From policeman to pastor

When former Sergeant Garry Leech takes up his new job as a church pastor, he will bring with him a store of life experiences shared by few other churchmen.

During almost 25 years of policing, Leech has dealt with a broad cross-section of situations from SIDS to suicide.

As he contemplates his new career, ministering to more than 160 parishioners at the Hills New Life Centre in Mount Barker, he is grateful for the preparation policing has given him.

Leech was born in Sussex, England. In 1972, when he was aged 10, he and his family migrated to Australia.

They had heard about the good life Downunder from his father’s parents and an uncle who had migrated some years before.

Leech’s early teen years, however, were touched by tragedy. His mother committed suicide when he was aged 14.

After this traumatic event, Leech admits that he and his younger brother “went a little wild”, and that, during the next two years, “we were a handful for my dad”.

In the late 1970s, Leech, unsuccessful at joining the army, succeeded in joining the SA Police.

His two-year cadet course at Fort Largs was notable for being the first one to include females.

While he was still at the police academy, two major parts of Leech’s life remarkably – one might say, miraculously – fell into place.

First, he met his wife, Jane; second, an Unley Christian revival meeting – during their romance – transformed the pair into devout believers.

In May 1981 – two months after Leech’s graduation – they married.

"I remember a young teenage girl who committed suicide with a .303 rifle, and took her head clean off."

“My wife was the real leveller for me,” says Leech. “She brought me back to earth – and, yes – set me on the straight and narrow. She was great.”

Leech recalls that, although the academy prepared him to a certain extent for the world outside, he still found that real policing was “just a huge learning curve”.

As a fresh-faced 19 year-old, Leech found it bizarre to be going to domestic disputes and telling people more than twice his age how to lead their lives.

One horrifying event, which he can never forget, took place within a couple of years of his graduation.

“I remember a young teenage girl,” he says, “who committed suicide with a .303 rifle, and took her head clean off.

“At that stage I was working in what we called the Bod Squad Patrol. It was our responsibility to admit the bodies to the mortuary, strip them and collect their valuables, and things like that.

“When you’re confronted with the horrific injuries that this young girl had inflicted upon herself, I mean it’s just a wake-up call, and it just overwhelms your senses almost.”

During his career, Leech worked on both foot and general patrols in Adelaide, Para Hills, Elizabeth and Tea Tree Gully. In 1991, he joined Communications where he attained the rank of sergeant. He remained there until his resignation in June this year.

From early in his career, Leech was struck by the huge part that even a young officer can play in the course of people’s lives.

He says: “The decisions you make as a young 19-, 20- or 21-year-old have great consequences for juveniles, for instance, or young adults. You have the power within your hands to actually change some of the courses of their lives, really.”

He believes that his almost 25 years in the police department have not only given him invaluable life skills, but have introduced him to “an absolute broad cross-section of incidents that can happen in a person’s life”.

“In one shift,” recalls Leech, “I’ve gone to a car fire where a guy’s living in his car – he’s got all his possessions there – and he’s lost the lot.

“I’ve then gone to a siege where an air force pilot had just been separated from his wife, been grounded through medical reasons, and shot himself in the head. He was still sitting there alive… but he’s got the rifle still in his lap. We talked him out (and) successfully resolved that – more through good fortune, I think, than any good planning.

“And then, from there, I’ve gone to a SIDS death where, for a few hours, the parents have been so distressed and distraught. And you’re in the same room trying to talk to the parents, obtain a statement and do the police things you’ve got to do while they’re grieving over their lost child.

“You’re trying to hold it together. You’re trying to be professional on the outside, but inside your heart’s breaking for these people too.”

Encountering such diverse situations will, he expects, help him in his future career as a pastor.

“The sort of thing I can bring to people in the future,” he says, “is that I think I’ve got an empathy for where they’ve come from, the things that people have been through – hardships in life, but also the joys too.”

Leech has always been happy to offer his police colleagues support and encouragement during tough times.

He says: “I know that when people have been going through a particularly difficult time – at work, through a marriage break-up, family situations and all that – I’ve not been frightened to say, ‘Can I pray for you?’ And that’s been welcomed with open arms. And they’ve noticed change when that’s happened.

“I firmly believe in the power of prayer. It’s dynamic, it really is.”

It was during 1995-96 that Leech felt he was being called by God to embark on a new career.

As he read the Bible, there were certain passages which seemed to “jump off the page” and speak profoundly to him.

He says that, on such occasions: “I’ve known that God has just really been wanting me to step out of the boat like Peter the Apostle and to come on His word and just start to walk on some water. And that means leaving the security of the police department, just like Peter left the security of the boat.”

The police department, he came to believe, had been “a training ground, a preparation for things that were to come”.

Leech has also prepared himself for his new career by doing a four-year correspondence course on theology in his spare time. He has also received on-the-job-training as associate pastor in the leadership team at the Hills New Life Centre, an Assemblies of God (AOG) church in Mount Barker.

In November this year, Leech will be formally inducted as the church’s senior pastor, replacing his admired mentor, Pastor Keith Fiebig.

"I’ve not been frightened to say, ‘Can I pray for you?’ And that’s been welcomed with open arms. And they’ve noticed change when that’s happened."

Leech describes worship at his church as “contemporary, alive (and) relevant – completely different from what people really expect a service to be”.

“It’s not all happy and clappy,” he says. “But at the same time it’s able to meet the needs of people.”

Leech describes how not only his church, but also other Pentecostal and charismatic churches, have “a way of ministering to people at a Sunday service that not only energizes them but also gives them that sense of hope and purpose”.

“(For) six days of the week,” says Leech, “you’re being bombarded by negativity through the news media, print media, though life...

“Then, on a Sunday – we’re not saying that we’re going to deal with all of those – but what we’re going to put before you is that there’s possibly a different way of dealing with some things that you’re going through; that God is able to help us in so many different aspects of our life – if we give him a chance.”

Typical Sunday attendance at Hills New Life Centre numbers more than 160 people, including 30 to 40 children.

According to Leech, the job of pastor is “not all plain sailing and beer-and-skittles”.

“Sometimes it’s tough,” he says. “You take your work home and you feel the weight of responsibility.”

Leech is especially grateful for the loyal support of his wife Jane and for their “three fantastic children” – Naomi (20), Aaron (18) and Nathan (15).

Leech brings to his new job a robust can-do attitude which is contagious.

He says: “I’ve always had an attitude of being able to look at things from a positive point of view. Sure, bad things happen, but there’s always a good side too that you’re still sucking breath and you’re still able to talk and love and to be loved.

“People take life too seriously sometimes. I’ve had some horrific things happen to me in my life. But, you know, I’m not going to be a victim for the rest of my life…

“Some people have taken one day or one hour from my life, but they’re not getting the rest of my life… Sure, bad things happen to good people, but there’s another way of doing things, another way of thinking.

“Don’t be robbed for the rest of your life and have a victim mentality.”

Leech does not rule out a return to SAPOL as a chaplain.

He says: “I think that, coming from the police, I’ll understand to a better degree some of the complexities of the job, some of the things that people go through – both men and women… I think I could do a lot of good and relate on a one-on-one basis with people, but coming with a message of hope too.”