From Police Officer to Church Planter

When Dave Collins heard he had to guard a known criminal with the word “cop killer” tattooed on his forehead, he was deeply angry. Hours before, several of Dave’s friends and coworkers in law enforcement confronted the man and a shootout ensued. The suspect fired several rounds at the police officers and they returned fire, hitting the man. Still alive but severely wounded, he was rushed to the hospital to receive treatment and placed under 24/7 surveillance because of attempted homicide. 

As Dave stood guard, hearing the gentle beep of his vital signs and smelling the sterilized environment, he experienced a mix of rage and grief that this individual attempted to harm his friends. He also felt God’s Spirit. As a believer, he knew he was called to something greater. God could use this broken situation to turn the man’s life around, he thought. He’s made poor decisions. Maybe bad things have led him to this. So he prayed for the man, out loud. 

“Lord, forgive him for he knows not what he does,” Dave said. “God, protect him from the Enemy. Redeem his soul and bring about in him humility and repentance.” 

When his shift ended, he never saw the man again. Yet this moment would mark one of many times when he felt a call toward ministry while serving as a police officer. What he didn’t know then was that God would send him down a path toward church planting. 

From football to Christ 

Dave was raised in the Chicago suburbs. He was taught to believe in Jesus, but his family rarely went to church and had no understanding of the gospel. If asked, he would have told you he was a Christian.  

“But I wasn’t saved,” he said. 

A coach from Trinity International University visited his high school and spoke with him about the opportunity to play football at the university. Dave didn’t care that it was a Christian school as long as he could play football. Through the influence of his teammates and coaches, he started walking with the Lord. 

He pursued a degree in Christian Ministries and after graduating, he and his wife, Meghan, moved to Florida to work in urban ministry, opening a non-profit to help underserved youth. They saw God work through that ministry: The ministry grew, and kids were getting saved. 

Meanwhile, their marriage was falling apart. 

They couldn’t ignore it any longer. To repair and rebuild their marriage, they stepped away from the ministry and moved to Tacoma, Washington, where Dave’s mentor lived. They spent four years there, plugging into a local church and working on repairing their marriage through fasting, Scripture and prayer. They also started their family, having two kids while Dave worked odd jobs in construction and pharmaceuticals.  

When Dave was laid off from his job, they faced a crossroads. Without a job, finances were tight. They felt compelled to move back to the Chicagoland area to be closer to Dave’s family, where they also had potential job opportunities. It seemed like the right move, but when those job opportunities dried up, they needed to change their plans.  

Instead, they moved to Tucson to live with Meghan’s father while Dave found a full-time job. That’s when Dave found himself drawn to serving in law enforcement.  

“A lot of my family and my wife’s family are or were law enforcement or military. I always wanted to serve and protect. I want to help others and sacrifice for the good of others,” Dave said.  

He applied for a local law enforcement job in Tucson with no formal training. He was hired. 

Making disciples as an officer 

Before he could officially start the job, Dave needed training and went to a local police academy for roughly five months. 

“It’s just a lot of running and push-ups and getting yelled at and classwork,” he said. “Training on how to shoot a gun, how to drive a car, practice scenarios, fighting and pepper spray. But I got to go home to my family every night, which was a huge blessing.” 

He found the training challenging but enjoyed the camaraderie. Police training requires a significant amount of team training, working toward a goal and finding ways to work well together. With his athletic background, Dave fit right in and found opportunities to grow with fellow Christians and disciple others.  

By God’s grace, Dave’s spiritual walk proved strong. He was eager to make disciples regardless of his vocation. He became good friends with a fellow police officer at the academy who was a former pastor. They shared Bible verses daily, prayed for each other and encouraged each other to follow Jesus amid a challenging police academy. Their friendship allowed them to minister to other police officers, walking alongside one who was struggling in his marriage.  

Meanwhile, Dave, his wife and their family wanted to plug into a local church. They found Hope Community Church (EFCA) and became friends with Randy Brainard, the pastor there. During that time, Dave started to disciple young men in the church. They would meet to pray and read Scripture, and Dave often focused on how they could use their time to disciple other men.  

Life as a police officer 

After Dave graduated from the police academy, it wasn’t long before he went out on patrols. The demands of police work can cause significant stress on police officers and their families—working overnights, sleeping during the day, working holidays and not being at your kids sports and birthday celebrations. In addition, police officers often witness the brokenness of the world in ways many won’t, and they may turn to unhealthy methods to cope. 

But Dave found solace in Jesus Christ, knowing he could go to Him in prayer and find strength and resilience in His Word. Through his relationship with Jesus, he worked hard to walk the walk. He quickly developed a reputation among his fellow police officers that allowed him to be a light to them. Many would come to him asking for advice, and he would have opportunities to share the truth of God’s Word and pray for them and counsel them through the hard things in their personal lives.  

“No matter what we do for a paycheck, as believers, we’re all called to make disciples who make disciples. Our whole life is ministry. It’s not just being a pastor or a professional missionary. God used me in some cool ways as a police officer to expand His kingdom.” 

A call to ministry 

As their church grew, he and his wife served when opportunities arose, helping with children’s ministry, speaking at church events and leading their home group ministry.  

One night, he shared with his wife that he wondered if God wanted him to become a pastor.  

Meghan was surprised. He just secured a steady and stable job, and she felt transitioning to ministry would become more unstable. She wanted him to stay as a police officer. His role as a police officer didn’t bother her; she had grown up with parents who worked in law enforcement.  

Still, the pull toward ministry strengthened with time. Randy asked him if he’d ever consider serving as a pastor, and he said yes. For six months, he prayed with his wife and asked questions about what it would look like to become a pastor. While they weighed the possibility of a job transition into ministry, his wife remained resistant to the idea.  

Eventually, Dave reached a point where he was willing to let the idea go. He didn’t want to pursue this calling without Meghan’s support. He planned to tell her he was going to drop it. Before he said anything, though, she said, “You know what? I’ve been resisting this, and I think God wants you to do it. You’re called to be a pastor. You should absolutely do this. Let’s go for it.” 

Eventually, the church approved the new position and hired him to become the associate pastor.  

Transition to pastor 

After Dave turned in his badge and started ministry at the church, he faced different rhythms. He wasn’t patrolling in squad cars and enforcing laws; he was sitting at a desk, typing emails, praying with people and studying God’s Word.  

In this transition, there were times when he was deeply dependent on the Lord for wisdom and guidance.  

“I felt ill-equipped and underprepared to do what needs to be done on a regular basis. Like, how do I lead these people? How do I keep them encouraged to follow Jesus? How do I keep the staff unified? I needed the Lord desperately,” he said.  

To strengthen his ministry and become equipped, he pursued credentialing with the EFCA. For a year and a half, he studied and wrote papers with other leaders. Once he earned his ministry license, he became ordained with the EFCA in 2021. 

A heart for multiplication 

With Dave’s heart for making disciples and multiplication, he fit right in with church leadership’s goals. Their focus was always to plant more churches by building relationships, forming more small groups and raising leaders. He wanted to see more churches planted, but for a long time, he never thought he would plant a church.  

“I didn’t want to naively jump in and arrogantly think I could do it,” Dave said.  

Still eager to plant churches, he and the church prayerfully considered leaders for church planting, and identified three potential candidates. They planned to support, train and equip these men to plant churches, and the men were all in. Over time, however, their momentum waned, and all the candidates decided against it. 

COVID, discontentment and calling 

The church had considered expanding to multiple campuses but instead focused on a new plan to purchase land and build a church building. However, COVID put all those plans on hold and the church sold the land they purchased when they realized it wouldn’t work well.  

Meanwhile, Dave felt a holy discontentment. He loved his job and loved what he was doing, but he also felt like God was moving and wanting him to make moves, too. He thought God was doing something new and wanted him to keep pursuing church planting.  

Randy affirmed this call to plant a church when he said, “Hey, I think we need to go for it. We’ve been praying about it for years. Let’s take a risk.” 

In January 2022, as the church plant came to fruition, four other families came alongside Dave’s family and they met weekly over dinner to spend time together, pray and discuss what their church would look like. He was officially a church planter. 

Ambassadors Church 

At first, Dave had mixed emotions about it. He felt nervous, not sure he was doing the right thing. But, he also felt excited that God was doing something new. He was eager to bring people together in a fresh, new season of ministry and have a front-row seat to what God was doing. That energized him to keep going.  

In May, the church had a soft launch that included 70 people, meeting at a local elementary school in Oro Valley, Arizona. During this preparation stage, they trained and equipped their people while also casting a vision for their church. They officially launched on September 11. They called the church Ambassadors Church, which comes from 2 Corinthians 5:20: 

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 

Dave has worked hard to cast a vision of disciplemaking and multiplication within the church plant. From the start, he, alongside the church, was discussing how they could move toward planting another church in the future.  

“Through all the twists and turns of life, through the good and the bad and the ugly, God remains faithful,” Dave said. “I’m just a weak, flawed, simple guy. I’m not anything special. I don’t feel like I have what it takes to plant a church, to pastor a church, to be a good husband and a good father. I’m just a normal guy that God is choosing to use for His glory.” 

God is calling more people to plant churches. How could you and your church answer God’s call to multiply disciplemakers? 

Learn more about church planting.