We finally got our promised building! Here’s the announcement video shown over the weekend service, revealing the exact location of our new premises!
I absolutely love this video.
Anyhow, grabbed this following FAQ from CHC’s website. Do take a look, it’s quite informative.
| 1. | Why is there a need for CHC to secure such a huge facility? | |||||||||
| We need a facility that will be able to accommodate the congregations from our English Services, Children’s Church, Chinese Church, Dialect Church, JAMs (Jesus for All Minds) Church, Indonesian Service, Tamil Service, and Filipino Service. By God’s grace, our membership has been growing steadily and it currently stands at 32,731. | ||||||||||
| At the same time, the cost of hall rentals in Singapore has been increasing. It therefore makes financial sense to have our own facility in the long run. What’s more, our ability to rent halls for worship depends on their availability and other contractual terms. Having our own property means we will no longer subject our congregations to the risk of not being able to rent a facility for use, or having to move from time to time to different venues. | ||||||||||
| 2. | Why does the project cost S$310 million? | |||||||||
| There are three factors to consider regarding the cost of a project: | ||||||||||
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| 3. | What type of building will the facility be housed in? Integrated mall? Or purely a place of worship? | |||||||||
| It is not purely a place of worship. This property has a 12,000-seater auditorium, and many other meeting rooms and F&B outlets. | ||||||||||
| 4. | Why does the church need to be in the CBD area? | |||||||||
| We already have an existing church building at Jurong West. But our members come from all over the island. Proximity and accessibility by public transportation is the key factor behind our decision to find another facility that is in the central district of Singapore. | ||||||||||
| 5. | How does CHC plan to finance the project? | |||||||||
| We will finance the project from the free-will contributions of our members. | ||||||||||
| 6. | CHC is planning to spend S$310 million on their building, shouldn’t CHC take care of the poor and needy instead? | |||||||||
| CHC spends 20 percent of its annual budget on local community and overseas humanitarian work to help the poor and needy. This work has been ongoing since the church began in 1989. For example, in the aftermath of the Aceh tsunami and Haiti earthquake, CHC volunteered teams of doctors and disaster relief workers with medical supplies, tents and water filters to help the victims. In addition, CHC has been actively giving to missions work and supporting its network of churches all over Asia. With a facility to house the church’s growing congregation and multifaceted ministries, we can serve the needs of the community in an even greater way. | ||||||||||
| 7. | Economically, wouldn’t the church save more money if its facility is outside of CBD or in the suburbs of Singapore? | |||||||||
| Properties are scarce and property prices are generally high throughout Singapore. The key consideration behind our choice of location is proximity and accessibility for our members. | ||||||||||
| 8. | What does CHC plan to achieve in undertaking this massive project? | |||||||||
| The facility is meant to meet the needs of our growing congregation for a place of worship. It also allows CHC to move from its present expensive rental model to a more financially sustainable ownership model for the long term. | ||||||||||
| 9. | Since majority of the activities of the church are on weekends, how will the building be used during the weekdays? Isn’t it a waste of space? | |||||||||
| The facilities of the property and F&B outlets are open to the public daily. During the weekdays, the auditorium will be used from time-to-time as a venue for seminars, conferences, arts and cultural performances. | ||||||||||
| 10. | According to the laws of Singapore, can worship services be held within the Central Business District? | |||||||||
| There is no legal restriction against conducting worship services in the CBD area, provided zoning and other legal requirements are met. Currently there are more than 30 places of worship in downtown Singapore. These include churches, temples and mosques such as St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Wesley Methodist Church, Orchard Road Presbyterian Church, Sri Mariamman Temple, Masjid Jamae Chulia, Kwan Im Thong Cho Temple, Maghain Aboth Synagogue; just to name a few. We will ensure that use of our new facility does not breach zoning restrictions or other legal restrictions applicable to the facility. | ||||||||||
| 11. | Since CHC already owns a property in Jurong West, why does it need another facility? | |||||||||
| CHC has long outgrown the facility at Jurong West as its capacity is limited to 2,300 people. Our present congregation is more than 14 times the maximum capacity of our Jurong West building. Since 2005 we have had to rent premises at Singapore Expo to accommodate our congregations. | ||||||||||
| It should also be noted that the new facility does not mean the Jurong West church building will be redundant. Activities such as outreach to the elderly and children living in the Jurong area will continue. The property in Jurong West will still be utilized for training, counseling, prayers, etc. | ||||||||||
| 12. | Should CHC elect to have its facility in the downtown area, would there be a potential for crowds and traffic jams in the already crowded CBD? | |||||||||
| This is an important consideration which we factored into our planning for the new facility. There is ample car parking space, and the roads surrounding the property are wide enough to ensure smooth traffic. | ||||||||||
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Now, I kinda realized that there has been a bit of mixed feelings among folks around me regarding the location of the place. Some say that it was unexpected, and thought that we would have secured a piece of empty land that would allow us to build a place of our own, somewhat similiar to the AnB project of the JW Building. Build from scratch, it will allow us to have more customization of the building and facilities right?
Admittedly, that was how I also felt initially when hearing about the news. There was mixed feelings. On one hand, we have finally gotten another bigger place to house the congregation. On the other hand, it’s not exactly OURs. Get what I mean? Occasionally when there are super huge international events, we will still need to move to another location. However, this is not because we’re being evicted, it’s a voluntary decision so that the Government still can use the place at it’s full capacity. Doesn’t sound that bad eh?
But the most pressing issue I hear, and personally feel as well, was that there won’t be sweat of constructing another building altogether. And for the bunch of folks who had attended church post AnB of the JW Building, we all do feel a yearning to have been part of that project, and also anticipating an upcoming project that might somewhat allow us to really “build God’s house” in it’s literal sense.
But hey, I mediated on this, and got reminded of this story I read online. Don’t mind my English ya? I’m paraphrasing as much as I can remember.
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There was a small church in NYC, located along a busy street. However, after decades of using the building, it was starting to look rundown, with all the new establishments that have sprung up over the years. Not to mention, the growing size of the congregation also proved to be a problem for their services in the small premises. The Head Pastor was troubled. He knew there was a need for a new, larger building. But how was he going to find another plot of larger land, especially in NYC? The church just didn’t have the finances to finance a building project of that scale.
One night, a fire broke out at the church. Fortunately, there weren’t any casualties, however, the flames had engulfed the entire church building. After the fire was put out, there wasn’t anything left of the church at all! The church had been literally burnt down to the ground.
A passer-by saw the Head Pastor standing alongside the street, looking at where the church once stood. The said passer-by felt a great sense of grief towards the pastor, walked over and wanted to offer his condolences (I seriously don’t think this is the right word to use!!) to him, only to realize, the Pastor was actually smiling! Feeling odd, he asked the Pastor why.
“God knew we needed a new building. A new larger building. He also knew that we didn’t have the finances for the entire building project from start to finish. So He decided to help. Now the church has been burnt down, we save a huge load on the demolition costs itself! And in addition, I don’t have to look for another plot of land! This has where the church has been for decades, and this is where it will stay.”
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I was really blessed by this story. And lead me to think, hey, God has this building standing there for such a long time. It has already been built, facilities and all has been provided for. All we need to do is to move in. In this time where construction costs are going through the roof, literally, God has saved us much by not having us build our own building! Awesome.
Can’t wait to move in next March 2011. It’s gonna be great.
