Here are some authoritative figures:
SECTION: Saturday Special Report
LENGTH: 1839 words
HEADLINE: Reaping a rich harvest of converts;
Churches and temples find new ways to engage youngstersBYLINE: Li Xueying
BODY:
IN AN office at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, a radio is blaring the song Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini.
A Buddhist chant emanates from a tiny transistor inside a box. Next to it lies an injured kitten.
With pop and paean as their background noise, five young Singaporeans tap away at their laptops and talk at the same time.
They are planning activities to be held in English at locations such as Ngee Ann City. Members get the schedules by SMS or e-mail.
Their mission: Reach out to more young people.
Membership has grown to more than 2,000 since the temple's youth ministry was set up three years ago.
It is part of the Dharma Propagation Division, set up in 1997 to handle community affairs, from publishing books to running the temple's website.
The temple's abbot, the Venerable Kwang Sheng, says: 'These days, the world has changed so much that we cannot just stick to traditional methods.'
The abbot, who is secretary-general of the Singapore Buddhist Federation, adds: 'In an increasingly stressful world, younger people are feeling lost. We can no longer sit there and let them struggle.'
Buddhist temples have responded with slick youth programmes to draw newcomers to the faith.
Some 26 per cent of the convert population here, according to The Straits Times survey, are Buddhist.
They come in second, after Christians, who make up 44 per cent of the converted. Taoism comes in third at 18 per cent.So, are there typical converts? What accounts for the draw of the more popular religions?
National University of Singapore sociologist Alexius Pereira, who studies religiosity here, says converts-to-be are 'unsatisfied with their lives' and their religion and at a loss when it comes to answering life's questions.
'So they go into the free market and start searching and some religions go into the market to start selling their ideas,' he says.
The survey shows that 95 per cent of converts are Chinese. Dr Pereira's explanation: 'Their religion is not tied to ethnicity and it is easier to move about.'
Converts also tend to make the faith switch while young. The median age at which those surveyed converted was 21.
Eight per cent of converts surveyed said their conversions caused a strain in their family relationships.
Buddhists are relatively new among those spreading their faiths.
Christianity has been at the forefront since the early 1980s, notes Professor Eddie Kuo, interim dean of Nanyang Technological University's School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
He led a team commissioned by the government in 1987 to study religious revivalism here. The research went towards the drafting of the 1990 Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act that checks against extremist and intolerant teachings.Few are surprised Christianity is the most popular religion among converts.
'One of the major thrusts of Christianity is evangelism and every Christian is bound to go forth and spread God's message,' says Pastor Kang Ho Soon of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church.
But different churches proselytise differently.
He feels the independent churches have been the most aggressive, a view shared by various religious leaders and academics.
Prof Kuo says: 'The independent churches have been very successful in using modern-day marketing and promotion strategies with pop culture appeal to win over young Singaporeans.'
However, unlike the older, mainstream denominational churches that answer to the central authorities - Catholic churches, for instance, report to their archbishop, who in turn is accountable to the Pope - the independent new churches are self-governed and self-funded.
Many of them are Pentecostal, a 20th-century movement that emphasises speaking in tongues, prophesy and healing, also known as the Charismatic movement.
There are at least 150 independent churches here. But three, often called 'mega-churches', stand out for their remarkable growth since they were set up in the 1980s.
In two decades, City Harvest Church's membership has mushroomed to more than 18,500, New Creation Church at Suntec City has swelled to 12,500 and Faith Community Baptist Church to 10,000.
Many of the converts are from free-thinking, Buddhist, Taoist or non-practising Christian families.The Methodist Church, here since 1885, has 44 churches and more than 31,000 members. The Anglican Church, founded here in 1826, has 18,500 members attending its 26 parishes.
There are an estimated 160,000 Catholics and 30 churches in the archdiocese.Father John-Paul Tan, a Franciscan friar and parish priest of the Church of St Mary of the Angels in Bukit Batok, says that across all Catholic churches here, there are around 2,000 adult and 2,000 child baptisms each year. That means about 4,000 converts annually.
In the past three years, the membership at the City Harvest and New Creation churches alone surged by 5,500 and 4,500 respectively.
The independent churches are known for their ability and fervour in engaging young people.
City Harvest regularly flies in international Christian bands and has an active 'friendship evangelism' network. Its snazzy website lets worshippers watch live webcasts of services and buy items from acoustic guitars to Bibles and wristbands.
It is famous for its pastor Ho Yeow Sun, a popular Mandarin pop singer, who is married to the founder, the Reverend Kong Hee.
New Creation Church has a 'ministry of laughs' that creates humorous videos screened during services, as well as a music ministry with five sets of band instruments.
Church deacon and council secretary Matthew Kang says such elements draw younger people but insists that otherwise, 'we do nothing to recruit members'.
Faith Community Baptist Church has an entertainment ministry that produces movies and Chinese telefilms that soft-sell religion. Its leader Lawrence Khong is also an amateur magician.
He says: 'The package may be different but we ensure that the message remains the same.'
On why youths flock to his church, he says: 'We give them a sense of self-confidence. Here, they are part of a peer group that makes them feel accepted and wanted. We give unconditional love.'
Christian evangelism is nothing new, but the new independent churches stand out for the charisma of their leaders.
'They are very passionate in evangelism and draw people with the same fire,' says Pastor Tan Hock Cheng of the Shekinah Assembly of God Church.
They also reach out in varied ways.
Faith Community Baptist Church founded the non-profit voluntary welfare group Touch Community Services to serve the needy, from low-income families to the disabled. Among other things, its members visit cancer patients.
City Harvest has a ministry to serve the terminally ill and New Creation is setting up a welfare arm too.
The most popular reason for conversion, according to The Straits Times survey, was that 'my family/friend encouraged me to convert' (38 per cent). This is followed by 'my religion gives me purpose and meaning in life' (34 per cent).City Harvest administrator Lin Si Min, 25, reckons that she has brought 20 to 30 non-Christian friends to church in the past six years.
But not all who are invited through such 'friendship evangelism' join.
Recalls NSman Braden Hon, 22: 'Every week without fail, my secondary school friends from City Harvest would invite me to their church to take a look.'
He went, but found the efforts to recruit him 'very aggressive'. He chose to remain a free-thinker.
City Harvest's Rev Kong Hee says it is not as easy to target young people for conversion as some would make it out to be.
'In a small country like Singapore where people highly value religious harmony, it is very hard for 'aggressive evangelism' or 'fanatical faith' to thrive,' he says. 'And it is foolhardy for anyone to even dare to try.'
Faith Community Baptist's Dr Khong concedes there may be 'a few over-enthusiastic young members', but Mr Kang says he is unaware of such criticisms.
Has the growth in these new churches come at the expense of traditional churches?
Leaders of traditional churches say they have seen some worshippers church-hop to newer, fancier churches, but remain optimistic they will come back once they tire of the novelty.
Father Tan, the Catholic priest, says: 'They will return when they outgrow the youth culture and want to search for something deeper and more spiritual.'
Prof Kuo sees a certain danger in the self-governing nature of independent churches. Their new methods, if carried out without much sensitivity, may rub off the wrong way with other groups, he fears.
But leaders of the newer churches maintain they teach their members to be sensitive to other religions even as they evangelise.
Dr Khong points out that Faith Community Baptist is 'extra sensitive to the Muslims because their faith is a very communal one - it is associated with the entire Malay community'.
But others remain wary.
Mr V.R. Nathan, adviser of the Hindu Endowments Board, says: 'The Hindu community is concerned over Hindus being converted out of the religion. Hindus never ever attempt to convert others into the Hindu religion.'
He says community leaders have received feedback that some Christians target Hindus in need, offering them help before inviting them to attend church.
Muslim leaders approached declined to say if fellow Muslims have also been targeted.
Others admit it is Christian evangelical zeal that prompts them to step up their own outreach efforts.
'It woke us up to say, hey, we have not really been teaching people about Buddhism,' says Mrs Angie Monksfield, vice-president of public affairs of the Buddhist Fellowship, set up in 1988 to cater to young, English-educated executives.
Its activities run the gamut from meditation to yoga and high-profile conferences with Western monks as speakers.
In rebranding Buddhism, Mrs Monksfield sees music, drama and the arts as powerful ways to get the message across.
Taoists are fighting hard to keep their followers after census figures showed a sharp slide in the proportion of Taoists here from 30 per cent in 1980 to 8.5 per cent in 2000.
Mr Tan Thiam Lye, chairman of the Taoist Federation, says: 'People think that Taoism is superstition, but it is not. We need to teach people what is the meaning of Taoism and its rituals.'
The federation has just set up a learning centre in Bedok North and is offering scholarships to universities in China to learn about the religion.
Leaders of mainstream churches as well as the Hindu and Muslim faiths have also stepped up ways to retain the younger members of their flocks.
This may be through lively youth services, interesting activities or more appealing music and talks.
Father Tan, the Catholic priest, heads the youth group at his church.
While it aims to engage youngsters, his emphasis is on improving their knowledge of scripture.
'We are not there to entertain the youths,' he says.
Li Xueying is with The Straits Times Political Desk
[email protected]LOAD-DATE: July 15, 2005
