ORLANDO– First Orlando, a multisite, multicultural church in Central Florida, has launched a new shared leadership model in which three senior pastors will share church oversight and collaborative governance.

The three senior pastors and their new leadership roles are: David Uth, who has served as First Orlando senior pastor for 20 years, is now senior shepherding pastor; Danny de Armas, who has served First Orlando since 2008, is now senior executive pastor; and Trey Hildebrant, who has served most recently as pastor of ministries at 12Stone Church, a multisite church in greater Atlanta, is now newly elected senior teaching pastor.

In their new roles, Uth will embody prayer, presence and pastoral leadership; de Armas will steward operations, ministries and organizational leadership, and Hildebrant will provide pulpit leadership, biblical instruction and doctrinal clarity.

Uth stated that he believes the shared leadership model “lines up more appropriately with Scripture,” citing numerous New Testament passages (Acts 13:1, 15:28, 20:17; Titus 1:5 and 1 Peter 5:1-2) in which early church leadership was built around a plurality of leaders rather than a single leader. The shared leadership model, he believes, also complements the giftedness of each leader.

He said he first became acquainted with the idea of shared church pastoral leadership as a doctoral student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

During Uth’s tenure at First Orlando, the church has grown from one location and two services to six locations and 13 services.

“It’s not the same church,” he said. All measurable church health numbers at First Orlando, such as baptisms, attendance and giving, are on an upward trend.

Still, he sensed some kind of leadership realignment was needed, and he wanted to move forward with care and prayer, acknowledging the church’s rich past while preparing the church for a future of continuing to reach individuals with the gospel of Christ.

“This is the Bride of Christ,” he said. “These are the people I love.” He stated he would not want to do anything that would harm the church in any way. “I was thinking about what’s best for the church. What’s best for us, where we are in this city, but also what’s happening in the country?”

 Uth began to explore the possibility of shared pastoral leadership more than three years ago.

“Danny (de Armas) and I began to dream a little bit,” he said, and they discovered a few churches using a shared pastoral leadership model, which First Orlando is describing as a “table of three.” Many corporations, he added, have also moved to a plurality of top leaders sharing responsibilities.

When Uth presented the shared pastoral leadership team model to the church about a year ago, he told the congregation that God was “moving us in a direction of a model that’s going to bring strength and greater possibilities for this church.”

He expected “some pushback because this is not very common among our Baptist churches, but the room was silent,” with only a few good questions, Uth said. Church members were ready to move forward and seemed pleased that the new leadership model meant that both Uth and de Armas would continue to serve the church they both loved.

Such shared pastoral leadership in a church, he said, provides accountability and stability.

A team was established to begin the search for a new teaching pastor, and Hildebrant became the unanimous decision of the search team.

Hildebrant, a third-generation pastor with rich Southern Baptist roots, joined Uth and de Armas for a short presentation to the church on Sunday, Nov. 9.

As the three sat around a table and spoke, Uth said that the shared leadership model is an answer to his prayer that First Orlando would be the “biggest small church” that anyone would ever come to. His prayer is that those who walk through the doors of First Orlando would find a “family. That’s what we want for the city of Orlando and beyond.”

De Armas added that as word about the leadership transition and Hildebrant’s election as senior teaching pastor has begun circulating, “The excitement about us doing what we believe God is leading us to do is really strong, and we believe this is a beautiful way forward.”

Hildebrant affirmed, “I could say this over and over again, but thank you to both of you because certainly your years of leadership and care and discipleship and shepherding have helped get First Orlando where it is today, and I feel unbelievably honored to step in and be a part of that and to lead alongside both of you. It isn’t what ‘was,’ it’s what we continue to do together.”

He added, “I love to preach the gospel. I want all of Orlando to hear the gospel.”

Uth continued that, as he walked into his office on Nov. 9, he read Psalm 139:15-16, which states that a person’s days are ordained by the Lord. The Lord knew this day was coming for First Orlando, he said. “This is the day the Lord has made, and we are going to rejoice and be glad in it, and welcome our new senior teaching pastor, Trey Hildebrant,” he said as the congregation applauded.

Minutes later, Hildebrant stepped up to preach his first sermon at First Orlando. He read 1 Thessalonians 2 and shared his core convictions, which he described as promises to the church: “I will preach for God first. I will give this work all I’ve got. I will honor you by how I live, in public and in private. I will care for you.”

He continued, “We are going to preach the gospel of Jesus here so clearly and so compelling that one day we are going to stand before God and thousands and thousands of people will be standing there with us. We will be soul-winners.”

Because Hildebrant is in his mid-thirties, Uth acknowledged that he and de Armas would help mentor the young senior teaching pastor. When Uth first accepted the call to First Orlando 20 years ago, then-senior pastor Jim Henry continued to serve the church for nine months as he helped Uth get settled into his new role. He remains grateful for Henry guiding him during that time of transition.

“We’re going to be able to really help Trey, build him up, resource him and build around him everything he needs to succeed,” Uth said.

As the younger generation is becoming more open to the gospel, Uth is pleased that Hildebrant is a young man who understands the world and culture of young adults and can speak gospel truth in that context.

“I think he’s the perfect one,” Uth said.

For Uth, the change is real as he will not be preaching each Sunday, which has been his role, he said, for the past 49 years. With the transition, he said he is looking forward to becoming “better acquainted with our church” that he has pastored for 20 years. “What an incredible people they are,” he said.

The most common question that Uth says he has received about the new leadership model is: “What happens if the three leaders disagree?” For Uth, “That was never even a question. I’ve done collaborative leadership all my life.”

If someone asks, “Who is the pastor?” Uth answers, “There are three of us, but really the top is the Lord Himself.”