Nate McMillan has heard Fred Luter preach on more than one occasion, and has even seen the pastor in action at his home church in New Orleans.
McMillanMcMillan, pastor of Orangeburg’s Petra Community Church, said he has no reservations about Luter serving as the first black president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“He’s a people person,” McMillan said. “He knows how to build bridges. And he’s supportive. He’s a great listener, a very compassionate individual.
“I’ve been to his church. We have a cell phone relationship. We communicate.”
In November 2009, Luter led the Orangeburg-Calhoun Baptist Association’s four-night revival at Cornerstone Community Church. McMillan said the revival was “simply historic. It was absolutely fantastic.”
Luter preached for several years at the Coastal Evangelism Conference in Conway, McMillan said. Also, Luter’s Franklin Avenue Baptist Church is the home church of Lance Wright, who served as the first South Carolina Baptist Convention campus minister at South Carolina State University.
“We didn’t know the connection until after we got Lance” that same year, he said.
How Luter built his church and grew weekly attendance from just a few dozen to several thousand speaks volumes about what kind of leader he is, McMillan said.
McMillan has been a part of the Southern Baptist Convention since 1999, and said he has seen changes in the convention since then.
“I’ve seen more outreach, more sensitivity to other races other than black, white – it’s more people-conscious,” he said. “It’s a great missions organization. They’re about reaching the lost all over the world. It’s more a missions concept, reaching people, getting ready for the coming of the Lord.
“It’s the idea of being able to primarily get the Body of Christ working together. My mission statement has always been ‘Building bridges of communication and relationships to win this generation.’ That was our founding mission statement, and we still operate on that today.”
McMillan “absolutely” feels Luter is the right man to lead the convention forward in its mission to “continue reaching the lost at all costs.”
“I think [Luter’s election] means that we’re headed in the right direction, in terms of winning the world for Jesus. It’s about winning souls for the Lord – that’s really the big picture,” he said. “We’re trying to reach a lost, unchurched generation.
“The objective obviously is to reach people. We’re all a part of the kingdom, and we sometimes miss that whole idea.”
– A version of this story first appeared in The (Orangeburg) Times and Democrat and is reprinted with permission.