Luter part of ‘Great Preachers’

The nearly all black Jacksonville State University Gospel Choir had just finished their presentation at First Baptist Church, Weaver, when soloist Barbara Wright rose to sing.
   
Before delivering her a cappella version of “In the Garden,” she implored members of the racially mixed congregation to look at their neighbors to the right and to the left.
“This,” she said, “is the color of the Kingdom.”
   
Her words were echoed by the church’s pastor,  Roger Willmore. In heaven, he pointed out, all barriers will be gone and everyone, without restrictions, will gather around the throne of God.
   
This Nov. 28 service was the fifth annual installment of the church’s “Great Preachers in America Series.” But this one in particular — which featured New Orleans pastor Fred Luter Jr. — was a way to promote racial harmony in the community, said Willmore.
   
Luter’s only pastorate has been Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans. In 1986, he became pastor of the church, once all white with a membership of 400. But the community had become transitional and the church’s membership had dropped to 65 before Luter was asked to lead the church.
   
Nolan Johnston, then director of missions, gave the pastor this directive about Franklin Avenue Baptist: “Bury it or resurrect it.”
   
Fourteen years later, the church has a 6,000-plus membership, three Sunday morning worship services and has sponsored 13 mission churches. In the Louisiana Baptist Convention, Luter became the first black to serve as second vice president and to hold a position on the executive board.
   
In the Southern Baptist Convention, he was elected in 1996 as second vice president and as a trustee for LifeWay Christian Resources.
   
Willmore also pointed out that Luter was involved in the rewrite of The Baptist Faith and Message, which was presented last year during the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, Fla.
   
In Weaver, Luter delivered a message on “How to Revive Dry Bones.” His lively and fast-paced sermon was frequently accented by members of the congregation snapping fingers, echoing his words and lifting hands and by accompaniment from instrumentalists.
   
He said he makes his sermons move along quickly for a purpose.
   
After he asked Jesus to come into his heart, he began a street ministry at noon on Saturdays in his neighborhood, he said. Because the listeners tended not to stick around long, he learned to preach fast.
   
Once he moved into the pulpit of a church, he couldn’t seem to slow down those sermons, he said. And so they tick right along, sometimes including rhythmic cadence, song and dance and an occasional stomp of the foot to emphasize a point.
   
Concentrating on Ezekiel 37, Luter talked of how people sometimes find themselves lacking the joy of the Lord. They still attend church, but they’re only pretending and going through the motions. In other words, they’re dry and lifeless inside, just like those bones in the valley described in Ezekiel 37.
   
“Many of us are like dead men walking,” he said, noting that we can identify with those Israelites. We see revival happening in the souls of others, but not in ourselves.
   
In order for dry bones to live again, he continued, four things have to happen: “Dry bones must realize that they’re dry. No one should have to tell you that you’re miserable, that you’re going through the motions.
   
“It is a realization that it is ‘me’ who stands in need of prayer, not the person to either side in the pew or to the front or the back,” he said.
   
“Dry bones must hear the Word of God.” In Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel was told to prophesy to the bones, even though they had no life in them, Luter noted.
   
“Dry bones must respond to the Word of God.” That means, the hearer must let the Word live in him or her and allow others to see it, he said.
   
“Dry bones must be filled with the Spirit of God.” He paralleled this to the breath of life from God that was sent upon the bones after they had reconnected while Ezekiel preached.
   
“When you’re filled with the Spirit of God, you can’t help but be revived,” Luter said. “When a person has experienced that, he or she cannot live the same, act the same or be the same.”
   
And as the energy in the sanctuary grew to include shouts and swaying in affirmation of Luter’s words, he raised his voice for one final point: “Preacher, can these bones live?” With all the elements of the service coming together in a great crescendo, Luter pumped his arms up and down and yelled: “Yes! Yes! Yes!”