LETART — Greg Collins, pastor of Maranatha Cornerstone Church in Letart, described his work as a call from God.

Collins has been a pastor for 15 years and has been the pastor of Maranatha Cornerstone Church for three years. According to Collins, he helped form Maranatha Cornerstone Church.

“We were transitioning in our style of worship and we felt lead that this area needed that type of church to be available for folks,” Collins said, adding that the church is a charismatic full gospel church.

According to Collins, the church does a lot of praise and worship along with banners and flags. The church also is a full gospel and utilizes the five-fold ministry and the operation of gifts of the holy spirit, Collins said.

For Collins the desire to become a pastor came from the call of God. He described being a pastor as not a job, but a calling.

“God called me. I was 29 at the time when I heard the call, but even when I was a little child I said I would serve him. The night he called I had asked for someone to be saved and a family to join the church, and both happened that night a revival service,” Collins said. “I was in church as a kid and drifted away in my teen years...But in my mid-early twenties the Lord drawed me home and that’s when he called me. I really related to the story about the prodigal son because my life was similar.”

Collins described watching God touch others’ lives as the most interesting part of being pastor.

“(It is interesting) when you see the victory that comes to peoples’ lives — their lives are changing and are bettered in Christ, and seeing the joy and hope in peoples’ lives that are going through difficult times (is interesting),” he said.

As for his favorite part of being a pastor, Collins said that he enjoyed both studying and preaching the word.

“That’s where God reveals himself to me and manifests himself — it just becomes a powerful expression,” he added.

During his time as pastor of Maranatha Cornerstone Church, Collins said that he has formed several fond memories as the church has grown.

“It’s all been good. There are so many unique things — the unique relationships we’ve built with other churches, not only here but around the world — those are some pretty enjoyable things,” he said.

As for the difficult aspects of his work as pastor, Collins attributed the amount of time involved as being hard.

“The amount of time it takes (to be a pastor is hard). You have to make personal as well as family sacrifices to meet the needs of the people,” he said.

Collins described his daily schedule as varying each day, but said that he always starts his day at 4 a.m. and has a private devotional time with the Lord. He has another private devotional time later in the day as well. He studies for a minimum of six to eight hours a day at least five days a week, and also does visits and administrative things, such as e-mail work, phone calls and ministering to others.

In addition, he described writing sermons as being a lengthy process.

“The most effective message will have 35 hours in it. It’s a big process, like growing plants. It starts with a seed, grows to be a root and blossoms to produce a harvest,” Collins said, adding that church services are 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday as well as 7 p.m. Wednesday.

“Every day is a little different. We work with other ministries in the area and outside the area... We stay pretty active and try to support other churches in the area, and just have a good time in fellowship,” Collins said.

Despite the busy aspect of being a pastor, Collins said that there was nothing else he would rather do. In fact, he described watching the church grow and progress as being very enjoyable.

“The church has grown exponentially. The outreach has expanded beyond major, and we are constantly growing within the body here. Future goals include expanding our outreach not only locally but world wide — we have missionaries we support in five different countries — and watching people grow in Christ,” Collins said.

He added that as part of the church’s outreach, services are broadcast twice a week on Fox 11 and WJOS Pomeroy.

“We have the potential to be in three quarters of a million homes,” Collins said.

The church also operates a Web site, www.maranathacornerstonechurch.org, and will soon have a new Web site, www.mccwva.com.

Collins encouraged others to seek out a relationship with God.

“Everyone needs to develop and have a personal relationship with Christ because without that you can’t go to heaven and will never really have true joy and peace in this life,” Collins said.

This is one piece of advice that Collins has certainly applied to his own life as he answered his call from God and continues to help lead others to Christ.

(If you know someone who could be a potential candidate for an upcoming “Day in the Life” feature, e-mail his or her name and contact information to mdrnews@mydailyregister.com or call 304-675-1333.)