Pentecostal World Conference 2013 to be held in CCC

The 23^rd Pentecostal World Conference 2013 (PWC) will be held at the Calvary Convention Centre (CCC) on  27-30 August 2013. The controversial CCC, which was designed by freemason Ken Yeang, has freemasonic symbols incorporated into the design and had been fraught with costly delays, conflicts with contractors and  work stoppages due to serious cashflow problems throughout the construction period.

Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam  (PG) who mooted the idea of this grand wasteful  project, used his autocratic style to silence  all opposition and protests from his members to the building of the CCC. During the height of the Church crisis a few years ago, he sacked some 400 members and several more  hundreds left the Church in disgust of his vindictive actions and mismanagement. In rushing to complete the CCC in time for this PWC, he has successfully gotten Calvary Church heavily into Bank debts of up to a tune of about RM60 million at the last count.

Calvary Church which used to be the largest Church in Malaysia now has less than 2,000 members and has now been overtaken by other bigger Churches like Full Gospel Assembly, SIB, DUMC and Glad Tidings. Of course, Calvary Church can now claim the title of being the largest church debtor in the country!

Click on the link below to read the previous articles written on the subject:-

CCC – A Matter of Concern? Dated June 12, 2009

CCC : God’s Vision or PG’s Vision? Dated January 25, 2011

CCC is finally built … and the journey of financial slavery begins, dated  June 27, 2013

Other News

CCC to be officially opened by shamed Dr David Yonggi Cho

PG’s good buddy and mentor, Dr David Yonggi Cho was recently indicted in the Korean Court for Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT) in a share scam that resulted in a loss of US$14.5m for his Church. He is also being investigated for possible tax evasion to a tune of US$5.5 billion. Read the story at:

“World’s Largest Church” Founder Indicted for Fraud by Nigel Thomas

Dr Cho has been invited by PG to officiate the opening and dedication of the Calvary Convention Centre (CCC) on 27 August 2013. 

It is ironical that both pastor-buddies have similar histories. During the height of the Calvary Church crisis, a police report against PG for CBT was lodged by a church member. Fortunately for PG, the case against him was not taken up by the authorities although much evidence was furnished to the police, thanks in part to the political climate and religious sensitivities prevailing at the time.

PG was also investigated for tax evasion during that time. The tax department raided both his office and home. However, PG promptly paid up the taxes and penalties imposed and no further action was taken. 

CCC is finally built ...

CCC is finally built … and the journey of financial slavery begins

Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam (PG)’s dream of a 5,000-seat auditorium to accommodate his 2,500 congregation was finally realised with the completion of the Calvary Convention Centre (CCC) in March this year. But he could have chosen a better time than the recent Easter season to hold the inaugural service at the new venue.

Whilst Easter is a message of hope and salvation and freedom from sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Easter service at CCC on Easter Sunday heralds the beginning of financial slavery for the members of Calvary Church. With an estimated bank debt of at least RM60 million, borrowed to fund the construction of Phase 1 of the CCC costing some RM200 million, the financial burden on the church is simply unimaginable. 

The monthly interest payable on the bank loans at say 7% per annum will amount to a whopping RM350,000 per month or RM4.2 million per year. This is excluding the principal repayment which, over a 10-year repayment period, amounts to RM500,000 per month or RM6.0 million per year. The operating overheads and the building maintenance cost, hitherto not fully divulged to the congregation, will be another killer.

To incur a monthly costs of between RM850,000 to RM1 million per month, just to hold 4 Sunday services there, is just plain illogical. Enslaving an entire congregation to fulfil a pastor’s dream is sinful, to say the least.

From feedback from the members, the call for money is now even louder and is sounded at every service.  How long the members can continue to take it is anyone’s guess.

The completion of the CCC also made it into the local online news, The Malaysian Insider recently. 

Read the article : SEA's Biggest church opens amid rising religious debate in Malaysia

Some of the interesting comments to the above news article are appended below:-

true Malaysia 146p · 2 weeks ago I'm not sure what kind of Christianity this Calvary church is expounding ... The prosperity gospel is still very much alive sadly

lavinesh24 151p · 2 weeks ago This money would have been better spent on the various underprivileged homes in Malaysia which today are in real dire needs of funds. This show of opulence is evident in all religions while funds needed to help our fellow humans is lacking.

Pekan Mari 151p · 2 weeks ago Gosh RM 200 million....I thought Christians were beyond this sought of thing and it was UMNO Muslims who indulged in showcasing giant mosques which are never even 20% full even during Friday prayers. In fact the little mosques in small townships, kampongs are the ones that are regularly utilised. Good luck. BTW have you heard of AFM. That stands for Asset and Facility Management. In short, maintenance. Your battle may have just begun.

bukan_buta 150p · 2 weeks ago Lord Jesus never aspired for any opulence nor extravagance.

What is the use of a RM 200 million building if it fails to deliver Jesus' message of LOVE ??

The brand new RM200 million Calvary Convention Centre, Bukit Jalil taken recently, 

looking dirty and weather-worn.

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.

Is Calvary’s Faith Promise Giving a Sham?

For many years, Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam (PG) has boasted to the world that Calvary Church has given away millions of ringgit to Missions and Evangelism every year.

Twice a year on Faith Promise Sunday in January and July, when new 6-month pledges are solicited from the congregation, PG and the Missions Director will show video clips of the Missions Projects which the Church has supported in the previous 6 months. And as always is the case, PG will also proudly declare to the congregation that due to their overwhelming giving towards their faith promise pledges, there is a surplus over the Missions Budget and that surplus will be channeled to the Church Building Fund.

The members have constantly been led to believe that all their Faith Promise
contributions are given away to support Bible schools, Christian organizations, missionaries and missions work throughout the world and only the surplus funds over the budget are kept by the Church for Calvary’s own building fund.

Before the Calvary saga erupted about 4 years ago with the exposure of financial mismanagement, unethical practices and abuse of power and position in the Church, Calvarites have never doubted PG and his Pastors and Deacons. Now, the members, having been wised up to PG’s true character are beginning to question the utilization of the Faith Promise funds collected from members.

Picking up on several requests from readers, CT decided to investigate this particular topic of discussion going on in the Blog and for this purpose, CT perused through the past years’ Church Annual Reports, Missions Fund Reports and the reports of the Extended Ministries of the Church.

At a glance, the Missions Fund Reports appeared to be in order. All the Faith Promise collections appeared to be properly disbursed and accounted for. It was only when CT started cross referencing and extracting various figures from all the various reports that CT discovered a shocking fact.

And the shocking fact is that from 2008 to 2012, from the total Faith Promise collection each year, less than 10% was given away to external parties. More than 90% of Faith Promise collections was kept internally to finance Calvary’s own ministries, staff payroll and the church building program, which is now, the Calvary Convention Centre (CCC).

For 2011, only
RM228,246 or 6.6% of the total Faith Promise collection of RM3.44 million was distributed to Bible schools and external Missions work.

19.3% were utilized to pay the church staff salaries and church outreach workers,
18.9% was utilized to support the church’s Extended Ministries like AIM, Communication Ministry, Prayer Tower, Calvaryland etc,
7.2% was transferred to Outreach Property Fund,
39.4% transferred to fund the CCC construction and the balance
8.5% retained in the Missions Fund.

Click on the image 1 to view the comparison between the official version and the real version of the utilization of the Faith Promise collections for the years 2008 to 2011.

Click on image 2 to view the Missions Fund’s Statement of Income and Expenditure.

It is fair to conclude that what is presented and declared to the congregation year after year, is nothing but pure misrepresentation of what actually happens to their sacrificial giving in Faith Promise. This act of misrepresentation and misleading the congregation by PG and his Pastors and Deacons is totally unacceptable and despicable.

On the subject of misrepresentation, CT also investigated the issue of the “real” staff costs of all the pastors and employees of Calvary Church. Most members do not realize that the amount of staff costs/stipends stated in the main Church accounts in the Annual Report does not cover the entire staff force of the Church. That amount stated represents the salaries of only the Pastors and some selected church staff. The rest of the church staff and all the outreach workers are paid from the Missions Fund with a handful of staff being paid from the Extended Ministries’ accounts.

This breaking up of staff costs and hiding under separate accounts or funds is again another issue of transparency.

The actual total staff costs of the Church come up to a mind-boggling figure of RM4.5 million for 2011. This represents about 54% of the total Income of the Church from tithes and offerings and donations/income received by the Extended Ministries. The contributions to the church building fund and faith promise are excluded in computing the percentage as both these collections are specific and meant for their respective purposes and are not deemed as income for church operational use.

Click on image 3 to view the breakdown of staff costs.

According to the MISSIONS MANUAL of Calvary Church, it states that,

The Missions Dept was then formed to look into the matter of the administration of missionary funds and the development of a strong missions programme to look into the sending out of missionaries, the accomplishing of greater nation-wide and worldwide expansion in missions and the attaining of greater efficiency in missionary matters in    general.

PURPOSE OF THE MISSIONS FUND

This fund seeks to provide full or partial financial support or sponsorship towards approved missions projects carried out locally or abroad. It also provides a reliable and responsible channel (or vehicle) for which designated offerings may be transmitted.

Has the Missions Department fulfilled its original purpose as stated in the Mission Manual?

Have the funds collected through the Faith Promise Programme been distributed in accordance to the stated Purpose of the Missions Fund?

With another Faith Promise Sunday coming up in July, let us hope that the congregation will be smart and seek God’s wisdom before they put their pen to the Pledge Card. Above all, let us hope that PG and his Pastors and Deacons will respect the intent and faith of the giver and release every ringgit collected through the Faith Promise program to fulfill the purposes of Missions and Evangelism for which the program was originally intended.

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Added on 22 June 2012

In response to queries from some readers concerning the legal status of Calvary Church as a registered body, we post below an audio clip explanation by lawyer Mr KK Wong during an EGM held on 15 August 2008.