Canadian Baptist Ministries


Canadian Baptist Ministries or Ministères Baptistes Canadiens is a federation of four regional Baptist denominations in Canada - Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec, Canadian Baptists of Western Canada, the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches and Union d'Églises baptistes francophones du Canada. The federation is a member of the Baptist World Alliance. The headquarter is in Mississauga, Ontario.

History

Canadian Baptist Ministries have their origins in an American mission established in Sackville, New Brunswick in 1763. The Canadian Baptist Foreign Mission Board was organized in 1912. It was renamed 'Canadian Baptist Overseas Missions Board on May 1, 1970. It was renamed again to Canadian Baptist International Ministries in 1990.
Efforts to form a national Baptist body date back to 1900. In 1900, delegates from across Canada met in Winnipeg and formed the National Baptist Convention of Canada. Inexplicably, it never met again. As such, no national coordinating body of Baptists existed in Canada until the Baptist Federation of Canada was organized at Saint John, New Brunswick in 1944. The Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, the Baptist Union of Western Canada, and the United Baptist Convention of the Maritimes initiated the Federation and were joined by l'Union d'Églises Baptistes Françaises au Canada in 1970. It was renamed Canadian Baptist Federation.
Canadian Baptist Ministries was formed in 1995 by the merger of Canadian Baptist International Ministries and the Canadian Baptist Federation.
Since September 2015, the Executive Director of CBM is Rev. Terry Smith.

Statistics

In 2017, the denomination would count 997 churches with 86,749 members.

Implication

CBM support humanitarian projects in Canada and worldwide.
It engages in international mission on behalf of Canadian Baptist churches and brokers national cooperation among the four regional denominations and Women's groups.

Beliefs

CBM churches share orthodox beliefs in common with other Christians, including belief in one triune God, the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ, and the centrality of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection for salvation, plus Baptist distinctives such as believer's baptism. The soteriology of the group could be considered mildly Calvinistic.