⛪️ The Informer Returns

Home Again

June 22, 2026

Pastor Garrison is back in Wisner and back in the pulpit. This week's letter is below.

Church family,

We are home.

Braiden and the kids and I made the long drive back from Florida, and this Sunday I stood in our pulpit again. I have stood in a lot of pulpits. There is not one I would trade for ours.

It was Father’s Day, and we were in Acts 27. Paul is being taken to Rome by ship, and the ship sails straight into a storm that will not break. They throw the cargo over. Then they throw the ship’s own tackle over. Days pass with no sun and no stars, until every man aboard has given up hope of being saved. And in the dark an angel stands by Paul and tells him not one life will be lost. Two hundred and seventy-six people ride that broken ship all the way down, and every one of them is brought safely to land.

That is where the title came from. Brought Safely Home. The week my own family had been carried back home over a long road, the text did not feel far off. The God who steers ships steers households too.

Before I left, I told you that when I came back I would tell you how the vote went. Here it is.

The Truth and Unity Amendment, Dr. Mohler’s proposal to write into our constitution that the office of pastor and the preaching of God’s Word to the gathered church are reserved for men, passed its first vote. Of around eight thousand messengers, a little more than three out of four voted in favor. I was one of the votes against it. Not because I have any quarrel with what the Baptist Faith and Message teaches about the office of pastor. I hold that gladly. I voted no on the polity. I do not believe our convention should write one more test of cooperation that reaches past our confession and into the autonomy of the local church.

An amendment to the constitution has to pass two years running, and this was only year one. It comes back up next summer in Indianapolis. Only if it passes there too does it become part of the constitution. So this is not settled.

I also brought my own motion to the floor, the one I told you about, asking the seminaries our dollars support to report how many of their students intend to pastor a local church. The motion was referred to the Executive Committee. That is the ordinary road for a motion like mine, and it puts the question in front of the people who can do something with it. I will tell you what comes of it.

What I voted against and what I carried forward come from one conviction. The convention is at its best when it does the work no single church could do alone, training pastors, sending missionaries, showing up after the storm. It is at its worst when it acts like a board set over the churches. I want to push us toward the first.

It is good to be back. Summer is moving right along here. Our Wednesday small group meets at Roger and Jan Smith’s at 6:30. Jessica has the office open every weekday morning. And VBS lands the last week of July. Mark it now, and if you can serve, let us know.

In the Peace of Christ,
Pastor Garrison

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