Life
Rev. Fred Luter poised to become first African-American president of the Southern Baptist Convention
As the church grew and began leading the state in baptisms, Luter started to draw notice. In 1995, he was invited to preach at the pastor’s conference held in the two days before the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual business meeting.
James Merritt, who would later become SBC president, had never met Luter or heard him preach when he brought him to the conference on a recommendation from a colleague. Merritt was simply trying to add diversity to the event. He got much more than he had hoped for.
Merritt was on the speaker’s platform facing the audience of 15,000 to 20,000 when Luter began to preach.
“They were electrified,” he said. “You could tell by their body language he had them in the palm of his hand.”
As Luter tells it, that conference put him on the map and he soon started getting invitations to preach all over the country. Some members of his congregation worried he would leave them for a better offer, but Luter has remained devoted to Franklin Avenue.
Many Southern Baptist leaders, when speaking of Luter, mention how respected he is for his determination to stay in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, destroying Franklin Avenue and scattering its members.
Luter said the disaster shook his faith and he didn’t know at first if the church could recover. A photograph from that time shows Luter on a helicopter tour of the city, wiping tears from his eyes as he gazed at the flooded buildings and vans of his church.
