August 29. Fred Luter Jr. Luter was a young man when he crashed his motorcycle and met the Lord Jesus. He called the crash his “Road to Damascus moment.”
He went on to become a powerful Christian pastor, and he enjoyed success until—on this day in 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded the church and forced the congregation to disperse across the nation.
Seven years later, Luter became the first African American to be elected Southern Baptist Convention President.
Even if we lose everything, God is with us.
Luter sat quietly in his daughter’s Birmingham, Alabama apartment, sipped an iced tea, and stared angrily at the television newscast. Days after Hurricane Katrina had slammed the Gulf Coast, the city he loved—his hometown, New Orleans—was under water.
Begging to be saved, frightened residents stood on rooftops. Others gathered at the convention center, searching for food. Hundreds were dead. Hundreds more were missing.
A string of thoughts swirled through Luter’s head: The city shouldn’t have flooded. People shouldn’t have been stranded. It shouldn’t be this way. Not in 2005. Not in the most powerful nation on the planet. Not in the United States.
Days earlier, Luter and his wife had evacuated from New Orleans to Birmingham, assuming their stay would be short. But New Orleans now was uninhabitable. They couldn’t go back. Their house was flooded. Their neighborhood too. And their beloved church, Franklin Avenue Baptist—which he had built from 65 members in 1986 to more than 7,000 two decades later—had taken on 10 feet of water.
New Orleans had survived the hurricane’s winds, only to succumb to floodwaters when the levees broke. Luter was mad at the Mayor and the Governor and the President. He even was mad at God.
“I looked up to heaven, and I said, ‘God, why don’t you do something? God, this is America. God, this is not right. People need water. People need food.’ For the first time in my life, my faith was literally shaken like it had never been shaken before.”
There were other problems. Most church members—fleeing the destruction and perhaps looking for a fresh start—were spread across the South. Luter had lost his church building, and he had lost his congregation.
But God provided hope.
Pastors throughout the nation phoned and pledged their help in rebuilding. First Baptist, a sister New Orleans church that had escaped damage, invited the 1,000 remaining members of Luter’s church to hold services there. Luter reconnected with church members in other cities—in Baton Rouge and Birmingham and Houston—and began holding church services in those cities, too.
He became a circuit preacher, traveling thousands of miles each month in his Jeep Cherokee to minister to his flock. They hugged and cried and laughed. It was like a family reunion, and Luter was encouraged.
But God wasn’t finished.
Two and a half years after Katrina, Franklin Avenue’s building reopened, with 4,000 joy-filled members and residents in attendance. The dirty water and smelly sludge was gone, replaced with brand-new carpet and tiles. “We’re baaaaaaaaaaack!” an excited Luter shouted.
“For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you” (Isaiah 41:13 NIV).
Are you in a storm? Are you confused by life’s trials? Have you lost everything? Do the little things; do the basic things consistently. “I don’t care what you’re going through,” Luter said, years after Katrina. “He’s walking with you. He’s there all the time.” Even if we lose everything, God is with us.
Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. “Pastor Fred Luter, Jr,” Accessed June 22, 2020. http://www.franklinabc.com/pastor.
Chandler, Diana. “Fred Luter’s trailblazing life rich with trials, blessings.” Baptist Press. Posted June 19, 2012. http://www.bpnews.net/38080/fred-luters-trailblazing-life-rich-with-trials-blessings.
Nobts Chapel. “Facing Life’s Storms—Fred Luter.” YouTube video, 33:06. Published March 24, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZE1yXrYydA&feature=youtu.be.
Baker, Shannon. “Katrina calls Fred Luter to ‘one church in three cities.’” Baptist Press. Posted February 21, 2006. http://www.bpnews.net/22695/katrina-calls-fred-luter-to-one-church-in-3-cities.
Willoughby, Karen L. “In New Orleans, joy abounds as congregation returns home.” Baptist Press. Posted April 7, 2008. http://www.bpnews.n.et/27774/in-new-orleans-joy-abounds-as-congregation-returns-home.
Story read by: Stephen Holcomb
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project Manager: Blake Mattocks
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