After seven years of hosting inspiring speakers like Heidi Baker and Rev Canon Dr Andrew White, Kingdom Invasion (KI) was supposed to have its final run on March 17-20, 2020. But this has now been cancelled because of precautionary measures for COVID-19.

In an interview with Thir.st, Pastor Lim Lip Yong, Executive Pastor for Cornerstone Community Church (CSCC) and Organiser for KI Conference, explained that the fluidity of the situation made it difficult to confirm an alternative date.

On top of that, the conference speakers were unable to adjust their dates. Hence the decision was made to cancel the conference instead of postponing it. There will be a full refund to all who have signed up and paid for the conference fee. 

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With new cases of COVID-19 being discovered daily, churches as well as Christian conference organisers have had to respond accordingly to an evolving situation. Within its own church, CSCC has also had to implement precautionary measures.

Pastor Lim said: “Other than putting on hold our Children’s Church Toddler’s classes over the weekends and suspending all other non-urgent weekday meetings that consist of more than 50 people, we’ve felt there’s no need to cancel our main worship services.” 

The church will continue to monitor the situation closely and adhere to the recommendations of the authorities. 

Pastor Lim noted that responses to the livestreaming of its two weekend services have been “really good” so far, which have given CSCC much food for thought for an idea that the church already had before COVID-19 – starting an online campus.

“Perhaps this push towards online streaming will give us the impetus to explore this further in the coming months,” he added.

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With regard to the cancellation of KI2020, Pastor Lim shared that some of the alternatives the organising team is looking into include inviting the speakers to come to Singapore over the same week KI was planned for and asking them to speak at Cornerstone Community Church (CSCC) instead. This could then be livestreamed. Another possibility that is being explored is having the speakers record video messages, which would be made available to others.

While all this might seem like a bittersweet ending to KI, Pastor Lim believes that the conference has come to accomplish its original mandate.

“We started Kingdom Invasion in 2012 with a deep sense that God would use the conference to activate churches and believers in the area of the supernatural. We wanted to see believers equipped and stepping out to pray for the sick. 

“Over the years, we’ve seen a heightened awareness and hunger in the Body of Christ for the supernatural, and we do see a lot more churches engaged in releasing their people to heal the sick. So we feel like the original mandate has been accomplished and it’s time to seek God for a new directive.”

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Looking back on the seven years of KI, Pastor Lim shared that he was moved to see how hundreds of missionaries and pastors from around the region felt the conference was a good place to get refreshed and receive divine revelation from God.

Knowing this, the organising team wants to see how they can continue to serve this group of believers.

He said: “At this point, we’ve honestly not decided what could potentially be next for us. We’re not opposed to whatever the methodology might be – be it mass conferences or smaller gatherings. We believe God can use both, and we just want to hear His direction on what the next step is.”