Mammoth collection breaks New Creation’s own previous record
MEGACHURCH New Creation has broken its own record by collecting $21 million in donations in just 24 hours, proving again its ability to pull in the big money.
Church founder Joseph Prince announced the news yesterday during services at the church’s Suntec location. The money was collected over one day last week on Sunday.
‘You people, you are amazing,’ he told the packed auditorium. ‘Twenty-one million in 24 hours. Amazing.’
The funds were collected by the independent church to raise money for its new home in Buona Vista.
Last week’s donation drive was the church’s third collection in as many years. About 22,000 people attended services that day.
Mr Prince yesterday did not name any donor, nor did he say what the single biggest donation was.
He did, however, say that all the individual amounts the church received were less than $1 million, and that the children’s ministry pledged about $11,000.
To collect such a large sum in just one day is almost unheard of these days.
Last year, after a whole year of fund-raising activities, the President’s Challenge charity took in about $11 million, with the President’s Star Charity show raising $6 million in three hours.
Even the highly popular Renci charity show, before it became defunct in 2007, took in at most $7 million in one night.
New Creation’s $21 million collection last week, in fact, broke its own record set in 2008, when members gave about $18 million. Last year, some 21,000 members gave $19 million, which the church said was a new record attendance and collection done during a recession.
Like last week, donations in both years were collected over a single day. The money will be used to pay for its new $1 billion building complex in Buona Vista.
In 2007, the church teamed up with mall developer CapitaMalls Asia to build an ‘integrated hub’ that, when completed in 2012, will house not only the church, but also retail and entertainment facilities.
New Creation and CapitaMalls Asia will each foot $500 million, or half the bill.
Altogether, with other donations and its own reserves, the church now has about $250 million set aside for its building fund.
Mr Prince yesterday thanked his followers for their contributions and said he was especially moved because he had told the church earlier to give only if they believed in the cause.
Church members received the news with applause. Several said that they gave to support the church and looked forward to their new home.
Mr Prince also thanked church volunteers and the hired staff who worked through the night last Sunday to count the money.
Five auditors from Deloitte and Touche were present to check the cash counting and recording process; the delivery of the donations to the bank was handled by specialists from security firms Aetos and Certis Cisco.
Recently, New Creation’s leaders have come out to declare its business ventures, which include several childcare centres and Rock Productions, a venue provider.
New Creation’s deacon, Mr Jack Ho, said in June that the church wanted to be more transparent about its business entities in the light of ongoing investigations into alleged misuse of funds at City Harvest, another megachurch.
He added that the church’s ventures were driven by the need to house a growing congregation.
In June, the church posted on its website a fact sheet naming the shareholders of its companies, and the number of shares each person held in trust for the church.
Source : Straits Times – 30 Aug 2010