Daniel's Ministry

Revd Daniel Cozens

The most important things for Daniel are what God has done for him and what God wants him to do. However, your first impression of him will be of a strong, but gentle, family man who speaks with a West Country accent.

A Dorset Man

Originally from Dorset, Daniel with his wife Gillie, moved to Cambridgeshire over 30 years ago where, in his spare time, he enjoys the company of his family of four children (and the wider family which is growing all the time!) and living the life of a countryman.

An Artist

After leaving school he worked for the family bakery business for five years whilst, spurred on by prizes won at school and exhibitions held locally, his interest in painting during his teenage years was encouraged. He concluded that if there was a God, He wanted him to be an artist. He studied at the Poole College of Art. He spent a short time in Paris and lived in Holland for some months as a full-time artist. He then decided to go to Japan to study oriental art.

A Converted Man

However, during the summer of that year, whilst he was making plans, God stepped in and an 'awakening' took place in his spirit which culminated in his conversion to Christ the following Christmas. After walking into a church and meeting what he called "Real Christians", his life was wonderfully turned round and - as he puts it - he encountered the Living God".

An Evangelist

Immediately, Daniel told his family and friends what God had done for him, and urged them to respond too. So this was how God began to create in Daniel the consuming passion of his life - winning others for Christ.

He studied at Oak Hill Theological College, London, where the principal (The Rt Rev. Maurice Wood) encouraged him in evangelism. After ordination as a minister of the Church of England, he was the curate of two very different parishes - one in suburbia and one in London's dockland. In 1978, the Bishop of Ely commissioned Daniel - by then 33 and the father of two - as an evangelist with an appointment linked to the Diocese. This is when Daniel and his family moved to Cambridge where they have lived ever since.

A Team Builder and Leader of Men

Although he is singularly a gifted evangelist, he has always believed in the importance of team-work. As a result he founded, with a close colleague, the Rev. Peter Adams, a charity called Through Faith Missions, a versatile evangelistic trust that has so far conducted over 300 missions throughout the UK. The team now numbers 10, and through this organisation, Daniel has built up, in addition to a close team of colleagues, a large circle of Prayer Partners. These people not only provide financial support, but are, under God, the power behind the ministry.

Through Faith Missions is also the organisation behind the "Walk of 1000 Men" missions. This initiative was developed when Daniel became concerned by two particular features of the church at the time; one its insularity and the other, that men in the churches were greatly "under-realised" as witnesses and evangelists. In contrast, women were, on the whole, more motivated, keener for evangelism, prayed more, were less shy and evident in greater numbers.

But most of all an Evangelist

Daniel says: "The gospel changed me immediately I heard it. I stand in awe of the God it describes, who out of His wonderful love, gave His only son. It is my heart's desire to preach this Gospel to as many folk as I can while I live. I feel both honoured and humbled to be an evangelist.

It is a job filled with pain as well as very great joy and that joy is in seeing others changed, as I myself have been".
In essence, Daniel believes in God's love and that love is for everyone. The world does not know of it and his endeavour, in this ministry, is to reproduce the model of Christianity found in the New Testament; which is a blend of compassion, daring and simplicity.

View the video below of Daniel talking about his life and work.