- January 14, 2026
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While serving as executive pastor at First Baptist Orlando more than 17 years ago, Tim Grosshans drove to Winter Garden to visit a member of Winter Garden’s First Baptist Church.
As he turned the corner of Dillard and Plant streets and saw the historic Winter Garden’s First Baptist Church, he had a thought.
Dear God, who in his right mind would be on staff at that church with a dome, not even a steeple?
He thought it was one of those churches that just had to be filled with old people, he said.
“The Lord started laughing at me at that point,” Grosshans said.
Little did he know, God had plans for Grosshans.
And those plans were going to come to fruition at Winter Garden’s First Baptist Church.
Grosshans went on to serve as pastor of the Winter Garden church for nearly 17 of his 46 years as a pastor.
Now, he will be a part of Sunday services not as a pastor but as a parishioner.
Grosshans retired with his last service as pastor being Sunday, Jan. 4.
Grosshans grew up dreaming of becoming a medical missionary, so he double-majored in chemistry and biology in college, but God had other plans for him.
“Lord just spoke to my heart and basically let me know He didn’t need a doctor ... He just wanted me,” he said.
He shifted gears and began looking at seminaries.
Thus began his 46 years serving as a pastor throughout the country, including serving in churches in St. James, Joplin and Springfield, Missouri, and North Little Rock, Arkansas.
Before moving to Orlando and while working as a traveling consultant, Grosshans went from attending a church of 12 parishioners to attending a church of 12,000 at First Baptist Orlando.
Grosshans recalled walking up Winter Garden’s First Baptist nearly 17 years ago.
He had seen a similar situation in his consulting work: A church struggling with leadership. Winter Garden’s First Baptist hadn’t had a pastor in three years after asking the previous pastor was asked to leave. The church was neglected.
He remembered as he walked up to the church for the first time as the new pastor, he saw Plexiglas over the stained-glass windows, causing it to look like headlights with fog over them, making it so the stained glass couldn’t be seen.
At that moment, Grosshans knew the church needed to be renovated.
But more than the years of work and dedication to restoring the historic Winter Garden building, Grosshans said the people have been his greatest joy.
“This is the sweetest fellowship I’ve ever been involved in,” he said. “I’ve been involved in several churches, but this one just loved me beyond my deserving it.”
Grosshans’ first service as pastor at Winter Garden’s First Baptist took parishioners by surprise.
He preached about unity and moving forward together. Afterward, he notified his parishioners the parking lot would be re-striped the following day, and he kept his word, going out to the parking lot with two staff members and re-striping the lot. He painted over the parking spot reserved for the pastor; he felt he didn’t deserve a special parking spot. He was one of the many.
From that day on, Grosshans said the parishioners rallied, excited about a new day, a new pastor and what they could accomplish together.
Starting out as the pastor at Winter Garden’s First Baptist, Grosshans said he had to downsize his thinking as he went from having a large staff as the executive pastor at First Baptist Orlando to a small one in Winter Garden.
“I couldn’t just snap my fingers and have all kinds of staff running around, so I had to limit my ambitions to the capacity of the church, but oh how they’ve rallied,” he said.
When Grosshans announced his retirement and parishioners asked him questions.
A teenager came up to him and asked, “Will the next pastor be as funny as you?”
“I said, ‘No, he won’t be. I’m much more funny than the next pastor,’” Grosshans said with a chuckle. “I’m not your typical pastor.”
During his sermons, especially in the beginning of his time at the church, Grosshans used cartoons, videos and pictures to maintain the attention of his parishioners. He’d use illustrations, jokes and quotes as people’s attention spans shortened.
He recalled his eldest son, Josh, was leading the children’s church ministry and talking in the Old Testament about the Hebrews carrying the Ark of the Covenant. The father and son came together to buy supplies from Lowe’s and create a simulated Ark of the Covenant.
To the surprise of the parishioners, in the middle of Grosshans’ sermon during a Sunday service, a little horn was blown and the kids all dressed up busted through the door off the side of the platform where Grosshans stood and the entire children’s church ministry marched through carrying the Ark of the Covenant. Grosshans put his finger down on his notes and after the children finished, he picked up like nothing happened.
By the next week, Grosshans had to clarify with parishioners that he was in on the joke and even helped to make the playful interruption a reality, because some parishioners thought he was upset about the situation.
Throughout his years at the church, Grosshans has seen the demographics of the parish change, going from mostly older folks to seeing more young families attending services. In his first year, he said there wasn’t a young adult class, but now there are multiple.
He also focused on ensuring the music at the church was top-notch, with the worship pastor of the past two years being a four-time Dove Award recipient. Many of the band members are professional musicians and have been with the church for 16 years.
The band has been instrumental to services to the point the church started hosting a Christmas event after Light Up Winter Garden at least six years ago, inviting hundreds of people to listen to a brass section from the church perform outside the church.
No matter how much the church has grown in attendance and membership, Grosshans said it’s the people that makes it special.
He looked in a desk drawer and found a stack at least a foot tall of biographical information sheets of people who have come to Christ and joined the church, he said with a smile.
“That’s the highest calling — to lead people to follow Christ and become students of the word of God,” he said.
It’s with the support of the people that has allowed the church to build numerous ministries and help the church and Foundation Academy in its best and toughest times.
On Grosshans’ first anniversary as pastor at Winter Garden’s First Baptist, the “Love My Church” campaign was launched to remodel the building that had been holding services for now 103 years.
He said the church has done its best to take it back to the 1920s, making the church building look like a classic antique.
More than that, the church has spent millions on projects and ministries while also taking care of its staff with consistent raises and exceeding its budget every year.
The church has built a church in Haiti and helped launch two churches in Atlanta.
Closer to home, two years ago, the church built its preschool building, which Grosshans refers to as the Taj Mahal, because he never thought the church would spend $6 million on a preschool building.
“There’s the story of the Lord taking the fish and loaves and dividing and feeding 5,000, and that’s been our experience,” Grosshans said. “We gather what we consider our meager offerings, and the Lord has just multiplied them. … It’s been a real joy of seeing the Lord work among us to expand the ministry not just in Winter Garden but around the world.”
More important, Grosshans has pride in how friendly his parishioners are and how they made new people feel welcomed and want to return.
Grosshans always made decisions in the best interest of the church and its parishioners — especially when he first came on board and discovered the church was “broker than broke.” He walked into the church his second week and approached the finance team with a new budget, knowing they never could meet the budget in place.
They went from hoping for new staff members to having the funds to make it happen.
The times that kept Grosshans up every night were when Foundation Academy almost went bankrupt. He automatically was on the school board when he became pastor at Winter Garden’s First Baptist Church. Because of his experience consulting with Christian schools, he was asked to serve as the interim president for some time.
He went in thinking the school had a year before bankruptcy, but Grosshans said it already was there, and if the church hadn’t stepped in, the school wouldn’t have made payroll that Christmas.
He said the bank was gracious enough to work with the school. The school and church worked diligently to turn the books around. Three years later, Grosshans said the president of the bank was offering a $10 million loan to the school if they were interested.
“The school was probably my greatest burden,” Grosshans said. “The church, I knew we would come around, but the school, I’d say I aged a lot that year, staying awake at night thinking, ‘Lord, you’ve got to show us the way, because I did not want to see that fail.’”
Now both the church and school are positioned for greatness in the future, Grosshans said.
The decision to retire came after Grosshans considered his age of 70.
“As one old-timer looked at me and said, ‘I look forward to the morning to discover what part of me hurts,’ so Arthur has become part of my life — arthritis,” he joked. “I don’t move as fast, and the church deserves the young energy and enthusiasm and drive a new young pastor will bring.”
He looked at the church reader board standing in the front lawn. It now reads Pastor Jeremy Woods.
“It always felt awkward to me to have my name up there,” he said. “Now it seems funny to see my name’s not up there.”
During his last sermon Sunday, Jan. 4, Grosshans said he wanted to remind his parish of and celebrate the funny and fond memories while looking toward the future. He encouraged everyone to question who they will serve.
“A successful life will only come when we discover opportunity to serve others,” he said.
While his wife, Carol Grosshans, continues to serve as the interim president at Foundation Academy, Grosshans is figuring out his next move in retirement.
He plans to continue to work with the Central Florida Hope Center, a nonprofit offering free resources and support, and enlist more churches of Winter Garden to support the nonprofit’s mission.
In the meantime, he serves as transportation for his grandchildren to get to school, and he will find new ways to be a part of the church.
He said it’ll be awkward at first sitting in a pew instead of standing in front of the parish. His wife and two of his children work at Foundation Academy and his grandchildren attend the school, so they are entrenched in church and school games and activities.
“We’re all in,” he said with a laugh. “I have nowhere to go. They’re stuck with me.”
