Creation Ministries International
Creation Ministries International (CMI) is one of the world's leading Young-Earth creationist organisations, with offices in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. CMI Worldwide is a federating body to which each of the national bodies is a party, but each of the seven branch ministries has its own governing board. The CEO of the parent ministry (Australia) is Dr. Don Batten and the CEO of CMI Worldwide is Gary Bates.
CMI is an overtly Christian ministry that concentrates on encouraging and equipping the Church. It also publishes books, videos, and the popular magazine Creation and the technical Journal of Creation (formerly TJ) through their affiliate publishing house called Creation Book Publishers.[1]
Its statement of faith includes the following:
- The scientific aspects of creation are important, but are secondary in importance to the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Sovereign, Creator, Redeemer and Judge.
- The doctrines of Creator and Creation cannot ultimately be divorced from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.[2]
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Creation Ministries International |
Ministry
- Main article: CMI events
Most outreach ministry is done in churches, with small amounts done in Christian schools and occasionally in universities in conjunction with Christian student organisations. Unusual ministry activities by CMI in Australia include the Creation Bus (now retired) and the Ark Van.
Speakers and writers include Dr Don Batten, Dr Tas Walker, Dr David Catchpoole, and Peter Sparrow based in Australia, Richard Fangrad, Dr. Emil Silvestru, and Dr. Jim Mason based in Canada, Adrian Bates based in New Zealand, Dr Johan Kruger based in South Africa, Philip Bell based in England, and Dr Rob Carter, Dr Jonathan Sarfati, Gary Bates, and Michael Oard based in the United States of America. Many of the speakers have conducted meetings and seminars in other countries also.[4]
Use the contact form to book a speaker.
Darwin film
In 2009, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, CMI released a US$1 million documentary film highlighting the impact of Darwin's views on the world. Titled Darwin: The Voyage that Shook the World, it was "among the biggest documentary film projects undertaken by any faith-funded Christian organization in the world".[5]
Ted Baehr of MovieGuide described it as "one of the best-produced documentaries ever made".[6]
Friends of CMI
CMI operates with the help of volunteer groups, known as "Friends of CMI", mostly located in the Australian state capitals and some major regional centres. These groups assist speakers with setting up and manning resource displays (sales tables), transport, and accommodation, and also conduct ministry themselves, either with a local volunteer speaker or by projecting a DVD.
History
Creation Ministries International began in Australia. Dr. Carl Wieland set up the Creation Science Association in 1977 as the first creationist organization in Australia. In 1980 it joined with the Creation Science Educational Media Services started in the late 1970s by Ken Ham (now president of Answers in Genesis-US) and John Mackay. The new organization was known as the Creation Science Foundation (CSF). CSF adopted the Answers in Genesis (AiG) name around 1996 after Ham co-founded a sister ministry in the USA, where the word "foundation" in the name was problematic.[7]
AiG further expanded to New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa, with each country having a separate autonomous organization, all of which worked closely together.
In early 2006, the U.S. and U.K. ministries "withdrew" from the other AiG ministries while retaining control of the AiG website. The Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, and South African organizations changed their name to Creation Ministries International and started their own website. Around the same time, AiG in the United States announced that they would no longer be distributing Creation Magazine and the technical publication Journal of Creation, replacing them with new publications. Later in the same year, CMI opened offices in the U.K. and U.S. as distribution points for CMI periodicals, though both are now also speaking ministries.[8] A Singapore office was opened in 2007.
In November 2008, CMI Worldwide commenced, as a federating body of which all the national bodies are members.[9] The federation was implemented "to bind all CMI offices together into permanent cooperation towards the same common goal till the Lord returns—regardless of any future developments, or personalities coming and going", to provide "global checks and balances and accountability", and to prevent the situation where an individual or a national board might take a particular national ministry in a different direction from the rest of the ministries.
A more detailed history (including the history of Answers in Genesis, and the reasons for the new structure) is available on the CMI web-site
References
- ↑ Creation Book Publishers Creation Ministries International, Accessed August 6, 2014.
- ↑ What we believe Creation Ministries International
- ↑ http://creation.com/conferences/creation2015/
- ↑ Who we are: the people involved Creation Ministries International
- ↑ CMI's 'Year of Darwin' Documentary, Creation Ministries International.
- ↑ Baehr, Ted, TV Review: The Voyage that Shook the World, 1 May 2000
- ↑ What we are Creation Ministries International
- ↑ Creation Magazine and the Journal of Creation are still available to US and UK subscribers from CMI's US and UK online stores
- ↑ CMI–Worldwide: A new concept, a new era in creation ministry!, Creation Ministries International, 2 December 2008.
Additional Information
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