Limitations of the Business Model
The limitations of churches operating as businesses will be discussed together with the case study of City Harvest Church.
Case Study: City Harvest Church
The central issue of the case was whether the monies channeled through the Building Fund and into the Crossover Project constituted a criminal breach of trust. Some details on the Crossover Project are presented below:
The Crossover Project’s chief purposes were that of evangelising the “unchurched”, and encouraging Christians in the pop industry to “shine for Jesus”. These were to be accomplished via Sun Ho’s music career by extending the influence of the gospel through her music and concerts. Sun would testify about how God had changed her life during her concerts, after which Pastor Kong would take the stage to encourage the audience to join a church. The whole Project was based off Hillsong Church’s success in penetrating the mainstream music market. While Sun projected a vastly different image in her music videos as Geisha, the justification- as explained by Kong Hee- was that the US market was much louder and edgier than the Asian market and therefore required a more vibrant persona.
The project was partially funded by donations and investments, and partially by the church’s Building Fund. Transfers from the Building Fund were disguised as
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While this would not hold true for all mega-church leader, it cannot be denied that putting individuals- without proper financial training and experience in most cases- in the position of steward for enormous sums of money is not wise. Temptation and opportunities for embezzlement would be abundant, and many leaders have fallen. Having an external agency manage the money might circumvent this, but said agency would ultimately be subjected to the whims and fancies of the church board, so there would be little to no change in the