Former high school all-state football quarterback Danny DuVall of Cabot once had boyhood dreams of becoming a football coach. Playing throughout high school, then in college at Evangel University on a football scholarship, DuVall’s life seemed to be on course for motivating teams to excel in the sport he loves so dearly. But what he didn’t realize was that his true calling in life was to be a coach for Christ as an Assembly of God pastor, author and family man.
“Coming out of high school, I was a quarterback with opportunities to go to some of our local universities, but I went to Springfield, Missouri, and accepted a scholarship to play for Evangel University in a brand new program,” DuVall said. “They’d never had a football team till the first year that I arrived. Uniquely enough, it was almost like a preview of what I was to do. I was at an upstart football program. … The excitement and the adventure of building something from scratch was a college experience that was really a launching pad for what motivates me.”
A son and grandson of pastors, DuVall said his career goals at first didn’t aim toward the ministry, but instead, he had considered a career in dentistry.
“Everybody saw it but me, but any pastor’s child goes through the rigors of seeing their dad challenged with every leadership decision he makes and does not covet to live the same type of life that their dad did. I didn’t covet it — didn’t want it,” DuVall said.
Despite his reservations, at the age of 17 when he was a junior in high school, DuVall’s enthusiasm for Christ spilled over into his everyday activities. Moving with his father’s ministry to Paris High School from Warren, DuVall recalls praying about his purpose there before he met anyone.
“My heart was already fixed at 17 years of age. I can clearly remember before I met a person in Paris, my new high school, standing on the sidewalk telling the Lord, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to have one friend in the next two years or play one down of football, but I’m going to serve you every day for the next two years,’” DuVall said.
As a brand-new member of the football team, he put a poster on his locker door that stated, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
When every player would come up to greet him and saw him under that poster, DuVall said, “It immediately settled where I was going in life, and God honored that. I had such immediate success in football with the first three times I touched the ball in Paris.”
DuVall went on to become an all-state quarterback and was selected as Most Outstanding Quarterback in Western Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma by a western-Arkansas newspaper.
DuVall was a multisport athlete, and it was his basketball coach who told DuVall he was destined to become a preacher.
“He said I couldn’t be anything but a preacher, but I didn’t know it. I lived for the Lord. He was my all in all, but it’s one thing to love the Lord,” DuVall said.
It wasn’t until DuVall started getting multiple requests for him to speak that he realized his calling.
“I started getting calls when I didn’t have any messages. I didn’t have any devotionals — all I had was excitement. I’ll admit those first sermons were really rough,” DuVall said.
After leaving a preacher’s conference with his father and a full schedule of speaking opportunities during a summer break in college, DuVall recalled praying and saying, “Apparently, Lord, there’s something you want me to do.”
After heeding his call in the ministry, DuVall earned a degree in 1981 in biblical studies at Evangel University and went on to be a traveling evangelist for 16 years.
During his time as an evangelist, he married his lifelong friend and youth-camp sweetheart, Gayla Morphis, in 1986, and the two were based out of Russellville as they traveled across the nation. When their daughter Daylea was born, DuVall said he felt it was time to settle down and become a family man. The couple sold almost everything they owned and in 1995 moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where they planted and pastored Christian Life Church there, as well as another church in Georgia.
In 2011, the DuValls were contacted about pastoring a church back home in Arkansas. When DuVall met with the board at the church, he and his wife felt a burden to make the move to the Cabot area and take the helm as lead pastor at The Assembly.
“Our heart was just captivated by the opportunity, by the need, by the sincerity of the leadership of the church, so we really wanted to go forward,” DuVall said.
His experience in college helping establish the school’s first football team was one he remembered at the church in Alabama — then at the one in Cabot — and would use to help rebuild and strengthen its congregation.
“With that experience of starting a football program, starting a church, … another opportunity to take a church that historically had been strong … and go forward in a way that could really impact the community was so attractive to me and my family,” DuVall said.
When the family moved, Daylea had already graduated from high school and was on her way to college at DuVall’s alma mater. The DuValls’ younger daughter, Hadley, was about to enter the ninth grade at Cabot High School and this fall started at Evangel as a freshman to continue her family’s legacy.
As an evangelist and pastor, DuVall has written two books: Wood, Hay, or Precious Stone?: Investing Now for the Coming Age and Right Guy, Wrong Guy: Finding Mr. Right in a World of Wrongs. The first book is about using one’s time and talents for ministry. The second one, a labor of love for his two growing daughters, is about biblical examples of the right kind of man with whom one should find herself in a relationship.
In addition to the two books, DuVall continues to evangelize on television with a Victory Television Network show entering its second year. Family Strong airs at 10 p.m. Sundays and at 1 p.m. Thursdays. During his TV ministry, which is filmed during his services at The Assembly, DuVall addresses tough issues of the community and hopes to contribute to what he sees as a vital need in central Arkansas.
“The local church is the hope of this nation,” DuVall said. “To reach a city is to answer the questions of the city.”
Moving to Cabot, DuVall realized there was a lot of potential for addressing the need to build strong families.
“The demographic of Cabot is so great for young families — children of all ages where families have a desire to see their children succeed on every level,”
DuVall said. “I can concur that the city can help families do that. So with that being the case, not only do families need a strong educational and intellectual background to launch their families; they also need strong spiritual cultures and opportunities to reinforce the dreams and hopes of all parents with kids.”
As a devoted man of God, DuVall’s future goals include writing more books to leave a legacy long after he is gone and continuing his ministry.
“I want to produce fruit for Christ and not even know it,” DuVall said. “My goals haven’t changed. If you want to be a success in life, do what Jesus is doing.”
As for his boyhood football-coaching dreams, DuVall still coaches young boys and girls each year during the church’s Champ Camp, a sportier version of Vacation Bible School.