cho have laid hands on Pastor Kong and handed the baton to him. It seems that he is the designated successor to Dr Cho, who prophesied that he will outdo his accomplishments.
In another meeting in Indonesia, Alex Abraham also named Pastor Kong to be his successor and prophesied over him that he will have “full vindication” from the Lord. (video recording of service available upon request – link private after being removed)
What is the outcome of such laying on of hands is still to be seen in the coming months, but if there’s any potential of impartation, then whatever is on the hands of the imparter will certainly go to the impartee – might not be a good thing after all.
Bottom line in the Dr Cho case, is that, in the own words of the Management Board, he is “innocent until proven guilty” and all have waited until “due process of the law is complete”. And sorry to note, their “reliable sources” who claimed that this was a “civil suit” have failed them again – it’s a criminal proceeding.
If past history is a good gauge of future occurrences, then everything that was ever said by them just fell to the ground. This is certainly not a happy day for Christianity in Singapore and the world. They can always blame their sources for misleading them, anyway.
C3 Church Watch has gathered a vast load of information that reveals why cult leader Phil Pringle is not fit to be an Advisory Pastor for CHC. However, now we wish to turn your attention to CHC’s Advisory Pastor AR Bernard. He too has close associations with Phil Pringle and C3 Church (and also Hillsong).
We strongly advise C3 Church, Hillsong and City Harvest Church to have nothing to do with A.R. Bernard. We do not know when or where this was recorded. However, ministers should think twice about their own integrity if they choose to associate with A.R. Bernard.
Any God-fearing Christian should be disgusted that AR Bernard calls deceitful scheming men that achieve his selfish purposes “God’s favour”. To use the story of Rahab the prostitute in Joshua 6 to justify his behaviour is not the way a Christian pastor should behave. Nor should he be promoting such immoral behaviour to his audience.
Pray that AR Bernard repents.
[Edit: Transcipt now added (20/04/2013)]
“Here’s a question that comes up – “Can you be totally honest and be successful in the marketplace? Can you be totally honest and yet be successful in the marketplace?”
Now of course people who don’t subscribe to the Lord, who don’t subscribe to our value system will say “No you can’t! You have to be involved in bribes, you have to be corrupt and involved in corruption. You have to pay “under the table”, (laughs). You have to be a crook in order to be successful in the marketplace.”
Now many can honestly say that this has, you have, you have experienced a question like this, an issue like this, since you’ve been in the marketplace. Oh! It would only happen in America? Oh, man! [Laughs]
Where’s there’s a conflict of values and you’re put in a situation where you have an opportunity for a deal, alright? But somewhere in the midst, they want you to lie.
Now this is a dilemma that I had to think about and I came across a story because my value is, that not that honesty is the best policy, honesty is the only policy! Because if you say it’s the best, it means you have a other choice. But when you say it’s the only policy, you don’t have a choice. You’re going to be honest all the time, alright? And because you value integrity, no matter what the price is, you’re going to be honest.
Now let me give you some real practical stuff that goes on in the marketplace. Let me give you a story.
There was a women named Rahab in the bible. You’ve heard of her? Alright, she was a prostitute and uh- she lived on the wall in Jericho. And God had promised that Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, would ultimately take Jericho. Jericho was nervous because they heard about the God of Israel and the incredible things He had done and His power and all that. So the king of Jericho was terrified. The people of Jericho were terrified. This prostitute heard about it.
So ah- Joshua sends two spies. Goes to the city to check out the condition of things and these two spies come to this house of this woman, (who was a prostitute), named Rahab. And- the presence of the spies immediately indicates that Israel is about to make a move on Jericho. And Rahab is concerned about her own safety so she looks to make a deal because she believes what she’s heard about this God of Israel- of the Israleites.
So she says, “Look, I’ve heard about what your God did to certain kings, how He crushed their kingdoms. Word has gotten around and I’m going to tell you, everybody is terrified.” So she makes a deal for her own safety. She says, “Look I want to make a deal with you. If I help you, will you look out for me when the assault takes place?” And they basically said, “Yeah, we’ll help you.”
So here’s what happens, interesting scenario, alright?
Word gets out that these two spies aaare there, so she takes them up to the roof and she hides them and then the men of Jericho, the military of Jericho, comes to her house and say “Look we heard that two men came to you and we want to know where they are.”
Now here’s the dilemma. Here’s the moral dilemma when I talk about integrity and honesty, alright?
Rahab says “Um, actually I don’t know where they are. In fact I- they came and then they went off in a certain direction”. And the military, the guys from Jericho said “Oh-” they believe her, alright OK? And they turn and went off looking for these two spies. But the whole time she had them hidden on her roof! Now here’s the problem! She lied! How do we reconcile a person lying and yet serving the efforts of God? That’s the dilemma.
I remember one principle that I heard and um- it- the principle was, ah- that no lie ever serves the kingdom of God. And I had to think that through and say “Well, wait a minute! That’s not true! There’s been quite a few lies through the bible”.
And then I started associating names. Mmmm- Abraham (laughs) the father of faith, who lied. So you know, listen, we’ve got to be honest as Christians, and when we read something in the bible, we can’t try to gloss it over and rearrange it. It is what it is, it says what it says. So here’s this woman in the service of God, she lies! Boldly lies! How do I reconcile that?
Well I had to reason this through and said, “Okay”.
Number one, the men, the spies as it appears okay, the spies maintain their integrity. And the person who lied okay, was a person on the outside who heard about this God YAHWEH but was not in relationship with this God YAHWEH. So she had certain values that were not the same as these individuals’ values that they got from Yahweh. And I thought about that and I realised that there are times, (and I’ve experienced this, and you will too), where in business transactions God actually used people who had different values and lower standards, to get His work done. Now let me say, whoa wait a minute! [Laughter] Come on!. Come on! Let’s be honest here, alright? I’ll give you two illustrations, OK?”
When we were bidding on this housing development and we bid again below a billion dollars, but our bid was accepted, everyone had their part to play. So we had a team, we had equity partners, we had development partners, we had the government and the community, with my responsibility to use my influence with government and community in order to make this deal go through.
So I remember when the equity partners were about to leave and they said to me, they said, “Reverend, we don’t think you should be in on this meeting”. [laughter] They said, “Because we’ve got to roll up our sleeves and go to work in order to get the underwriting that we’re gonna need for this project”. I said, “Well, what do you mean, I don’t need to be there?” They said, “You really don’t need to be there REVEREND (emphasis)” [More laughter]
So the lights went on, and I said “Ohhhhhhhhh, OK! I won’t be there!” [Laughter] So whatever went on in that meeting, I didn’t want to know about it, I didn’t want to be a part of it, BUT I KNEW THAT THERE WOULD BE THINGS GOING ON IN THAT MEETING THAT WERE INCONSISTENT WITH MY INTEGRITY AND MY STANDARDS [More laughter]. SO I ALLOWED MY PARTNERS TO PROTECT ME FROM WHAT THEY WERE ABOUT to engage in.
Now, what did they do? I don’t know. But when they came out of that meeting, we had the financing we needed. And I said “Hallelujah!” [More laughter]
Let me give you another illustration: when we were building- [Laughs] We were building our 11-1/2 acre campus. Now in New York City, concrete and steel construction, ah, has been for decades owned by one family (and I don’t say the Trump family). it was a family that spells its name like this [Laughter] You know a family I’m talking about? [More laughter].
They ownsteel, they own concrete, they own rubbish removal. Listen, across the board, nothing gets built without their involvement, OK?
So we were building in the late 90’s. There were also coalitions, and the coalitions and unions get involved in order to push work for their union members. So any project that’s going on, coalition leaders will come down and take a look at the project and ask, “Do you have any union labor here? Because if not, we’re going to shut this place down!” And they could.
Now what we did, instead of hiring a separate development company, we were the GC (General Contractor) on the project. So if anybody was gonna get upset, they were gonna to get upset with the church. And you just don’t attack the church. That’s number one!
So what we did was outsource it, to bring it in. So when we went to purchase steel, (in order to do the steelwork, alright), we had to deal with the company that happened to be a part of this family. So in sitting down and talking [Laughs], with the head of the company. He said, “Well, you know, our family does concrete. Our family does, you know, ah, fencing”. And they told me all the services provided by their family. I said, “But look, in order for me to do this project fairly, I have to bid it out.” They said, “Don’t worry. We will always come in with the best bid. So get anyone else that you want to bid on the project and I guarantee you, we’ll beat their bid”. [Laughter]
So [Laughs] we had two other bids and we had their bids and sure enough, for some reason, the other bidders said we can’t compete with that bid [Laughter].
I don’t know if they couldn’t compete with the bid or the family! [Laughter] So they disappeared and we only had this particular company to deal with. So they started the project and I found out that word spread about this particular company was handling our construction project. And as a result, for some reason, we had no union problems, we had no coalition problems, no community problems, no government problems. The project went pretty smooth! Uh!
So, on the land next to – we have 11-1/2 acres, we were developing 6-1/2 acres. And on the other side, there was, ah, a- like a backhoe, big construction machine left on the property. So I saw that and I noticed it, and I noticed it- you know- it was there. And I think, “OK. They were using it so they parked it there because they need it”.
But they never used that machine! It just sat there! So I said, “OK, maybe they’re going to use it for something after”. But throughout the whole project, that machine just sat on the property next door to the property we were developing. So finally I asked the question. I said, “You know, you guys have had that machine there for the past two years throughout the development of this project and ummm, you know, you never used it. I don’t understand.”
“Reverend, don’t worry about it, we just left it there”.
Well, I found out that that machine was a “marker” and that machine sitting there “marker” told everybody who would drive by, “don’t touch this project!” [Crowd: “Woooah!” Applause]
So the project was under the protection and development of this particular family. [Laughet] Got it?
So there are times as we engage with the marketplace, God brings people to us who are not of the same values and integrity, who end up accomplishing things on our behalf, without us having to compromise our own integrity. It doesn’t mean you go out looking for corrupt people to do your work [Laughter]. Don’t think that that’s what I’m saying [Laughter]. There’s a difference when God gives you favour and sends someone, as opposed to you calling up, “Oh, OK. Let me give you the most corrupt individual you can find” [Laughter] . No, because then you become an accessory to the fact, alright?
But you’ll find, and I’ve found, (as it’s the only way I can explain this), that there have been times when God has just given me favour and given me people to do for me what I could not do for myself, nor did I need to know [Laughs] how it was being done because God knows that I want to maintain my level of integrity and my service. Come on! Give God a good hand clap offering!
[Applause]
Now, Joseph experienced false accusation. Let me just say something to you about false accusations. Number one, sometimes what appears to be a demotion is actually a promotion. Sometimes what appears to be a demotion is actually a promotion. Sometimes God humbles us in order to exalt us!
And as I said to you, there is no biblical record that shows where Joseph was vindicated against this false accusation. But let me give you some principles that I’ve learned over the years because I’ve gone through false accusations about things and the Lord has told me, in one very critical situation, “Just hold your peace, just be quiet and I’ll take care if this”.
And I held my peace, my wife wanted to talk because my wife said, “Well, He told you that but He didn’t tell me that”. She wanted to talk but I said “No, no, no, no, no, you’re under my covering!” [Laughter]
Let me give you a principle that I’ve observed over thirty one years, OK? False accusation is the last stage before supernatural promotion.
Falseaccusation is the last stage before supernatural promotion. Now, which means that if the devil cannot attack your quality of service, if he cannot attack your integrity, then he’s got to make up a lie about you! And when he’s got to go that far, that is the last stage before promotion. So you shouldn’t get angry and upset. You should do exactly like Joseph. What do you do? Continue the quality of service and continue to walk in integrity.
Your name is attacked before you’re promoted. Your reputation is attacked before you’re promoted. And if you can stand the attack on your reputation because you’ve built the character that you need, then you’ll experience the next level of promotion.
“Well, that’s not fair! Why do I have to be attacked? [Laughs] Why do I have to go through false accusation to be promoted?” Because rememeber: we live life on levels, we arrive on stages, right? And as you move from one level of life to another, the INTIMACY of your relationships must change. So quite often, false accusations that come against you, purge your relationships because you discover who you real friends are.
And believe me, when you’re promoted, you’ll want to take your real friends with you, not the ones who pretend to be your friends. You really find out who your friends are.
Earlier I said to you that relationship is a network for life – relationship is a network for life. [Asks where he is on time schedule, takes time for break] – A.R. Bernard
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