Tags
building fund, c3, c3 church, Christian City Church, City Harvest Church, connect group meeting, crossover, crossover project, illegal, Kong Hee, meeting, Phil Pringle, prayer meeting, Pringle, Rise & Build, rise and build, Singapore
“… nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” – Jesus, Luke 8:17
INFORMATION PRINGLE DOES NOT WANT LEAKED TO THE MEDIA…
On the 9th of June in a Sunday morning service last year, Phil Pringle blacked out his stage cameras to report on issues regarding the Kong Hee scandal. C3 members leaked information to C3 Church Watch as to what Pringle said in the media black out.
What Is Phil Pringle Trying To Hide? *Update 3* (03-07-2013)
Last year we had Phil Pringle request his church attend a private Tuesday night meeting after the typical C3 prayer meeting. He made the below announcement on Sunday morning, the 3rd of November, 2013.
How did we come across this Tuesday night meeting? C3CW only found about this meeting when their readership spiked the week after the meeting happened. So they decided to tune into the previous week’s online sermon to see what Phil Pringle might have said about them. Whatever was said at that Tuesday night meeting caused C3 leaders and members to come visit the C3CW website. As a result of this meeting, people have since talked to C3 Church Watch as to what was said by Phil Pringle.
They informed C3CW that Pringle mentioned their website by name and they disclosed other information as to what was said at that meeting. C3CW were also informed by C3 people as to what was said in that meeting about Kong Hee. They have started to question how involved Pringle was with Kong Hee’s issues. According to some of these sources, Pringle appeared to be distancing himself from the conduct of Kong Hee’s approach to the building fund. C3CW also received a loose transcript from what was said at that meeting from someone else who attended. That C3 member attempted to recount what Pringle said about their correspondence with Kong Hee:
PP: Don’t do anything illegal.
KH: That’s alright. We can do that in Singapore.
PP: You couldn’t do [any of?] that in Sydney. You couldn’t take money out of the building fund.
After analysing the various discussions, C3CW were able to confirm that these numerous C3 members statements were saying very similar things.
OUR CONCERNS
And now I am expressing my concerns as a C3 member about C3 Leaders and what was said in that Tuesday night meeting.
There is no transparency at C3.
Ask yourself this question: whose names are C3 properties registered in? Is it in Phil Pringle’s name or some special entity which Phil Pringle and his closest associates totally control? After all it’s the church members who have financed the properties with their giving over many years. As yet C3 members have no idea how the ownership of the assets of the church are structured. Phil Pringle late last year after a Tuesday night Prayer meeting at the Connect Leaders meeting (held immediately after the Prayer Meeting), said in that meeting that he would be releasing the Church Financial accounts to members in early 2014. Absolutely nothing has been released to date. I think he is hoping all those present have forgotten the statement he made about Church accounts. Again just spin and misleading statements from Phil Pringle. The C3 property and financial structure issue needs to be investigated and may even be worth approaching some journos to fully investigate these matters.
Phil Pringle again at that Connect Group Leaders meeting in my opinion, basically misled church leaders about the CHC/Kong Hee legal case.
WHAT ELSE WAS SAID ON THAT TUESDAY NIGHT MEETING?
At that Tuesday night meeting on the 5th of November, Phil Pringle talked about his involvement with Kong Hee in Singapore.
From memory Phil Pringle said that he told Kong Hee that C3 would not be allowed to do what CHC did regarding the crossover project from the C3 building fund. I think he also talked about the Singapore governments persecution against Kong Hee.
I believe Phil Pringle was making a connection to the C3 building fund. From memory Phil Pringle said to Kong Hee that in Australia, C3 could not use their Building fund to do something like the crossover project that Kong Hee was doing. From memory, I think Pringle said that Kong Hee was asking him for advice on what Kong Hee was planning to do regarding crossover. I think Pringle then said that Kong Hee then decided to move forward with the Crossover project, even though Pringle said they couldn’t do anything like that in Australia. I am pretty sure it was not recorded as Phil Pringle said all this after a Tuesday night prayer meeting (which carried over then into a connect group leaders meeting where he said these things).
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON IN C3 LEADERSHIP?
I know that when some C3 pastors are asked about Kong Hee or Yonggi Cho, they usually plead ignorance, or they say they don’t know much about what is going on. However I think they have been instructed to plead ignorance or spin the official C3 church line when confronted by questions from C3 members. I know this has happened to church members. Furthermore, Phil Pringle has told Church members not to look at C3 Churchwatch on the net.
I am sure some C3 Church Pastors do believe in Transparency, and Governance. Pastors and numerous members are fully aware of the global press articles on the Yonggi Cho Korean situation and the CHC Singapore court case. News globally these days over the internet is available instantaneously. I believe there is some underground disapproval of what is happening in the Singapore and Korean situations within the C3 Church community.
CONCLUSION
What continually gets to me is the lack of transparency and governance of Phil Pringle. My pastor’s mentor Yonggi Cho has been convicted for mishandling church funds. My pastor’s underling, Kong Hee, copied my pastor’s Building Fund program and is now in trouble over how he has handled building fund money. And now Phil Pringle is saying that Kong Hee’s Building fund is done in a different way to his own? Are we to believe him at face value?
It was Phil Pringle that said,
“Kong Hee in Singapore picked up [my] idea and he calls his ‘Rise and Build’ and just takes the whole thing, copies it exactly and raises sixty million US for- and he paid it debt free for his building there in- in Singapore”. [Source]
Don’t forget this comment from Kong Hee:
“Ah- I thought I’m gonna show you a video. This is our ‘Rise and Build’ video and- Many people come to City Harvest Church and they look at our church. Look at our pulpit. Our Rise and Build. And they say, “Hey! Why is it that in Australia they kinda copy after you?”Well actually we came here and copied everything from Christian City Church. So we have our own Rise and Build and I just thought I show you this latest installment where we anounced to our church, SunTec City Convention Center.” – Kong hee, C3 Presence Conference, Session 4, Sydney, 2010. [Source]
I would like to point out some interesting articles that establish that the C3 financial structures within it’s movement aren’t that ethical (I will publish this article soon). Still Phil Pringle urges us to trust him? He needs to prove he can be transparent first.
C3 Church Watch 