Kong Hee (Chinese: 康希; pinyin: Kāng Xī; born 23 August 1964) is the founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church.
During his university years, he worked part-time for the Chapel of the Resurrection under the oversight of Anglican vicar, Reverend Dr. Canon James Wong.
In 1989, Kong was a staff evangelist with "Christ For Asia", a missions organisation in the Philippines led by Assemblies of God minister, Reverend Randy Sing.
With the support and encouragement of some senior pastors in the city, Kong decided to relocate back to Singapore and helped set up a new congregation with 20 youths.
[2] On 7 May 1989, City Harvest Church was founded as a department (known as "Ekklesia Ministry") of Bethany Christian Centre (Assemblies of God).
[12] From 1997, Kong was the executive director of the Festival of Praise, an annual event that brought together churches for united prayer and worship.
Kong was a board member of Dr. David Yonggi Cho's Church Growth International (South Korea) and Dr. Luis Bush's Transform World (Indonesia).
[21][22] The police were looking into financial transactions involving the possible falsification of accounts and criminal breach of trust amounting to millions of dollars which dated back a number of years.
[41] On 27 November 2016, it was reported that the Attorney General's Chambers had filed appeals against the sentence issued to Kong Hee and the five other defendants, on the grounds that it was "manifestly inadequate".
[45] In delivering their decision, the judges noted that there was no element of wrongful gain or personal financial benefit, either direct or indirect.
We will ensure that legislation provides for higher penalties for directors and other senior officers who commit criminal breach of trust,” he added.
[55] In March 2010, a blogger identified plagiarism on Kong Hee's Daily Devotionals as they were similar to writings in another publication, The Leadership Bible which had been published ten years prior.
Some years later, due to popular demand overseas, a local publisher compiled and released foreign language translations of the devotional for sale.
[citation needed] Kong Hee posted a note on his website and explained that the devotion was "originally meant only for internal circulation among the members of my church.
[56][57] The publisher, who is also a member of City Harvest Church, acknowledged that at the time of publication, both himself and Mr Kong were aware that certain portions of the content were not original.
[59] Kong was the co-owner of a 5,242 sq ft duplex penthouse located on the 11th floor of The Oceanfront in the premium residential enclave Sentosa Cove.