The hunting pastor

(Editor’s note: Ville Platte Gazette Editor Tony Marks is also the Sports Editor for the Oakdale Journal)
Hunting and being outdoors allows a person a way to connect with the Creator that is not possible being cooped up in the confines of four walls. They see God’s presence in the changing of the leaves and in the rustling of the wildlife. One local pastor has channeled this appreciation into a way to better minister the flock entrusted to his care.
“The older I get, my favorite part of being outdoors is being alone,” said Robbie Rollins, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Oakdale. “I write most of my sermons sitting in a deer stand in the fall and winter.”
Rollins took this notion of connecting the outdoors to his ministry a step further about five years ago when “the Lord just impressed upon me ‘Robbie, I made you to like this stuff for a reason,’” he said. “So, I started a ministry called Rod and Staff Ministries. I just use outdoors as a platform to introduce others to hunting and fishing but also to show them the handiwork of God.”
“It’s done more than I ever thought it was going to do,” Rollins continued. “It’s out of that is where the outdoor club at school grew out of.”
Rollins is also an English teacher at Oakdale High School and explained more about his outdoor ministry at school. As he said, “I’ve been able to introduce kids who never even been fishing, and now they can outfish me. Just being outdoors with the kids has been real successful.”
Ministering to the students outdoors has even turned into a graduation trip as Rollins takes some of the kids each year to his leased property in southern Missouri.
“We fish on some of the rivers up there,” Rollins said. “I lead them through a Bible study, and it’s all outdoor related. We’re a small scale operation, but, in my estimation, it’s just been hugely successful.”
In his personal life away from church and school, Rollins is an avid deer hunter and enjoys going to the woods with his family on public land in Louisiana such as West Bay and Fort Polk Wildlife Management Areas as well as the leased property in Missouri. But, when Thanksgiving comes around, he said, “that’s when it gets real good in north Louisiana as far as deer hunting goes.”
Rollins went on to say, “I’m mainly a deer hunter, but I’ve got family members who when deer season is pretty much over always keep a squirrel dog. That’s always real fun doing the squirrel hunting with a dog late in the season.”
Deer hunting is Rollins’ favorite because, as he explained, “it’s the one my dad focused on so much. That’s just the one I’m most familiar with. The challenge of it, I guess, is what really captures me.”
He added what makes deer hunting so challenging. “You got to figure out where they are, what they’re doing, and when they are doing it,” Rollins said. “If you’re a little ways off on your location or a little bit late on your timing, you just miss out.”
The love of hunting deer and being outdoors was instilled to Rollins as soon as he killed his first deer at the age of 12. “My dad and uncle, who were probably the two most influential men in my life growing up, were there with me when I killed my first deer,” he said. “They kind of taught me to hunt. For them to be there when I killed that deer and give their stamp of approval was so special. I remember my uncle’s words just like it was yesterday. He said, ‘you’re a bona fide deer hunter now. I will never forget that.”
Rollins concluded, “Hunting has pretty much been a way of life for me since I can remember. It’s what my whole family has done. I’ve tried to pass that on to my kids and to those kids at school. I really couldn’t imagine doing things any other way.”