Lighthouse Evangelism

Lighthouse Evangelism (Chinese: 灯塔教会) is a megachurch in Singapore. It is an independent Evangelical church and with doctrines that resemble Charismatic and Pentecostal teachings, and has been known to conduct regular faith healing services.[1]

Lighthouse Evangelism
CountrySingapore
DenominationCharismatic Christianity / Pentecostalism
Websitelighthouse.org.sg
History
Founded16 April 1978 (1978-04-16)
Founder(s)Rony Tan
Clergy
Senior pastor(s)Pacer Tan
A night view of Lighthouse Evangelism Woodlands

History

Lighthouse Evangelism was founded on April 16, 1978. Pastor Rony Tan, with 8 other members commissioned by Jubilee Presbyterian Church conducted their first service at Chip Bee Centre. 24 people were present, most of them came as a result of the nine pioneers' door-to-door evangelism.

The church has two church buildings, also known as healing centres. One is in Tampines and the other is in Woodlands. Lighthouse Evangelism Tampines (LET) was completed in 1992 and the first Sunday Service was conducted on August 9, 1992. At that time, the strength of the church was 700. LET could accommodate approximately 2,000 people in total.

On August 9, 2003, Lighthouse Evangelism Woodlands (LEW) was opened and its inaugural service held. LEW was constructed to accommodate the church's growing congregation as by then, some people had to be turned away from the Sunday morning services in LET despite the fact that additional chairs were laid. The new LEW healing centre cost US$21 million (SGD 35 million) and it could accommodate approximately 4,000 people in total.

In 2005, Lighthouse Evangelism's combined weekly attendance hit the 10,000 mark and as of August 2007, the church had a combined weekly attendance of 12,000. As of 2011, Lighthouse has an average service attendance of 15,000.[2]

The church is currently headed by Pastor Pacer Tan, who succeeded Pastor Rony Tan as the senior pastor of the church in 2018. Pastor Pacer is the son of Pastor Rony.

Controversies

Pastor Rony Tan's Videos

On February 8, 2010, Senior Pastor Rony Tan was called up by the Internal Security Department over video clips posted on the church's website. The video clips showed interviews with two church members who were ex-Buddhists and Pastor Rony Tan's comments in the video clips (including suggestions that Buddhism and Taoism were satanic) were deemed 'highly inappropriate and unacceptable' by the Ministry of Home Affairs as they "trivialised and insulted the beliefs of Buddhists and Taoists". The video clips have been taken down from the church's website and an apology has been issued by Pastor Rony Tan.[3]

References
  1. "Miracle Service Holding Page". Lighthouse Evangelism. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  2. "ronytan.com - Rony Tan - Lighthouse Evangelism". www.ronytan.com. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  3. ""ISD calls up pastor for insensitive comments ", Straits Times". Archived from the original on 12 February 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2012.

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