Designate 100 percent of giving to missions, minister tells convocation By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Friday, July 21, 2006 TULSA -- A minister urged more than 600 people at the second New Wineskins Convocation to designate "100 percent" of their mission giving to "projects that demonstrate Biblical faithfulness." Carmen Fowler, associate pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church, told the audience that, "If you are not already designating 100 percent of your mission giving to projects that demonstrate Biblical faithfulness, confess a Biblical faith and see how that dictates your mission giving and your mission participating." "We need to be designating starting today" to build up missions in the world, she said. "We cannot depend on other people to do it the right way for us. It's time that we participate in what God is doing in our midst." In her sermon, Fowler repeatedly spoke about missional faithfulness throughout the world. "What God wants us to hear today is that he is doing a new thing in his world church," she said. "What we happen to be experiencing in the North American Protestant mainline Presbyterian churches is this massive realignment. "If there had never been a PUP report, an authoritative interpretation, an amendment, we would still be here today having the conversation we're having because a confessional, Biblical theology demands a missional faithfulness," she said. "If we are to participate in the worldwide church, we have to be having these conversations." Referring to Ephesians 4:1-13, Fowler said that Christians need to be "a prisoner for the Lord." "We are talking about world Christianity, not false ecumenism," she said. "We are talking about the worldwide movement of Jesus Christ and the power of the spirit moving in the world, when the Spirit is moving in a fresh and new and exciting way in the world." Citing her text in commenting on the General Assembly in Birmingham receiving a report on the Trinity, Fowler said that, "There is one head of the church. His name is Jesus. He does not go by nicknames." "God revealed a name to us. It is not for us to choose him a nickname. God has revealed that he is the father, coming to us in the Son, empowered by the Holy Spirit. End of conversation." She said that things have changed in the Presbyterian Church. "What we are experiencing in the North American mainline Protestant Presbyterian churches is reflective of what is going on around the world. There is a global realignment, a global reformation of the church of Jesus Christ. We happen to be experiencing one aspect of that." "This is not about leaving," Fowler said. "This is about getting on board with what God is doing in the world. There is an ever-morphing map where we see God actively working, and we can see how we might participate in that." She said that, "I believe that this is the season of our humiliation. Humiliation is the process of being humble. We were privileged for 100 years to be on the very forefront of the evangelical mission effort in the world. That was a privileged position. We forsook our privilege. We became distracted by lesser gods. We became enamored with ourselves. And we began to fail to accomplish the mission of Jesus Christ by going and making disciples in our own congregations and across the borders." "When we began to fail, God began to lift up others. It is up to Christ to give whatever gifts in whatever seasons for the equipping of God's people for the work of ministry."

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