My Account
Even after God answered his desperate call for help, Paul Collins thought that becoming a pastor would be the last thing he would ever do. But once he swapped a job as a professional photographer to take on the role of pastor at Orewa Baptist Church, 12 years ago, he never looked back. As he told Terry Moore, a difficult childhood was what prepared him best for serving the community.
When I was in my intermediate and early college years, I had a friend and mentor called Mason, who was from the church. He was in his mid-late 20s and he took me under his wing. I could visit him any time of the day or night and we’d get out our guitars and have a jam session, or go and get ice cream in the middle of the night. He showed me that stuff happens and that it’s how you respond to it that’s important. I look at that difficult chapter of my life and you’d have thought nothing good could come of it, but actually it prepared me for being a pastor. A lot of what I do now is motivated by what Mason showed me.
My mum and dad took us to church as children, and we may have been there physically, but not in any other way. My mum was a Christian, and my dad just went through the motions. One of the things that puts a lot of people off church, even today, is people who are one person at church and another outside. It’s something I feel very strongly about –valuing people who are real, including those who are vulnerable. In my late teens, I suddenly thought that there might be more to that whole ‘church thing’ than just going along to a service. I looked at where my life was heading and realised it wasn’t going anywhere unless I made some changes. I wanted to know if God was real, and I asked that question because I was lost in myself. God answered and became real to me in such a way that it couldn’t be put down to fluke or imagination. And a new door opened.
I was a professional photographer. I worked at a photo shop in Otahuhu restoring historical photos, did camera repairs and later had a wedding photography business in Morrinsville. I did aerial photography using a blimp that I brought in from the States, and I also took photos from my mate’s helicopter. That led on to working for the Australian Consolidated Press, taking photos for eight of their magazines, which often meant taking more than 1000 photos a day. I left that job to go to Bible college – but couldn’t leave photography completely behind. Today, my daughters want to get involved in wedding photography so it’s coming around again. Lynda and I got married in 1993 and moved to Morrinsville. When I proposed she asked me to guarantee that I would never become a pastor, because she didn’t want to be a pastor’s wife. I was leading a church youth group and as it started to grow, the pastor suggested that I go to Bible college. We ended up at the East/West College of Intercultural Studies in Gordonton, near Hamilton for two years. I came out with a Diploma in Mission work – basically how to plant a church from the ground up, but I always planned to return to photography. However, Lynda and I both began to realise that pastoral work was what God had in store for us, and we had a change of heart about it and accepted the role here at Orewa Baptist Church in December, 2002.
Helping others has always been a big thing for me. I grew up in a situation that softened my heart towards people who find themselves in trouble – I care a lot about what they are going through. The commercialisation of Christmas has robbed the intent, which is for people to give to others – that is not about giving material things, but includes things like helping people through a tough time so they know they are not on the journey by themselves. That is what’s important at Christmas – loving each other. When I first became pastor here, I had absolutely no idea what would be required. It soon hit me that it is about getting involved in people’s lives and at first I found that very taxing. A lot of the contact I had with people was very emotional and I took a lot on myself, so I needed to learn how to journey alongside and support someone but not go down with them too. I remember sitting in my office and saying to God that it was just too hard, and since that moment, it changed – I can still empathise but I am now empowered to keep a level head when dealing with death or people in vulnerable situations. It means that I can be a straight thinker on their behalf, which is what people need. My wife had our fourth child two weeks after we moved here, and he’s nearly 12 now. She is a wonderful support and a big part of keeping the family together. I love working with people, but every time I take something on, it is at the expense of something else and you have to be careful that it is not at the expense of the family. It’s a balance that I find quite difficult at times, fulfilling my role as pastor and also roles as a father, husband and son. The community know me now, which can make it tricky at home – there have been times when Lynda needs eggs or milk, and I go out to get them and come home an hour later after helping someone out.
For time out, I play indoor soccer at the Leisure Centre – I’m normally the guy by the goal, gasping for breath! I also like squash, tennis, table tennis – all the racquet sports. You have to think creatively of ways to sit down with someone as ‘a man of the cloth’, so we might play squash and then suck some oxygen and have a talk after that. When we first moved here from South Auckland I saw this area as wealthy, but I found that the need is still here, but under the surface – that was the idea behind the You Can Help project, to help families in need. The church relies quite heavily on trying to do things that actually connect with the community, so they can see that we really care. Converting people to Christianity is part of the gospel and it is important, but to me it is more about loving one another. That opens a door, if you want to pursue that. Getting outside the church walls is vital – we do things like taking gardeners up to the college and primary schools to do some work and tidy up, those kinds of things break down walls. I rub shoulders with a lot of the pastors, vicars and ministers in the area and most are the same at heart. It’s has been nice to come alongside like minded people, and on Facebook and in the community you find people outside the church doing wonderful things – I love working with them. There is no doubt that some people find themselves in strife because of poor choices – up this way there is what I would class as an unhealthy pursuit of the mighty dollar at the expense of people and people’s needs. Some of the homes I visit look very wealthy on the surface, but the people are in such debt in pursuit of an image and they are suffering. We are looking at starting a group called CAP that can help out in those situations, with sorting out their debt. I’m useless when it comes to money and budgeting, so we get experts in to provide free seminars and financial health checks.
In the last five years or so I have taken up my photography again because I am a very creative kind of person and that’s my outlet. I’m doing landscapes, particularly night work, and really enjoying it. I was a diehard traditionalist for a manual camera and film I became a convert to digital cameras after I had to use one once, for a wedding. I realised that it was a pig-headed attitude to reject progress and why make life harder than it has to be? My father was a photographer, so I’ve kept all his old gear as well. He worked at the University of Engineering photographing things like the process of stress testing concrete.
I value the word of God, the Bible, which is my handbook on life, and Jesus as my example. It’s about accepting the way that other people have walked and not judging, but loving them. At the same time there are standards that God expects us to live up to, as to how you live your life. There are some sermons that I’ve prepared and then thought ‘I can’t say that to other people unless I am able to do something about it in my own life’. I hold justice up high, and I believe in hellfire and brimstone, but God also loves every one of us – something I have experienced in a very tangible way in my own life. We all try our best, and sometimes we let people down or fail, but we are forgiven. There is always forgiveness and love.
