Bio from Our Pastor

My name is Michael Luty, I was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, “Go Packers”!  Growing up for me was actually pretty good, I had a pretty good background and had and still have a great supportive family as well.  Baseball was my one and only passion growing up and it was what I loved to do and I knew that I was good at it.  But we have heard it said that when you let God take control he will soon let you know His plans for your life.  I gave my heart and life to Jesus when I was 10 years old at a preteen church camp in Spencer Lake, Wisconsin and this is where my Journey with God begins.  I was always very active in church growing up, was a part of Royal Rangers program which was for all the young men in the church, a Christian version of Boy Scouts.  When I aged out of that I entered the youth program at our church and this is where God called me to ministry.  At the age of 15 year old, through a youth choir trip God used the local pastor at that time where we were to speak into my life about God calling to me to be a Pastor.  At first I really didn’t want to do this but soon thereafter I began to feel the pull on my heart to follow God’s will for my life.  Then and there I made the decision to lay down my passion and desire to play baseball professionally and give my life to the calling that God placed on my heart.  As I graduated high school in 2003 God opened doors for me to attend Brownsville Revival School of Ministry at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida.  There I was able to accomplish my goal and graduate with my associates degree in Pastoral Ministry in 2005.  There was a time in my life soon after I graduated that I questioned God’s plan for my life. As I returned home from college I began sending out resumes to churches looking for Youth Pastors and I would never get any responses.  I would soon begin to question God and his plan wondering why he would allow me to get this far and not complete the task.  After several months of no responses I remember one night telling God that if he did not speak to me through the word I would quit everything about the ministry and just accept it for what it was.  That evening I clearly remember opening to Isaiah 41:9-10;13 which says, “I have called you back from the ends of the earth, saying, ‘You are my servant.’  For I have chosen you and will not throw you away.  Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.  Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you.  I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.  For I hold you by your right hand I, the Lord your God.  And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid.  I am here to help you.”  God does and will speak through his word in order for us to know what he is trying to tell us and to remind us that what he says he will do.  Soon after this God opened a door for me to come to Louisiana, the school that I graduated from closed their doors in Florida and was moving to central Louisiana.  I received a phone call from the President of the school at the time to not only help with the transition but to also intern with the new school in 2006 and little did I know that God was paving the way.  One year later I would find myself in Deville, Louisiana as the new Youth Pastor at Open Door Community Church in 2007.  I would not only embark on this new journey here but I would also marry the love of my life, Ericka Luty in 2012 and several years later adopt two beautiful twins, Jeremiah and Juliette.  During the last two years of our time as Youth Pastors, Ericka and I began to feel the pull on our hearts to become pastors, not knowing where but we knew that God was preparing us.  When we stepped down as youth pastor God would not allow us to leave ODCC, we stayed plugged in and would soon become associate Pastors of ODCC.  Have you ever heard the statement, “God knows what he is doing!”?  Well this was true for us.  Unfortunately our Pastor at the time, Pastor Steve Scull, would become sick with cancer, though he did fight the good fight he would succumb to the cancer.  Our  hearts were heavy because not only was he our Pastor, he was also family and Ericka's uncle.  Not knowing what to do after his passing the only thing we knew to do was to pray.  God allowed us to step into the role as interim Pastor and soon after to Pastor.  With this said, we must remember that our ways are not his ways, we never know what God has in store or why certain things have to happen but what we can rest in this, that God’s plans are perfect and will never lead us astray.  So as Ericka and I begin this new journey as Pastors of ODCC we ask that you pray with us and for us to see all that God has for ODCC.  We long for the perfect will of God and all that he has to offer for us as a family and church.