The Glory Christian Centre is nothing short of a miracle

Sixteen years ago, an Anglican priest resigned from the Good Samaritan church. He started his own of 50 on the third floor of a rented shop house in Asia City in the heart of Kota Kinabalu. Pastor William Vun did not even have enough money to pay the first month rent of 1,300 ringgit ($394). Today, the Glory Christian Centre (GCC) has 2,000 worshippers, making it the biggest and fastest growing church in Sabah. On June 5, Sabah’s deputy chief minister Peter Pang En Yin opened its new five-storey 14m-ringgit building which houses a state-of-the-art auditorium that seats 2,000.

“This is a very beautiful church,” said Mr Pang, who is also youth and sports minister. “I’m surprised to see how modern it is.” He was lost for words when told that the church was built unaided by the government which gives millions of ringgit to churches every year. The biggest beneficiary of the Sabah government’s generosity is the Roman Catholic diocese.

“If GCC asks, the government will consider its request,” Mr Pang said.

The 11,148-square-metre (120,000-square-foot) auditorium, which has the latest audio-visual, lighting and multi-media equipment, is the envy of many churches.

“We are proud of it,” says James Fung, 61, a church elder.

There are also a conference room for 100 people, a library and multi-media room and four classrooms. Two floors are used as a car park for 100 vehicles. Sunday services are now conducted in the auditorium in English and Mandarin at the same time. Rev Vun, now the GCC’s senior pastor, says his English congregation makes up two-thirds of the 2,000. The old building will be turned into a children’s church.

One reason for the GCC’s phenomenal growth is that it is charismatic, ministering to the spiritual and temporal needs of its congregation. Members tithe, but Rev Vun says they are not forced to give. Nevertheless the GCC, which does not belong to any denomination, extols the virtues of giving.

“Freely you have received, freely give” and “The more you give, the more you receive” are the GCC’s biblical catchphrases.

For 10 years, Rev Vun lived on the charity of his congregation without paying himself a salary.

A month after the GCC opened its doors on January 4, 1994, its congregation doubled; and six months later Rev Vun says he had a divine vision of a new church on a piece of unknown land.

It has been nothing short of a miracle, he says. In October the GCC was offered a piece of land of 1.4 hectares (3.5 acres) in Taman Seputeh, off Jalan Damai, for 1.6m ringgit. But it did not have the money to pay a 10% deposit on it. The congregation came up with the money and the land was bought in August 1995. Construction began in June the following year and the second biggest church, which seats 1,000 after the Sacred Heart Cathedral, opened on October 20 1997.

Rev Vun says his congregation gave freely towards the building. Architects and engineers designed and planned the church and a contractor built it all for free. – Insight Sabah

– With reporting by Jenney Juanis; Pictures by Henry Matakim