WHAT IS BMW?
BMW is a church-planting mission organization that serves independent churches. We are currently working to start reproducing churches in 26 countries around the world.
DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE WORD "CHURCH"
Being a "church-planting mission organization" may seem to be an unusual concept to some because many people have different ideas about what a "church" is.
State Churches - Some people see a church as a large, state-authorized religious organization, such as the Lutheran, Catholic and Anglican Churches. Each of these large churches has many local congregations.
Denominational Churches - Some people understand a church to be a large multi-level religious organization, often known as a "denomination," such as the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCUSA), or the Dutch Reformed Church. These large "churches" also have many local congregations, all of which are free of government involvement.
Local Churches - Some people have a more simple understanding of what a church is. They believe it is a local group of Christians who gather together, organize themselves, chose ordained ministers to lead them and observe worship, prayer, Bible study and the ordinances (sacraments). There is no umbrella organization governing these local churches. There are hundreds of thousands of such local churches all over the world.
Biblical Ministries Worldwide recognizes that there are so-called churches and cultic groups that are based on fear and oppression of misguided people. BMW affirms the tenets of the traditional Protestant faith and the Baptist distinctives and church traditions, and believes in the right of each person to freely choose his or her faith and church affiliation.
UNDERSTANDING MISSION ORGANIZATIONS LIKE BMW
Both the state and denominational churches have their affiliated branch organizations to conduct missionary activities around the world - caring for and educating the poor, leading people to an understanding of the Christian faith, and forming new churches.
Independent churches, by their very nature, are free from outside control and have no single official mission organization. Thus, organizations like Biblical Ministries Worldwide have been developed over the past two centuries to assist thousands of independent churches to send out and fund their missionaries all over the world. BMW is not affiliated with any particular denomination.
Most of BMW's 360 missionaries are supported financially by a network of churches and families who have pledged to regularly support the missionary. These churches and families send funds every month to BMW, which then channels those funds to the missionary overseas. Over the past 200 years, tens of thousands of missionaries have been supported in this way.
BMW undergoes financial audits each year by an independent accounting firm, and has a Board of Directors drawing members from various business and religious professions.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
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