How One More Went from 150 People to 8,500 at First Orlando

 First Orlando launched One More across six campuses in Central Florida

One More started at First Orlando as an experiment with 150 people at a campus that was hurting. The campus had been through a difficult season that resulted in a split in the congregation. The people who stayed were grieving, and the leadership team knew they needed to help reset the missional heart of that campus. They wanted something that could refocus people on why the campus existed and the role each of them could play in reaching their community.

Their Activator Team had just come back from the Intentional Churches Conference, where they were introduced to One More. They began to see it as a potential tool for that campus, and in late spring they launched the 30-day experience with about 150 people.

Something shifted. Helping people identify one person in their life who does not yet know Jesus and then pray for them, care for them, and engage them intentionally began to move the conversation. People started talking less about what had happened to them and more about why God had placed them there.

While that campus experience was unfolding, First Orlando was already planning a fall teaching series around the Great Commission. What they saw at that one campus changed the plan. They didn’t just want to preach about the Great Commission. They wanted to give people a practical way to live it.

So they decided to expand One More across the entire church.

But before asking the congregation to do it, they wanted their leadership to go first. Their board and staff were trained and equipped, and in late summer they went through the 30 days together.

This fall, First Orlando launched One More across six campuses in Central Florida alongside their Great Commission teaching series. The devotional, written by Vince Antonucci, Doug Parks, and Bart Rendel as part of the One More Initiative, was available at every campus. First Orlando funded the cost so that every person who wanted a copy could pick one up at no charge.

The rollout extended beyond their campuses. First Orlando also shared the devotional with 190 inmates at a correctional facility they partner with, who experience First Orlando through a weekly video expression with volunteer chaplains.

The response exceeded what they planned for. They started with 5,500 printed copies staged across their campuses and ran through them. By the time the experience was underway, nearly 8,500 copies had been distributed across print and digital.

At each campus, First Orlando created spaces where people could write the name of their One, the person they are praying for and hoping to help know and follow Jesus. Matthew Robinson, Executive Pastor at First Orlando, said those walls have been one of the most powerful parts of the experience. You can walk into a high school where one of their campuses meets, a smaller church building in Ocoee or DeBary, or their founding campus and see name after name representing an actual person someone in the church is praying for.

The 30-day experience is winding down, but First Orlando is already building what comes next. They’re planning a church-wide One More Equipping Event in mid-November, followed by a semester-long experience designed to help people keep developing the practices they started during the devotional.

“Nearly 8,500 books is a fun number to celebrate, but the books were never really the goal,” Matthew said. “The goal is thousands of followers of Jesus waking up every day thinking about one more person God has already placed in their life. We first saw the power of that at a campus that needed to rediscover its missional heart. Now we’re watching it spread across our entire church. If One More becomes a posture instead of just a 30-day initiative, that’s the win for us.”