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This Wednesday
The Upside-Down Welcome
Wednesday, August 26 · 6:00 PM · Sanctuary
The last of our August family nights, and the one the whole month has been building toward.
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The Informer • August 24, 2026
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Church family,
Sunday we were in Ecclesiastes 1:12 through the end of chapter two, where the Teacher runs an experiment on his own life. He tested wisdom first. Then pleasure. Then everything a man can build with money and years. He had more of all three than anybody alive, and he ran each one to the end of what a king could buy. Every time he added up the results he got the same answer. Vapor.
Read chapter two and count the pronouns. In five verses he says for myself four times. Houses for myself. Gardens for myself. Silver and gold for myself. He never names God once while he is doing it.
Then verse 24 turns. He looks at the same life he had written off and sees where it came from. The bread, the work, the years, all of it out of the hand of God and none of it earned. He could not enjoy any of it until he saw that.
Receiving has to be learned.
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“All is gift. God in Christ is actively doing for and in us everything involved in the practice of resurrection. So what is there left for us to do? Receive. That is our primary response if we are to find ourselves no longer lost in the cosmos but at home in it. For the most part, receptivity is a learned response.”
Eugene Peterson
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So take this week as handed to you. The work you have, the people in your house, the rain if it comes. At every meal name one out loud and say why you are thanking God for it. Not thank you for the food. Thank you for the money that bought it when I was not sure there would be any. A man who is receiving quits saying mine.
If you were away Sunday, the whole message is here: watch Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26 on YouTube. Come Sunday for chapter three, when we find out whose hand is on the clock. Wednesday at 6:00 is the last of our August family nights.
In the Peace of Christ,
Pastor Garrison
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Mark Your Calendar
Coming Up at FBC
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New This Fall
The Apprentice Gathering
Begins Sunday, September 6 · 4:00 PM
The home of Roger and Jan Smith
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What We Are Reading
The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith. It is the first of three books Smith calls a curriculum for Christlikeness, built out of years he spent under Dallas Willard and Richard Foster and then tested on his own congregation before it was ever a book. We take one book at a time. This one is about the God Jesus revealed.
Smith’s claim is that we live at the mercy of our stories. What you believe about God runs your life whether the belief is true or not, and most of us are carrying a picture of God we picked up somewhere and never once held up to the light. He says you can predict a person’s spiritual future by knowing what they think about God. The work of this book is trading the false pictures for the one Jesus gave us.
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Why a Class and Not a Book Club
Smith puts his finger on it. The problem is not that we do not want to change, and it is not that we are not trying. The problem is that we are not training. Willpower has never made anybody patient or kind. What changes a person is new thinking, new practices, and honest company, all of it under the work of the Holy Spirit.
I say it most Sundays. A disciple of Jesus is someone willing to rearrange his way of life to follow Jesus’ way of living. This is the room where we do the rearranging, and we do it together.
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What a Night Looks Like
About ninety minutes in a living room. We open with five minutes of silence, which will feel long the first time and which you will come to want. Then we talk. Not a lecture and not me quizzing you on the reading. We go around and tell what happened in the week while we were doing the practice. Class time is discussion, so what you bring is the class.
We also learn Colossians 3:1-17 together over the course of the study, two verses at a time, and say it aloud as a group.
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What It Asks of You
Read the chapter before you come. Do the soul-training exercise that goes with it during the week, things like solitude, silence, prayer, and sleep. Then show up and talk about it. Come planning to be here. A class like this runs on the people who keep showing up.
We meet Sunday afternoons at 4:00 and take the week off whenever the church has a Family Gathering. First night is September 6. Second is September 20.
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How to Get In
There is no sign-up sheet and no cap on the room. Tell Pastor Garrison you are coming, and tell him if you need a book. The church is buying the books. Let him know by Sunday, August 30, so they are here before we start.
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26
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Wednesday, August 26 · 6:00 PM · Sanctuary
Family Worship, The Upside-Down Welcome
The last of our three August family nights, the whole church in one room, every age together. We land in Luke 15 with a father who sees his boy a long way down the road and runs. In God’s kingdom, the Father runs to you. This is the night the whole month has been building toward, and it breaks format on purpose. Bring the family.
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13
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Sunday, September 13 · 5:00 PM · Family Life Center
Family Gathering
The whole church around tables on a Sunday evening. The Apprentice Gathering takes this week off so nobody has to choose.
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19
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Pack Thursday, September 17 · 3:30 PM • Hand Out Saturday, September 19 · 7:30 AM
Food Bank
Our food bank keeps the same rhythm every month, so you can put it on the calendar once and have it for the year. Distribution is the third Saturday at 7:30 in the morning. We pack the Thursday before at 3:30.
Thursday takes an hour and a set of hands. Saturday morning takes more of both, and it goes faster when there are enough of us. No sign-up. Come to either one, or come to both.
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New This Fall
Wednesday Nights Are Back
Begins Wednesday, September 2 · Supper at 6:00 · Classes at 6:15
The whole church in one building on one night. We eat together first, then everybody has somewhere to be.
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| Adult Bible Study |
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, taught by Pastor Garrison |
| Youth Group |
Sixth grade through twelfth |
| Elementary |
Bible study, games, and memory work |
| Young Men’s Group NEW |
First through fifth grade boys, out at the Red Barn. Fire building, knots, tools, Scripture, and men of this church teaching boys how to follow Jesus. |
| PreK |
Stories, songs, and a snack |
| Nursery |
Open all night, so parents can sit down |
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Serving This Sunday • August 30
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| Babies |
Lindsey |
| Toddler |
Jean |
| Pre-K |
Joni |
| Media |
Dillan and Tabbi |
| Flowers |
Dorothy Young, in memory of Benjamin Jennings |
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At a Glance
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| Sundays |
Worship 9:45 AM, Sunday School 11:00 AM |
| Aug 26 |
Family worship, The Upside-Down Welcome, 6:00 PM |
| Aug 30 |
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15, and the deadline to tell Pastor you want a book |
| Sept 2 |
Wednesday nights return in full, supper 6:00, classes 6:15 |
| Sept 6 |
The Apprentice Gathering begins, 4:00 PM, Roger and Jan Smith’s |
| Sept 13 |
Family Gathering, 5:00 PM |
| Sept 17 |
Food bank packing, 3:30 PM |
| Sept 19 |
Food bank distribution, 7:30 AM |
| Sept 20 |
The Apprentice Gathering resumes, 4:00 PM |
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9402 Natchez St, Wisner, LA 71378 • (318) 724-7474
Worship 9:45 AM • Sunday School 11:00 AM
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