David Uth: Loving People One at a Time

Even though David Uth, pastor of First Orlando in Orlando, Florida, has his Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he says the greatest course he ever took was when he became the pastor of a small, rural—and divided—church and learned to love the people he served there.

When Uth took on this pastoral position at age 19, he had no idea that, out of the 21 people he was responsible for shepherding, 10 of them hated the other 11. Then, only six weeks into the job, he got fired.

Uth spoke with one of the church’s deacons, who told him, “You don’t love us.” 

When Uth protested that he did love the congregation, the deacon countered, “All you’ve talked about is, we’ve got this program or we’re going to build this or we’re going to double that. Do you even know our names? Do you even know who we are?” 

Now, as a seasoned pastor looking back on nearly 49 years of ministry, Uth says it doesn’t matter if a pastor is leading a church of 21 or 20,000 (First Orlando is currently just under 10,000). “No matter how big your church, no matter the number, loving people the way Jesus did is about loving people one at a time.”

How did growing up as a pastor’s kid shape your view of being a pastor? Did you always want to be a pastor?

My father’s story was very interesting to me in that he was not a pastor until I was born. Before then he was a gambling addict and an alcoholic in Memphis, Tennessee.

It so impacted me that God could change his life that much. He was a real passionate person, believing that all people were welcome and all people could be reached with the gospel. So that part of him landed and stayed deep within me. But the church world … I wasn’t really excited about it because I saw the underbelly of the church and how [my dad] was treated sometimes. So, really, I didn’t have any desire to be a pastor. I was going to be a veterinarian.

So, how did God call you to be a pastor? And prior to that, how did you become a Christian? 

I became a Christian when I was young, and it was under the influence of my father and the church that he was serving and just the gospel. There was a day where it really became real to me, and I thought, Man, I believe in the Lord Jesus, and I want to follow him the rest of my days

But I didn’t want to be a part of being on staff at a church. Then I was on a mission trip to Junction City, Kansas, and I worked at a city park. There was a lot of drug use there, a lot of prostitutes, all of that. I remember engaging some of the people in the park who were basically drug addicts that had no place to live or go. And I remember having conversations with them and, inside of me, God said, I want you to do this the rest of your life.

And I thought, Am I supposed to work with drug addicts? I mean, is that my calling? And the Lord said, No, I want you to be a part of people’s lives being changed.

So I really felt a calling on that mission trip, but I wasn’t sure exactly how that was going to play out and what that would look like … until my life changed. I wish I could tell you that from there it was straight up and to the right—it wasn’t. I went through a season of rebellion. I got mad at my parents. I got mad at God.

My freshman year of college was not a good year at all. I was playing basketball and got hurt. While I’m in the emergency room in a lot of pain, I was really angry. And I was lying on the bed, just screaming at God: Why did you do this to me?! What do you want with me?!

And I remember hearing him say, I just want to love you. When are you going to quit running from me? And I said, Well, Lord, I can’t run now. You got me. 

That was the beginning of a real life change in me, coming back to what I knew God had called me to do. I was ready to sign up for anything. 

My first job was as a director at a children’s home, to be the activities director at the Arkansas Baptist Home for children. I was 19 years old, and I loved those kids. They changed my life. I did everything: I was the lifeguard, the boxing coach, the basketball coach. But they really had an impact on my life because I knew that’s what my calling was, to be a part of people’s lives and make a difference.

“You find a church that’s growing; I promise you, people feel valued there.”

When I got back to school after that summer, I went to a professor and said, “Hey, I don’t know where an opening is, but I’ll do whatever if there’s a chance to be a part of lives being changed.” 

And he said, “I know there’s a little church that needs somebody to fill in this weekend. Would you be willing to go?” And I said, “Well, sure. I mean, am I supposed to preach a sermon?” Because I don’t think I had ever preached a sermon at that point.

So I went and filled in, and that little church said, “Can you come back next week?” I said, “Well, sure.” And I went back the next week, and they said, “Hey, we’d like to vote on you.” 

And to show you how clueless I was, I asked, “What are you voting for? What, am I running for mayor? I mean, what am I going to do?” And they said, “No, no, we really want you to be our pastor.” And I said I wasn’t ready for that. And they said, “No, but we really like you.” 

That was after two weeks?

Yes, after two weeks. And on the third week, they voted me in as their pastor. I went there, and a part of my story that’s really critical is that six weeks in, a deacon of that church met me at lunch and said, “Hey, one of us is leaving.” 

I asked, “What do you mean?” 

He said, “You’re leaving.” 

“Why?” 

He said, “Because you don’t love us.” 

“Yes, I do.” 

And he goes, “No. All you’ve talked about is, we’ve got this program or we’re going to build this or we’re going to double that. Do you even know our names? Do you even know who we are?” 

I said, “I’m sorry. Would you give me another chance?” I also said, “I want to work for you.” He was a house builder, and I built houses with him for the rest of my time there for three years. I built houses and learned how to love people. 

And I say, even though I have a Ph.D. in New Testament from Southwestern Seminary, the greatest course I ever took was working for him and learning how to love people. It changed my life. A lot of what I am today is because of the influence of my very first church.

How did you overcome your hesitation about, as you put it, the “underbelly of the church” world? 

Often when the Lord’s changed your life and you’re just on fire for him—I went in with a hopeful attitude that, “Well, [ministry’s] not going to be that way for me. Everything’s going to be roses. Everything’s going to be great.” That lasted … let’s see, I got fired six weeks in … so that that was pretty quick.

How did God prepare you early on for challenges you would face later in your ministry? 

If you’ve ever been in a small, rural, country church, there’s a lot of drama, and you don’t realize that drama until you’re there. There were 21 people [at my first church], and what I didn’t know is that 10 of them hated the other 11. It was two families that were rival families in the church. It was a church split, and they were hanging together by a thread. And I thought, I’m going to fix this. So I immediately got immersed in the situation (I didn’t fix it).

I saw God’s grace win over the biggest messes that people had. And I just developed this attitude that, you know what? I don’t really care who you are or where you came from or what you did, God’s grace is bigger. God’s grace is greater. And so, I lived with that attitude and loved ministry after that because I just had a belief that God could change anything.

That’s really encouraging to think about. You’ve served as a pastor for just under 50 years, correct? 

Yes, September will be 49 years.

Given that you have a wealth of experience to draw from, what is one of the most important lessons that God has taught you?

No matter how big your church, no matter the number, loving people the way Jesus did is about loving people one at a time. If you don’t have the ability to really love people one at a time, you never will really connect with the body, with the church, or with people, because you tend to see crowds, not people. So I’ve always tried to discipline myself that when I look out, I don’t want to see a crowd, I want to see a person. 

The story that really helped me from the Scriptures, one of my favorite miracle stories, is the account of the woman in the crowd who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. And Jesus stopped and said, “Who touched me?” And his disciples said, “Lord, there’s a crowd pressing in on you. How can we tell?” And he goes, “Somebody touched me.” 

I know he didn’t ask because he didn’t know who it was. He asked because he wanted them to see her. That story really is the way I have approached ministry in a church of 20,000 members and a church of 21 people.

“When God calls you as a shepherd to minister to his people, you’re going to carry with it the burdens of your people.”

The church is made up of people who need to be loved one at a time. Now you change the way you do that, obviously, the bigger the church. But the mentality is the same. The perspective is the same. And for me, the No. 1 principle of church growth is not the kind of music. It’s not cappuccino in the foyer. It’s not location. People go where they’re loved. People go where they’re loved.

You find a church that’s growing, and I promise you, people feel valued there. They feel loved there. You can have all the other ingredients in place, but if they don’t feel loved, they’re not coming back. There’s no way you’re going to reach anyone. 

Because love is this powerful. It is the presence of Jesus in us and through us. Even in a big church, I walk the aisle slowly. I visit with as many [people] as I can. And somehow there is this sense that, you know, he really cares for us. And that’s just marked my life from the day I got fired.

What are some other examples of loving people one at a time in a larger church?

Making yourself available to people. I’ve always had an open schedule. And my assistant—it pushes her and drives her crazy—but if people want to come see me, then we’re going to have a talk. But you limit it. You limit both the time, and you limit the number, obviously, in a week. 

I think, also, what you’re doing before the sermon matters. I’ve always thought there are two sermons: There’s the one you preach from the platform, but there’s the one you preach before the platform. I think they watch that second one more than they watch the other one. 

If they see a guy who is disconnected, who is distant and really just appears to be better than everybody in the room or appears to be aloof from what’s happening in the room, I don’t know that you’ve gained much of a hearing that day. But when they see you accessible, just walking around, having conversations with people, enjoying people being there, I think that sends a message and is one of the ways that you can do it in a big church. It’s hard to scale, but it does scale.

Is there a way that you also put boundaries around your time? Because it seems that it could be a pitfall and very draining for pastors to be available 24 hours of the day.

Oh, yeah, I’m not available 24 hours a day. The rule of thumb that I’ve used, and I use this with our pastors here on staff, is that when it’s Sunday, we don’t need to be hanging out with one another. We get to see each other all week. When it’s Sunday, we have one chance to hang out with people that we’re caring for and we’re leading and we’re hoping to influence their life toward Jesus. So, let’s find ourselves among those people. 

What I do is pick those moments and those opportunities that I have. It’s not like, “Hey, call anytime you want. Come see me anytime you want.” It’s just trying to work smarter, not harder.

What would be some words of advice that you would offer to young pastors who have just started out in ministry?

I would say that the most important thing is building relationships. The first class I ever had in seminary was taught by a man named W. Oscar Thompson Jr., who wrote a book called Concentric Circles of Concern [with Carolyn Thompson Ritzmann]. He passed away actually in the semester I had him. He was fighting cancer the whole time. But he used to say in almost every class—he taught evangelism—that the most important word in the English language is “relationship.”

Without relationship, you don’t have a hearing. Without relationship, you have no attraction. You have no ability to influence. And though he stated it in very emphatic terms, I do believe relationship is the key because what I’ve noticed is people will follow you if they trust you, if they know you, if there’s a relationship. And I don’t mean you have to be best friends. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about just, relationally, you connect with them and they trust you. That, to me, would be what I would work on more than anything else.

To a young pastor who is starting ministry, it’s great to be able to preach and move people from the platform. And may God give us all that gift every time we speak. But I will tell you what helps enhance that and what helps make that really happen is when they see somebody in the pulpit that they know or they trust or they at least have a sense that he really is a real person. 

Transparency will help you build that relationship. And it’s really one of those things today that’s missing because there’s so much that is out there, whether it’s social media influence or whether it’s some really bad actors in the church world. I think we have to be very careful and very transparent and real, and build those relationships any way we can.

I’d like to come back to that, but before I do, what would your advice be to pastors who are a little further along? Let’s say they’re in the “midday” of their ministries. 

I would always say to them: Don’t ever forget the basics. If I could use a [football] analogy, it’s blocking and tackling. Even though we’re in a different day—we run a lot of cool plays and double reverses and all of the trick plays—don’t forget what got you there. Don’t forget why you are where you are. The hand of God, the Spirit of God on you, has enabled you to connect with people and have influence in their lives. Every once in a while, in mid-ministry, we need to go back to the basics. 

I’ve done that. I’ve been in moments where I thought, I miss people. I had gotten caught in the trap of so many meetings, so many things that I have to do in my office. And I get into that ivory tower, and I kind of get disconnected from people. As someone said, “Shepherds need to smell like sheep.” And I was a shepherd, and I really wasn’t around many sheep. So I had to make adjustments. I’ve seen myself do that many times throughout my 49 years in ministry.

Speaking of transparency, would you be willing to share about any seasons of disappointment or disillusionment you’ve experienced in your pastoral ministry? I’m guessing that’s something a lot of pastors face that can feel quite isolating. 

I’ve gone through moments that, you know, my heart was broken, and it was broken because I knew that we had missed an opportunity to really have impact in our city, or we had said no to something that I really believe God was wanting us to do. And those kinds of moments, they’re very difficult. For me, it’s not that I want to bleed all over everybody in the pulpit, but I do want to be honest and say, “You know, there are times that I struggle with understanding why God would allow that.” 

I think it’s a part of the journey as a pastor: You hurt. In fact, I will tell you this. One day, it really became apparent in my life that I didn’t have a switch that I could flip to make it so that it wouldn’t bother me what people said, [a switch] that would protect me from the negativity and the pushback. And I asked the Lord, Is there any way you could just give me that switch? Just give me the ability to not care about what people say? And he told me, If I did that, you wouldn’t be a shepherd anymore.

In that moment, I came to realize that’s the cost of being a shepherd. That’s a part of the occupational hazard—if you want to call it that. I mean, that’s who we are. When God calls you as a shepherd to minister to his people, you’re going to carry with it the burdens of your people. You’re going to carry their wounds and your own that are often created by them. And I just learned to say, Lord, I’m going to grow through the suffering, because as I look back, those were my greatest years of growth.

Since 2020, it seems like we’ve been talking a lot about how polarized and how divided we are as a society. What advice do you have about leading a church when people are so divided? 

I think that the season of 2020 really affected us. Around here, we call it the “COVID divide.” It was like everybody was divided. Everybody had differing opinions, and nobody trusted anyone. Do we wear masks? Do we not? There were people who said, “If you don’t wear masks, we’re not coming to church.” And then some said, “Well, if you do wear a mask, we’re not coming to church because you don’t trust God.” All of a sudden you found this incredible … not just division over COVID-19, but over everything. And so the trust was eroded. 

I think people lost trust in everybody, in every figure that was in front of them. That’s when I realized we’ve got to work harder to rebuild that trust. And the way I found to rebuild that trust was to get back to what really matters the most: gospel issues, gospel truth. I can’t answer the questions of COVID-19 from a medical perspective. I can’t answer it from a political perspective, because there’s so many sides. But what I can tell you about is I know a story [the gospel] in the Bible that God gave us to give us hope through this season. 

I learned that the more central the gospel becomes in your ministry, the more you can avoid and fly above all of that fighting and all of that division because the gospel transcends it. The gospel transcends all the differences of opinions. For us, this is a very diverse church. We’re very international. There are over 40 languages spoken here. I’ve found that the more we talk about Jesus, the more everybody understands, and the more we talk about our culture, I think that’s where division comes from. So, I’ve tried to stay as gospel-centered as I possibly could and to force myself to focus on that.

What would you say is one of the top challenges the American church is facing right now?

I think relevancy is one of the biggest challenges we face, and unfortunately, we’ve lost some of the relevancy because we deserved it. We made the wrong things the main things, and it’s time to get back to the life-giving mission of the church. And that is the gospel that Jesus gave us, the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit. 

We need to be a church that’s welcoming to everyone. Because the hypocrisy of a church that preaches the love of Jesus and the gospel of Jesus, and then you’re not welcome there if you look a certain way, or if you have a certain sin … that hypocrisy pretty much renders us irrelevant.

While there are many faithful pastors we never hear about, there has been a lot of news lately of church leaders who are not finishing well. How can pastors finish the race well, and what encouragement would you offer to church leaders disheartened by what feels like one hit after another?

One of the early lessons that I had to learn is really about my significance and my identity. So many of us as pastors, we identify with what we do, not who we are. I’m not a preacher; preaching is what I do. I’m a child of God, loved by God, given grace that is greater than my sin. In that calling, my identity is simply to be a follower of Jesus. What I do on Sundays cannot be my identity, because if that’s the case, on good Sundays I’m good and on bad Sundays I’m bad. 

It was hard learning that because I cared what people think, and I wanted the church to do well. I wanted it to grow. I wanted to preach good sermons. I wanted to do all the right things. But at the end of the day, I have to go home and lay my head down at night and have peace that Lord, I know who I am and I am faithful to what you ask me to be, and I’m faithful to what you ask me to do. The results I will trust to you.

“I want to be a part of a church that I would go to when my life was falling apart.”

One of the other issues is we don’t have people in our life to guard us and to speak into us. I am really people-driven, but I’m also people-oriented in that I keep people around me all the time. Outside of my home and my family, I’ll always have somebody with me just because I don’t want to isolate. I don’t want to alienate myself from others. 

Godly counsel is such a key factor today. Whenever I’m really struggling, I have a conversation with somebody, let somebody in my life. I love shared leadership because I think that guards against making decisions that are unwise. It helps that accountability factor. And when I’m walking with other leaders, I’m not the sole one making the decisions, and I’m not the sole one that the church rests upon. The church has a gift in so many wonderful people that God’s using, so I want them in my life. They don’t insulate me, but they help me to stay in a healing place. Does that make sense?

That does. What’s one of your biggest joys from being a pastor? And what are you excited about right now in your ministry?

When I was in seminary, I started teaching New Testament courses, and I noticed something about myself. When I saw somebody “get it” and a light bulb come on—when I saw somebody who, just for the first time, realized how much God loved them and what he had for them—those moments have brought me the greatest joy. 

The best way I know how to describe it … baptisms, to me, are the most demonstrative, empirical evidence that something’s happened. Somebody’s life has changed. I love baptisms, and we make a big deal of them. In fact, when I got to Orlando, I wanted to make baptism a really big deal, so I said, “Why don’t we go baptize at Disney?” 

And [the church leaders] said, “Disney’s not going to let us baptize out there.” 

I said, “Have you ever asked them?” 

So, I asked, and Disney said, “Absolutely.” And I think we baptized 60 people behind [what was then called] the Contemporary Hotel. And they couldn’t have been nicer. 

The only reason I did it is because I want people to learn to celebrate baptism because it is a picture of life change. The greatest joy in my life has been when I see a life changed. That brings me all the joy I ever need.

Is there anything that we haven’t talked about that’s on your heart to say to church leaders?

The thing that comes to mind is we’ve lost the art of disagreeing in a loving and agreeable way. I love an atmosphere where we encourage one another to follow what God is saying to us. Scripture has given us a great plan, but that plan has a lot of elbow room for churches to be the church that they need to be. For example, here in Orlando, how we do church is different than how I did church in Louisiana. It’s two different atmospheres, two different cultures. I believe a church needs to look like the community where it is. 

  We have opened our doors to welcome people of all kinds, I mean, all ethnicities and from wherever in the city. And why is it that, for some, they only know one way of doing church, they only know one way of being a pastor, and they can’t accept a different way to let somebody else be where they believe God wants them to be? And I’m not talking about tolerating what is not Scripture—I am talking about learning to give room to be the church God called you to be in the environment he placed you in.

Could you share any specific examples about how you pastor differently in different communities?

I want to be a church where everyone in [Orlando] feels welcome. Meaning if you’re gay, you’re welcome here. If you’re drug-addicted, you’re welcome here. If you’re three-times divorced, you’re welcome here. If you’re addicted to pornography, you’re welcome here. Because, for me, the starting point is a place where you can come and hear of the life-changing message of Jesus. And if I understand sanctification is the process of becoming more like Christ, that sanctification process begins the day Jesus walks in. So, I want to give people the chance to start that journey and not expect them to act sanctified before they ever begin the process. Because they don’t know the ways of Jesus. They don’t know the call on their life, and they don’t understand what it means to be holy. 

I want to be a part of a church that I would go to when my life was falling apart. I want to be a part of a church that I would feel welcome in when I’m a wreck. And that’s always been my desire and my goal. And thankfully, God has given us that atmosphere here. We’ve been a welcoming church. Unfortunately, for some, that means we’re a target. For some, they want to attack and say that we are condoning. But what I want to say to them is, “No, I just want to follow the example that God gave us when he demonstrated his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

To love somebody is not to condone who they are or what they are. It is simply to love them like Jesus. I want to be a starting point for life change. That means there’s all kinds that may come in. But the beautiful thing is what happens to you when you come: We all end up being a lot more like Jesus. That’s the goal. That’s my prayer.

Jessica Mouser
Jessica Mouser

Jessica Mouser is a content editor at ChurchLeaders.com, where she has written over 1,300 articles and has produced over 150 podcast episodes for The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast.

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