HENDERSONVILLE, TN, November 18, 2014 — This morning, Pastor David Landrith passed away at his home in Hendersonville, TN.
David was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called colorectal melanoma in March of 2013. Despite several surgeries and clinical trial medicines, the cancer continued to spread through his body, including his lungs and brain.
He is survived by his wife, Jennifer, and their three children: Rachel (25), Sam (20), and Josh (18); his parents, Horace and Shirley Landrith; and his brother, Hal Landrith.
David was born in Klamath Falls, ID, but moved frequently throughout his childhood with his father’s work for the US Forest Service. He became a Christ-follower as a child at First Baptist
Church in Lilburn, GA, but always considered his home church to be First Baptist Church in Cleveland, TN, where he spent his teenage years. It was during this time that he met and began dating Jennifer, who would later become his wife.
A basketball scholarship led him to Belmont College in Nashville, TN, where he majored in History (an ongoing passion throughout his life). Upon feeling God’s calling to vocational ministry, David attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he obtained a Masters in Divinity. David also became a chaplain for both the Army and Air Force, a ministry to
our country that would continue throughout his lifetime.
Despite his original desire to serve as a youth minister, David sensed God’s leading to pastor a church as he finished seminary. This journey led him to Candies Creek Baptist Church near Cleveland, TN, which David described as “the only church that wanted me.†Under his leadership, Candies Creek grew exponentially from a congregation of 60 to nearly 500.
With an unanimous vote in 1997, David continued his ministry by becoming the senior pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, TN, a church of 300 at the time. With David’s powerful teaching and steadfast faithfulness to God’s leading, Long Hollow experienced an unbelievable season of growth and global ministry that continues to this day.
“I’ve never known a pastor so loved by the people he serves,” says Long Hollow Executive Pastor and former college roommate, Lance Taylor. “He had a God-given ability to keep people together. In all the growth and changes through the years, God used him to keep our church moving together in the same direction. In the 16 years I served alongside of David at Long
Hollow, we enjoyed exceptional unity because of his leadership.â€
Church member and close friend Allen Lindsey says of David, “He’s the best natural leader I’ve ever known.â€
During David’s tenure, Long Hollow Baptist Church grew from one to five campuses with weekly attendance reaching as high as 7,500 people and a worldwide impact including orphanages on three continents. In 2013, David’s last full year of ministry, Long Hollow became the first Southern Baptist church in the state of Tennessee to baptize over 1,000 people in one
year.
“He was a pastor everyone could relate to,†says childhood friend and Long Hollow Pastor of Spiritual Development, Jeff Lovingood. “He was also a friend that challenged you to be all that God made you to be.â€
The church will remember David as a humble leader whose only focus was reaching the world with the hope of the Gospel. In the immediate days to come, the Long Hollow family will join together for a time of mourning
and remembrance. Regular Sunday and Wednesday services will continue. At the appropriate time, Long Hollow will proceed with the search process outlined by Pastor David in August of 2014.
Long Hollow Baptist Church, founded in 1977, is an active community of Christ-followers that
gathers weekly in 5 locations around Nashville, TN. More information is available online at
http://longhollow.com.
