The idea for this volume on Pentecostal megachurches in Southeast Asia began to form in 2015 after I had completed several papers on megachurches in Singapore. There were several recurring themes in the Singapore cases which I found interesting. The congregations of Singapore megachurches were generally youthful and infused with energy and idealism. They had an optimistic worldview that stood out from the well-worn apathy typical of today's youth. I also found a strong and mutually reinforcing link between the spiritual and material world. This link, often manifested as the Prosperity Gospels, has drawn much criticism from other Christians. However, deeper ethnographic effort will suggest that this link is more than material accumulation for personal satisfaction. Instead material accumulation is, it is believed, a tangible measure of one's obedience to God; less of a reward but a by-product of faithfulness. Meanwhile, their deep engagement with contemporary culture has resulted in an inclusive outlook that is experimental, playful, and always open to the possibility of imputing secular events and actions with theological meaning in order to get God's message across to non-believers. This has also meant that their Christian identity is often writ large in the workplace. Finally, the expansionist visions of their leaders often come through. The drive for souls was always going to be a numbers game but megachurch leaders are less hampered by the modesty or conservatism of their mainline counterparts. Such visions go beyond filling up auditoriums but include aggressive church-planting in neighbouring countries such that local megachurches enjoy a second wing in the region.

All these findings not only distinguish newer Pentecostal churches from older mainline denominations, but also demonstrate an ability to participate in mass consumption, pop culture and modernity like no other church. The fact that Pentecostalism is one of the fastest growing communities in Singapore suggests that these trends would only continue. As I dwelt on these findings, it became apparent that they needed to be set against the broader region.

Introduction

With 87 per cent of its 238 million of its citizens claiming to be adherents of Islam, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. Surprisingly, this country is also one of the Southeast Asian nations experiencing fast growth in Christianity. Between 1971 and 2005, Indonesian Censuses reported that Christians, including both Protestants and Catholics, consistently represented between 7 and 8 per cent of the population. Scholars have argued that this figure was an understatement because the Indonesian government had a tendency to downplay the number of Christians to limit the perception among Muslims that they were faced with menacing Christianization.

The 2010 census showed that Protestants represented around 7 per cent and the Catholics comprised nearly 3 per cent of the population. This was a significant 2 to 3 per cent increase from previously reported figures. Due to the sensitive nature of such statistics, some argue that these 2010 figures might also have been underreported; the real number of Christians in Indonesia could have been much higher. Several senior Pentecostal leaders have claimed that around 20 and 5 per cent of Indonesia's population were Protestants and Catholics, respectively. Although these figures cannot be verified, they point to Christianity's undeniable exponential growth in Indonesia.

The rise of Christianity in Indonesia in recent decades can be mainly attributed to the Pentecostal and Charismatic megachurches that found fertile ground among the urban middle class. Although Indonesia was introduced to Pentecostalism from as early as 1921 by Western missionaries, rapid growth occurred only after the 1960s, at the arrival of the Charismatic, also known as the Neo-Pentecostal, movement, from the United States.

The oldest and at one time the largest Pentecostal denomination in Indonesia is the Pentecostal Church in Indonesia, or Gereja Pentekosta di Indonesia (GPdI). GPdI has recently declined in numbers due to various reasons, even though many of the rising Pentecostal denominations originated from GPdI and only became independent because of schisms. GdPI has experienced dozens of splits since the 1930s, and this has in turn brought into existence at least a hundred new Pentecostal churches. Reasons for these schisms include doctrinal disagreements, financial disputes, competition for growth among congregations, and personality clashes among leaders.

Introduction

In 2013, the Jesus Is Lord (JIL) movement celebrated its 35th anniversary at the open-air grounds of the Luneta Grandstand in Manila with an estimated 20,000 in attendance. The event adopted the theme “Revolution of Righteousness”, which organizers have explained in two ways. The revolution was a spiritual transformation people underwent for salvation. This idea cannot be detached from JIL's Evangelical ethos. But also, this idea has implications on the way JIL views Philippine society.

Brother Eddie Villanueva, founder and senior pastor of JIL, announced at the anniversary, “the triumph of justice and righteousness must prevail, because, the Bible says, justice and righteousness are the foundations of God's throne.” The anniversary's theme neatly defined JIL and its social location as an evangelical church in contemporary Philippines. It clearly repackaged itself as a force to be reckoned with in Philippine society; it has come a long way from its beginnings as a simple charismatic church in the 1970s to a religious entity with political leverage and ambitions today.

JIL was born in 1978 when Brother Eddie Villanueva felt called by God to establish an independent church. JIL began as a series of Bible study sessions at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP). Brother Eddie, as he is popularly known, lectured economics at PUP.

JIL's establishment marked the rise of non-denominational charismatic churches distinct from institutionalized Pentecostal groups like the Assemblies of God, the Church of God, and the Church of the Foursquare Gospel. These groups arrived in the Philippines during the American occupation in the first half of the twentieth century. JIL has more recently been described as one of the biggest independent megachurches in the Philippines and one of the fastest growing churches in the world. It claimed to have four million members in the Philippines and in 55 other countries. To signify its global presence, the church renamed itself JIL Worldwide.

Apart from congregations in local neighbourhoods across the country, JIL also holds at least nine main services in three different locations in Metro Manila and Bulacan province, its national headquarters. Locally and internationally, most JIL members are working class. The majority of JIL's local congregations are in urban and rural poor communities. Globally, JIL has formed international chapters in places where Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), especially domestic helpers, have found work.

Introduction

There are many misconceptions over Pentecostal megachurches in the Philippines. They are often perceived as advocates of the prosperity theology and thus motivated by financial gain while their charismatic leaders are viewed by the popular media as individuals with a messiah complex because of the strong leadership demonstrate over their congregations and prominent role they play in the society. This chapter explores the growth of Pentecostal megachurches in the Philippines and their innovative indigenization of the Christian faith as well as the influence of their Western counterparts. It begins with a review of the contemporary scholarship which has informed in the field and proceeds to identify the major Pentecostal megachurches which have been at the forefront of reinventing Christian witness in the Philippine society. It will offer two case studies of Pentecostal megachurches to examine their historical development, links to the poor and the middle class, networks, locations in the political landscape, doctrine of prosperity, and the form of their social and civic engagement. In doing so, this chapter seeks to answer the following questions: How have Pentecostal megachurches developed and what attracts the masses to attend them? What form of civic engagement do they play in indigenizing gospel messages in the Philippine society?

Survey of Scholarship of Megachurches

Studies by Grant McClung in the 1980s reveal that even before the emergence of the Church Growth Movement in the 1960s there had been academic observers who had noted that Pentecostal church growth was already a phenomenon. Later, Donald McGarvan and Peter Wagner, two leading Pentecostal academics, concluded from their investigations that Pentecostal megachurches were emerging because evangelism and mission were central to the ministry of Pentecostals.2 Donald Miller, who conducted qualitative research on three megachurches in the United States observed that megachurches were the “new paradigm” of the Christian movement which was connected to the spirituality of first century Christians. However, while attempting to bring Christianity to the twenty-first century masses, these Pentecostal megachurch-goers were disconnecting themselves from traditional forms of Christianity while providing a contemporary meaning to Christian witnessing in society.

INTRODUCTION

Batam's economic growth has been nothing short of spectacular. In the 1990s, it experienced an investment boom fuelled by investments from Singapore. This lasted for two decades and transformed the economy and landscape of what was an outpost into a place with a major industrial city of over 1 million inhabitants.

This impressive pace of development has often been accompanied by a marked degradation of the natural environment. Mangrove areas have rapidly disappeared, floods have occurred around the city because of erosion caused by land clearing; illegal squatter settlements have intruded into protected forests, and toxic substances from the offshore cleaning of ships have affected the quality of Batam's coastal waters.

But all is not lost. Economic and environmental imperatives can be reconciled if Batam's development trajectory takes into account the impact of economic growth on the environment. Sustainable development is not impossible.

Negative environmental impacts have to be controlled by regulations and by proper enforcement. The institutional framework (regulations and property rights) plays a central role to ensure that negative environmental impacts are accounted for and minimized. Problems generally arise from either an absence of regulations or property rights to regulate the environment or from the absence or lack of enforcement by the relevant authorities.

The Riau Islands Province (PRI) is made up of five rural regencies (kabupaten) and two cities or urban municipalities (kota). Batam and Tanjung Pinang are the two cities within PRI, while Bintan, Karimun, Lingga, Anambas and Natuna form the five regencies. Batam Island's land area totals 415 km2 (41,500 hectares).

This paper will examine the various manifestations and causes of environmental degradation against the backdrop of economic transformation, population growth and enforcement (or lack thereof). It also provides a comprehensive update where possible of the present state of environmental affairs in the municipality, and the challenges involved in maintaining the carrying capacity of the environment to cope with development.

Following a discussion of the methodology used in this study, the next section will examine the impact of government policies on economic transformation, and of migration on population growth. Regulations and enforcement measures are then discussed in general, followed by an examination of Batam's environmental management challenges across many fronts.

Introduction

Among the major religions in Singapore, Christianity has been the fastest growing faith in the last three decades. The percentage of the resident population aged 15 years and older — inclusive of citizens and permanent residents numbering around 3.12 million people — that professed to be Christians, increased from 10.1 per cent in 1980 to 18.3 per cent in 2010. The converts were overwhelmingly of Chinese ethnicity. Buddhism and Taoism, the main religious affiliations of the majority Chinese population in Singapore, have registered a decline from 57.0 to 44.2 per cent in the same period. Christianization trumps secularization, as those professing “no religion” increased from 14.1 to 17.0 per cent in the same period. The two trends compete for the same demographic group, namely, young adults with higher educational qualifications.

The fastest growth sector within Singapore Christianity is independent, non-denominational Pentecostalism. The four megachurches that belong to this sector have attendance numbers estimated to be above 10,000. They are City Harvest Church (20,000), Faith Community Baptist Church (10,000), Lighthouse Evangelism (15,000), and New Creation Church (30,000). All four churches were founded in the 1980s, at a time when Christianity in Singapore was experiencing a crisis of relevance; socially engaged liberal Christianity withdrew from the public sphere due to political crackdowns and the inability of conservative Christianity to fill the gap. Most of the founding pastors of these churches left their denominational churches, seeking to carve their own way with the interpretation of scriptures and adaptation of charismatic worship practices to the Singaporean context.

Megachurches have been successful in drawing young converts largely because of the preaching of contextual theologies relevant to the aspirations of the middle classes, as well as the adaptation of church practices to the urban consumerism and political conservatism brought on by the developmental state's programme of directed capitalist transformation of society. Their years of rapid growth, from the 1990s to the 2000s, coincided with the coming-of-age of a postcolonial generation of Singaporeans in a highly urbanized social and economic setting shaped by rapid modernization and change due to globalization.

The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The Trends in Southeast Asia series acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policymakers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

TheTrends in Southeast Asia series acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policymakers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

Introduction

Senior Pastor Lawrence Khong, head of Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC), one of the biggest charismatic megachurches in Singapore, is a tad nervous. The 2014 Shanghai tour of his magic show VISION, part David Copperfield and part Cirque du Soleil complete with dancing girls and disappearing sports cars, is not selling as well as it should. Khong urges his congregation back home in Singapore, through a video clip on Facebook, to pray for the show's success. Together with his daughter Priscilla, Khong also runs Gateway Entertainment, the production company that funds and creates his magic shows. Meanwhile, Sun Ho, wife of Kong Hee, the senior pastor of City Harvest Church (CHC), can be found singing about “killing Bill” — her philandering partner — in a music video produced by American artist Wyclef Jean. In another dance-friendly music video replete with cultural misalignments, Ho is scantily dressed like a geisha but singing about “China Wine”. “The creation of a persona is part and parcel of the music and movie industry”, the church takes pains to explain. “Some artists switch personas from film to film or from album to album. Ho herself went from the “geisha” persona in “China Wine” to a new one in her latest music video “Fancy Free”.

The intertwining of Christianity and capitalism is, of course, not new. Weber traced the origins of the Protestant work ethic to the importance that Calvinists placed on worldly success, as they grappled with the thorny issue of predestination. Miller and Yamamori highlighted the “practical” side of the “Prosperity Gospels”, in how Christian entrepreneurs are encouraged and groomed to give back to the church. Others like Ellingson and Sargeant, observing concertlike sermons and marketing strategies, noted how Christianity has been remarkably adaptable to capitalist and consumerist impulses. This adaptive character should come as no surprise because Christianity, particularly its Pentecostal strand, has long demonstrated the dual ability to be transnational in crossing cultural boundaries while indigenizing itself with local traditions and practices. This has ensured the retention of a broad global identity coupled with deep local relevance, and has contributed to the relative speed and ease with which Pentecostalism has spread across the globe, particularly Asia.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY