Most of my old memories of David Cozart have something to do with his days a three-sport athlete for the Crittenden County Rockets. Back in the late 1980s, Cozart was a gangly quarterback with a sharp wit and penchant for using donnish four-syllable words that impressed high school girls and left his teachers with a suspicious grin.I always wondered if he rehearsed those cunning lines or whether they came as natural as his boyish smile. Now I know that his preachy manner was no facade.
Cozart has been gone from Marion for the better part of two decades, but we have kept in touch over the years. He finished his college education at Campbellsville University, a private Christian school in Kentucky, where he played football four years. Then, Cozart moved to Lexington where he has been a successful community leader with the Lexington-Fayette County Urban League.
At some point over the past couple of weeks it came to my attention that my old buddy was now doing some itinerant preaching – this time behind a real pulpit. Sunday morning my family and I attended our normal Sunday school class at Marion United Methodist Church then skipped across town for what turned out to be a real treat. We were visitors for Sabbath service at a church we'd never attended before.
Cozart is now preaching on the first Sunday of each month at the tiny Marion Free Will Baptist Church on South Main Street. And I mean he's preachin' Amen sermons.
The little white frame church just up the hill from Conrad's Food Store is the only predominately African American congregation in this rural western Kentucky town. Its membership reflects the small population of African American people in Marion, Kentucky. About a dozen or so regulars make up the Sunday rendezvous. Although the pews are far from full, there's a strong vibrancy among the faithful followers.
There is no question that Cozart brings a renewed vigor to the church which is made up largely of his own kinfolk. His evangelistic orations will continue to gain more and more attention as he makes a regular appointment at the homey little church. I predict the flocks will grow as his sermons are publicized through word of mouth. A talented preacher, his clear messages are braced by an obvious deep understanding of the Gospels.
Over the years, I have had the favorable opportunity to hear Russ Davidson's sermons on many occasions. Rev. Davidson is a young – I say young, he's like me in his early 40s – dynamic preacher who has produced large followings everywhere he's gone. He grew the tiny Union Baptist Church in Crittenden County until it was bursting at the seams. Much to this community's chagrin, Davidson was called away to preach in Missouri. For the last couple of years, he has returned to lead the traditional outdoor gatherings in the tabernacle at the annual Hurricane Camp Meeting near Tolu.
Davidson's reputation is of the highest standard and his preaching well known by most in this area. I have absolutely no reservations in saying that David Cozart, just a lay minister at this point, ranks right up there with Rev. Davidson and any other of the great Men of God produced by Crittenden County.
It doesn't appear that Cozart has an immediate desire to leave his highly-rewarding job with the Lexington Urban League, but you can be assured that his ability will continue to draw followers. As a brash quarterback and fastball hurler 20 years ago, Cozart was anything but unassuming. Now, though, he is clearly humbled by his divinely inspired ability to spread the Word of God. To this point, though, the calling is apparently not as clear to him as it is to those who have heard his Sunday sermons.
