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This Wednesday
Wednesday Nights Are Back
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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The Informer • August 31, 2026
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Church family,
Sunday we sat in Ecclesiastes 3, the poem most of us already know as a song. Pete Seeger pulled those fourteen pairs out of the Bible, and the Byrds took them to number one. At the end Seeger added a line the Teacher never wrote. I swear it’s not too late.
The Teacher’s point is harder than the song. We do not set the times. Birth and death, war and weeping, they keep their own calendar. Verse 11 says God put eternity in the heart and then hid the whole of what he is doing, on purpose. If a mother could see every heartbreak those little feet would walk through, she could never rock that baby tonight.
So take joy in today. Eat. Work. Celebrate even if the table is small this week. Foster called that the Discipline of Celebration, joy practiced in the middle of ordinary blessings.
What God does lasts forever. Our work gets redone. His does not. This week, when the schedule breaks, pray one sentence before you say anything else. Lord, you set this time. Help me accept it.
Come Sunday for Ecclesiastes 3:16 through 4:16. Wednesday at 6:00 the full Wednesday night rhythm returns.
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.
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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 • September 6
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| Babies |
Katie McCarty |
| Toddler |
Connie Cox |
| Pre-K |
Maranda |
| Media |
Ken and Jean |
| Flowers |
Tara Rodgers and Kayla Whatley, in memory of Loyce Head, Mr. and Mrs. Mike Giska Sr., Wardell Head, Mike and Kitty Giska |
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At a Glance
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| Sundays |
Worship 9:45 AM, Sunday School 11:00 AM |
| Sept 2 |
Wednesday nights return in full, supper 6:00, classes 6:15 |
| Sept 6 |
Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:16 in the morning, the Apprentice Gathering begins at 4:00, 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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