Is PG Planning His Escape??

During his opening address at the recent AGM of Calvary Church , Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam (PG) shared on his desire to go into full-time evangelism.

He claimed that since his bible school days in the Bible College of Malaysia (BCM), his desire had always been to become an evangelist. He expressed his hope that God will give him “some years to go into full-time evangelistic work”. This is the clearest hint yet, of things to come!

To be fair, PG’s revelation of his desire is not totally new. He has said it before many years ago. Those were the days when Calvary Church was the richest and fastest-growing church in Malaysia. Despite his talk of going into full-time evangelism then, he did not leave.

With high pay-checks for him and his wife and generous self-granted perks like free education for both his children in the United States, business class travels, exclusive gym club membership and the like, he would be mad to give it all up, right?

Besides, there is this vision from God to build a grand 5,000-seating Church, remember? Who else will be able to accomplish this vision for God? He had to stay.

After all, the poor and the lost will always be there and besides, there’s Pastor Ah Chong, Pastor Aru and the many other graduates from BCM every year! Yes, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are many also!

Coming back to PG’s calling, to prove the seriousness of his desire to eventually go into full-time evangelism, he even set up Calvary International Ministry (CIM) to be the vehicle to fund his evangelistic ministry.

Of course, as things turned out, it was discovered several years later that he was, with the assistance of the Church Mission Director, happily transferring Church funds and Missions offerings into CIM’s Bank account, without the knowledge of the Members, of course. This modus operandi is quite similar to that of his good buddy in Singapore, Pastor Kong Hee.

If not for the exposure by the TTG group, the pilferage would have continued to this day. If not for the efforts of these concerned members, the pilfered funds would not have been recovered and PG may very well end up like Pastor Kong Hee. PG must be quietly thanking God for the TTG group!

Today, the situation in Calvary Church is totally different. With all the cash gone into the building of the wasteful Calvary Convention Centre, Bukit Jalil (CCC) and with the offerings not coming in as much as what PG had wished for, the Church is plunging swiftly into massive debts.

Once the entire RM43 million Bank loan for the construction of the CCC is fully drawn down, the interest alone (assuming only an interest rate of 6% per annum) will come up to RM2.58 million per year or RM215,000 per month. The principal loan repayment over 10 years amounts to RM4.3 million per year or RM358,000 per month.

To raise a surplus cash amount (after church expenses) of RM6.88 million a year or RM573,000 a month to service the banks is no laughing matter. And this is excluding the costs of maintaining the mammoth building and assuming that no further borrowings is required, which is highly unlikely and assuming the interest rate does not go up. Calvary Church certainly appears to be heading for a financial catastrophe. In a scenario like this, PG will be mad to stay on, right?

PG may have declared that he has been called to build the CCC but to be fair, he has never declared that he will stay to clear the debts or sort out the mess that he has created.

How can he stay? He has been called to be an evangelist, remember? Jesus is coming soon, don’t you know? And there are so many poor lost souls out there to be saved and somebody’s got to do it!

Click on the audio clip to hear PG’s story.