HOUSTON (BP)—Fred Luter Jr., pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, was re-elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Luter, the first African-American SBC president whose historic election in 2012 was viewed as a milestone, won a second term unopposed as messengers delivered a standing ovation.
Mark Croston, pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va., nominated Luter for the office, calling him “the kind of guy we need on the scene.”
Croston recounted Luter’s pastorate of Franklin Avenue Baptist beginning in 1986, when Luter took the helm of the struggling 65-member church and led its growth into a megachurch with thousands of members.
The church “called this young, fiery preacher to be their pastor because he preached boldly and lived holy,” Croston said.
Croston praised Luter as a man of dignity who has led the Southern Baptist Convention with distinction.
“He is the husband of Elizabeth, the father of Chip and Kimberly, the pastor of the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, La.,” Croston said, “and a believer that Jesus Christ still is the way, the truth and the life, and that no man comes to the Father but by him.”
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