Christian Belief in Singapore

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Christianity is an important factor in Singapore. I have heard that Singapore has over 400,000 Christian believers. This is about 10% of the population. Sounds like a small number but it is not.

Being a Jesus-follower in Singapore has a meaning, not only for others but most of all for oneself. One is simply different and still among brothers and sisters. And the Holy Spirit is all over the place.

I would say that there are only very few religious people in Singapore. I mean "religious" in a sense as it were the religious people who killed Jesus Christ - and not the believers.

There is no reason in Singapore to be religious because there is no benefit from it, different from countries with established state churches that offer a subsidized feeding bowl, such as in Germany. If one has no belief whatsoever or if one does not know what he should believe, he would just go as a "freethinker" and that's it. No discrimination, no disadvantages, nothing. Singapore is insofar a completely liberal place.

As taken by the numbers, the immanent belief here is Buddhism. There are Buddhist temples and worshipping places together with the related shops and moral homes all over the place. Each HDB public housing block has at least one Buddhist medium and also at least one Buddhist fortune teller. The "hungry ghost month" is celebrated in public and this is well organized and regulated. Each house has even a special bin for that in which you can burn your "hell money" without running into the danger of burning the whole house (Singapore is still Singapore!). If you think that there are many Buddhists in China, please come and compare the situation on your own with Singapore.

The second most important belief here is probably Islam. No wonder, Singapore is surrounded by Muslim countries, Indonesia with 220 million inhabitants and Malaysia with 25 mio inhabitants. Muslims from these two countries are literally sitting all around the tiny red dot on the world's map (a famous synonym for Singapore), carefully watching what is happening here.

I am not sure but there are also many Hindus in Singapore. You can find Hindu temples in almost each quarter of the city. I cannot say much about Hinduism because I seldom meet Hindu beliefers in person.

There is very likely no other place in the world where the big religions live together in such a peace, one can even call it harmony. The government makes sure that this harmony is kept and I prefer this system over a system where the media are free to criticize religious beliefs just for the sake of critizising them in order to attract attention and to increase their revenues. Of course, reporting about serious public dangers or even crimes that come from religious groups would be considered to be correct. I shall try to give you some insight into the Singapore way of handling such issues.

Singapore has been undergoing something that is called "awakening" for more than 30 years now. Even the Anglican Church has charismatic services. I love the 8pm Sunday evening service in St. Andrew's Cathedral so much, my favorite service in Singapore. I have received healing and much comfort there. I was told that the Anglican Church in England and in other places is not so alive as in Singapore, but I do not know.

Singapore is also the home of a few Christian Mega-Churches, such as City Harvest and New Creation with each more than 20,000 members. But there are also many mid-size churches such as Church of Our Saviour, with 5,000+ members, and Faith Community Baptist Chruch, just to name some of the more famous mid-size churches.

My own church is Calvary Assembly of God on Upper East Coast Road. A very small church, just a few hundred members. But it is my family's and also my spiritual home. We have a very active pastor, his name is Patrick Lau and he has a very biblical teaching and way to look after his sheeps.

Now one example on how the Singapore system works in practise. There have been some Christian mega-projects recently. New Creation is involved into a Billion $ real estate project and also City Harvest has bee in the newspapers recently, because of a 300 Million real estate transaction.

The Singapore government has carefully watched the reporting, has also investigated some church members because there have been some criminal allegations against some individuals. After a few months, there have been released new guidelines for religious use of commercial space. In the following, I am citing an article from the Business Straits Times of 21st July 2010 (I have cut out the information about the official guidelines and separated them from the facts about the Mega-Churches that are object of the new guidelines):

"Rules for religious use of commercial space

The government has clarified the extent to which commercial spaces can be used for religious activities. The guidelines, which apply with immediate effect, include caps on how often religious activities can be held at commercial venues and how much space they can use in such buildings at any one time. No more than 20,000 square metres or 20 per cent of any commercial development's gross floor area (whichever is lower) can be considered for religious use. And each religious group can only use up to 10,000 sq m of commercial space at any one time.

Such premises can't be owned or leased exclusively to religious bodies, guidelines say.

Also, commercial premises cannot be used for religious activities for more than two days a week, including the weekend.

One needs to add the following. As said before, the New Creation Church and the City Harvest Church had heavily invested into commercial spaces and there was much talking and rumors about these two churches. You may think what you want about these transactions, I also did not check the Bible on this, but my feeling is that this is not a typical business for a congregation of Jesus-followers. But what can I say as an ex-roman-catholic from Germany? Some of the biggest Mega-Churches ever built are located in Germany (Cologne, Munich, Ulm, Freiburg, ...), despite being built more than 500 years ago, I would consider them still to be among the biggest worshipping places in the world. Have you ever been in Rome and visited Vatican city? You should, before you judge the Mega churches in SIngapore.

Ok, now the facts. New Creation Church has a joint venture with CapitaMalls Asia to build a $1 billion lifestyle hub in the northern part of the Island, which will have retail outlets, a concert hall and a theatre when ready in 2012. New Creation presently leases the Rock Auditorium in Suntec City (a famous convention center), which covers about 3,500 sq m.

City Harvest Church  said in March that it would spend $310 million on a minority stake in Suntec Singapore, rent and renovation costs, to move its weekly services from Singapore Expo (The local trade fair center) to the convention centre next year. Singapore Expo leases Hall 8 to City Harvest Church. There is another church at Singapore Expo, which is Faith Community Baptist Church. They occupy the Max Pavilion and Hall 9 each weekend. Each of these Expo halls is 10,000 sq m in size.

If you do not know a big church service yet, please attend a City Harvest worship on a Sunday morning! This will definitely impress you. A big rock concert is a small event as compared with this. Have you ever heard singing 10,000 in one single voice for half an hour? If not, you will need to try it out.

All this without the Singapore government coming in and intervening, no religious leader of another belief complaining, nothing. But only until a certain point, where the Mega-Churches caused some public complaints, maybe also fears, because of their very visible financial power. I have never before - except for the Vatican - heard of a Church that runs a Billion $ real estate project.

So, many dogs will certainy cause the death of the hare, and so someone found out that these Churches'  real estate activities would constitute a 'change of use' of sites zoned for commercial rather than 'place of worship' use under URA's Master Plan. The issue is now that these two churches have used commercial space for religious activities, two different classes of use under Singapore laws.

Having the whole picture in mind, I would say that the authorities are in principal correct and that the Mega churches have made some very unbiblical moves which attracted unnecessary public attention. The consequences are now clear and harmony is restored, a very Asian way of handling things.

important remark:

the above article is very likely wrong about Buddhism! My friend John told me that only 5% of the population of Singapore is actually Buddhist! He and Emilyn, his wife, told me that about 80% of the Singaporeans are not Buddhist as I wrongly put it up there in my little article, but Taoist! They explained me that Taoism is about worshipping ancestors and some Gods, while Buddhism is only about philosophy. John told me that Buddha would not have wanted a religion such as "Buddhism". I am so awfully sorry about what I have written above, please excuse me. I leave my short and wrong statement only as a bad example of what could even happen to a supposedly "sober" person, even after living years in Singapore. I apologize for having hurt any Buddhist by mistaking him for a Taoist!

(08/2010)

Sunday morning Family Church Service @ City Harvest Church, Expo Singapore

Calvary Assembly of God

my own church

The Charismatic Renewal in Singapore

Amazing Grace and Supernatural Growth