Our Pastor

Church Planter, Teacher, Leader, Pioneer, Visionary

Greetings, please allow me to introduce myself. I am a native of Rome, Georgia. I am the oldest of three children born to Anna and Elijah Collins, Sr. I have one brother, Michael, and one sister, Krystal. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior at an early age and became very active in my home church, the Greater Mount Calvary Baptist Church, Rome, Ga. After graduating high school, I attended West Georgia College where I met my wife the former Ms. Angelyne Edwards of Savannah, GA. We are the proud parents of two adult children, Elise Nicole and Joshua Miles.

In June of 1993, my wife and I joined the Salem Missionary Baptist Church of Lilburn, Georgia, under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Richard B. Haynes. It was at Salem that I answered the Lord’s call on my life to preach the Gospel, and in August 1994 I preached my initial sermon and was licensed to preach. The following month, I was assigned to be the youth and children’s minister at Salem where I voluntarily served faithfully in this ministry for the next five years. During my tenure, God allowed me to take the Salem children and youth to a higher level in their spiritual growth and development. In November 1999, I was ordained and asked to join the Salem Church Staff as the first ever full-time Youth and Children’s Pastor.

In January 2001, while continuing my ministerial duties at Salem, I began to serve as the Chaplain of Grace Heritage Christian School located in Stone Mountain, GA. After almost a year of ministering in this vineyard, and witnessing the Lord move on the hearts of countless people, I was asked by the school’s founder to consider starting a church at Grace Heritage Christian School. After months of prayer and hearing the voice of God, the Lord gave me the name and the vision for the new church, “NEW JERUSALEM BAPTIST CHURCH, Where New Beginnings Are Built Upon A Solid Foundation, and on October 6, 2002 we held our first church service.

After seven months of worshipping on the campus at Grace, it became necessary for our ministry to relocate. The Lord allowed me to lead this new ministry into the Snellville area where we worshipped in the Regal Cinemas, then Shiloh High School and ultimately rented a small church building on Dogwood Rd in March of 2004. After renting the church for 12 months we were able to obtain a loan and in only three years of being in existence and with some creative financing we were able to purchase our first church building located at 1958 Dogwood Road in Snellville, GA.

The ministry began to flourish in the quaint little church building on Dogwood Rd., so much in fact that by 2007 we had to go to two worship services each Sunday. This continued until 2015 when we decided to enter into capital campaign in order to raise funds to build at our present location. After some research we realized that it would be beneficial for us to sell the building and build elsewhere. During our search we found our present location, 422 E. Crogan St.; Lawrenceville, Ga. We moved from 4,200 sf to now, 22,500 sf. We are now 17 months away from our lease ending and are in search for another permanent property. 

In 22 years, New Jerusalem Baptist Church has grown from 17 founding members to a membership of more than 625. At present I have licensed over 15 associate ministers and trained over 25 sons and daughters that are proud to call me their spiritual father. Four of which are now leading their own churches of which we planted or aided in planting.

I am a graduate of Point University (Atlanta Christian College) and am currently pursuing a Masters of Divinity at McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University.

New Jerusalem is affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board (Ga Baptist Convention) and the National Baptist Convention

Some ministerial accomplishments:

• In 2008, Community Outreach that reached beyond the wall of the church and provided free home cooked meals, and clothes to those that were in need and took advantage of the service.
• He is a 2009 recipient of the Outstanding Georgia Citizen Award, awarded by then Secretary of State, Karen C. Handel.
• In November 2010, Pastor Collins was elected President of the African American Fellowship of the Georgia Baptist Convention.
• Host several NACA events in English and Spanish at New Jerusalem
• Prepare and serve meals at the Ronald McDonald House
• Lead worship service at local Nursing Homes twice per month
• Prepare meals and feed struggling families at local extended stay
• Offer benevolence to members of the community when available
• Hand out Thanksgiving Turkey Baskets to the community annually 
• Participate in Angel-Tree
• Chaplain, Gwinnett County Police Department
• Keybo Building Bridges Foundation, Inc. Board member
• Member of Gwinnett Metro Baptist Association Administrative & Transition Teams
• Member of the South Gwinnett Pastors Coalition

Thank you for your time.