What the CBM is for.
The purpose of The Christadelphian Bible Mission or CBM is to preach the word of God to people outside the UK. We visit most countries in the world. The CBM is funded by Christadelphians. This is generally done by ecclesias collecting money on a Sunday and entrusting this collection to the CBM.Mark 16:15 is central to what the CBM do. It says: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”
For a full background, you can look at the CBM website. It says:
"With the help of God, the CBM seeks to:
· preach the gospel throughout the world,
· establish ecclesias (churches) for those who become our brethren and sisters as a result of this preaching,
· continue to support them with pastoral care in their new lives in Christ.
The workforce of the CBM consists of the many brethren and sisters world-wide who help in this work:
· members of correspondence teams who write to those eager to learn,
· people who visit overseas countries to preach and to support local ecclesias,
· people living in countries around the world who organise and carry out preaching,
· people who contribute to the funds for this work.“
As you can see from this, the main work of the CBM is preaching however, there are many welfare elements of CBM work.
Welfare
The CBM website, also says that there are two important elements or principles to Welfare:
The first is that we have responsibilities towards each other, especially the privilege and duty of caring for our members least able to care for themselves: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (1 John 3:17) The second principle is that, however important material support is, it should assist and not overshadow or impair the more important work of spiritual growth: “It would not be right to neglect the word of God in order to wait upon tables.” (Acts 6:2 NIV) Wherever possible we work through local ecclesias, in consultation with the linkman for the area concerned, so that help is given to those who are known by their ecclesias to be unable to care for themselves. Aid is usually given on an emergency rather than an ongoing basis. An ecclesia costs little more than normal everyday living expenses. It really is only a group of believers who meet together regularly to read the Bible together and to break bread and drink wine.
There are a few activities that cost money - preaching person to person is free of course but there are some things that require money to be spent. The overall aim of CBM in Turkey is to engender a spirit of sharing amongst our brothers and sisters and so ideally all costs would be met by local brethren and sisters. However sometimes, this may not be the case, so to give a more detailed view of what the CBM welfare money could be spent on and what it is not spent on, have a look at the following examples:
· Bibles, preaching materials and correspondence courses, translation of preaching material, exhortations,
cost of postage and printing of preaching material: Yes definitely
· Rent for a meeting room, cost of meetings, transport costs: Yes, probably
· Treatment for sickness, help to relieve a general lack of money: It would depend on the situation.
· Employment projects, personal debt, normal house rent: No, not normally.
· Funeral costs, college fees and dowries: No, this is not what CBM money is for.
As a general rule, the CBM (after great experience in these matters), does not aim to raise brethren and sisters above the normal standard of living in their area.
After all, if we did this, we would get others wanting to be baptised for the money. In the end, this would be detrimental for our existing brethren and sisters not beneficial.
