"It really is a life-changing experience for me," said Collier from his home in Plano, Texas, last month. His monumental sculpture of "Jesus the Good Shepherd" was recently unveiled at the 50th-anniversary celebration of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg, Pa.
The 30-foot-long piece, with some figures as high as 8 feet, have been set on cobblestones that simulate a road.

"I wanted to portray Jesus the Good Shepherd in a way that was never done before," said Collier, who decided that the Good Shepherd concept made sense only if there was a threat to the sheep. He opted for a wolf as the symbol of evil and, coincidentally, a symbol of the Roman Empire. "In the Gospels, Jesus refers to wolves before which hirelings flee," said Collier. "I thought this concept would be faithful to Jesus' words and visually more dramatic."

As the model took shape, he continued to explore shepherds in the Scriptures, adding three important figures from the Hebrew Scriptures: Abel, whose sacrificial offering of sheep was acceptable to God; Moses, who shepherded both his father-in-law's flocks and the Israelites; and David, the shepherd boy who became king.

In Collier's sculpture, the three Old Testament shepherds are visibly alarmed by the approach of the wolf, before which Jesus stands defenseless, holding his shepherd's crook in one hand and a lamb in the other. "He can save either himself or the sheep," says Collier. "The choice he made was to lay down his life for us, his sheep."

When, in August 2000, Collier and four other finalists from an original group of 14 presented their proposed models, "John's sculpture was a unanimous, easy choice," said Bishop Anthony G. Bosk. "We stand at the intersection of a busy thoroughfare and we wanted something that people would see -- something to remind them that we're here to do Christ's work."

But it is neither its size nor height, but the extraordinary lifelike motion and detail that are most impressive about Collier's work. He sculpts all figures nude, adding clothing later.

"It makes the figures more real," he explained.. "They actually seem to have a body beneath their robes. Not only do they have realistic bodies, they convey seemingly real emotions."

"It makes a powerful statement," said the Rev. Michael B. Begolly, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg, Pa. "There is so much meaning in the sculpture."

Collier said his faith has always been important in his art, even in his magazine illustrations. "If a piece wasn't about a religious subject, my faith still informed my work," he said. The artist and his family became Episcopalians about five years ago after attending the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, where they are members. "We kept coming at Christmas Eve services and getting knocked over backward about how beautiful it was -- we love the Episcopal liturgy."

He and his wife worshiped for most of their adult lives in the Free Methodist Church, a small evangelical denomination, but because he was educated by Roman Catholics, Collier said he's always had a love both for liturgy and things catholic as well as an evangelical point of view theologically.

Collier is excited about setting off on a new course. "It was an encouragement to continue they way I want to go." Although every commission he has received to date has been for a Roman Catholic church, Collier will soon be starting on painting a triptych for his home parish, Incarnation.

Describing what he perceives as a lull in church art in the past half-century, Collier said he believes many churches are now unaware of the possibilities because the fine art they see is still, for the most part, non-objective and not narrative. But he sees that changing slowly.

"Religious art is for the most part narrative art -- it tells a story. I want to spend most of my time doing commissions for churches. Then, the next step will be doing similar works for galleries," said Collier. "I've always shown [works] in galleries, but I am curious to discover if religious work is acceptable."