Cheesman uses musical gifts to serve the local church, SBC

As a teenager leading worship for his youth group in his native Cuero, Texas, James Cheesman sensed the Lord was calling him to ministry.

Cheesman, who currently serves as the worship pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, would lead the worship time during the Thursday night gatherings while his friend, Colton White, would preach.

“It was through that time that I felt called to ministry,” Cheesman recalled. “I just felt like the Lord just telling me, ‘This is what I want you to do with your life.’”

Looking back at Cheesman’s life, one can see how God gifted him with multiple musical abilities and skills to prepare him for Kingdom service. As an eight-year-old, he began to take piano lessons. Simultaneously, he learned to play the organ. Cheesman’s father, 1998 Southwestern Master of Divinity alumnus, Larry Cheesman, taught him how to play the guitar. The senior Cheesman serves as the pastor of music and worship at First Baptist Church of Cuero, a southeast Texas town situated between San Antonio and Houston.

James Cheesman, a 2015 Master of Arts in church music graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, currently serves as the worship pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmersville in Farmersville, Texas. Cheesman, who is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy at the Fort Worth-based institution, was the music director for the 2023 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans.

Cheesman explained in middle school and high school he learned all the brass instruments, including the French horn, trumpet, and flugelhorn, as he performed in school bands. During high school, he said he also learned drums, bass, and electric guitar – instruments used in a worship band. As an undergraduate student at Baylor University majoring in church music, he learned to play the mandolin and accordion.

The Lord’s calling on his life was further confirmed through his undergraduate major as Cheesman remembered at the time he “didn’t even know that people had church music degrees or worship degrees for undergrad degrees.”

Before beginning his studies at the Waco, Texas, university Cheesman was contacted by a pastor he knew who was serving at First Baptist Church of Marlin, Texas, southeast of Waco. The church needed an interim music minister for the summer and the pastor asked Cheesman to step into the role.

“I started leading worship there June 22, 2008, and it was a week before my 18th birthday,” Cheesman remembered. The church asked him to continue in the role and he served as the music minister during his four years of study at Baylor.

Following his undergraduate graduation, Cheesman said he “wanted to continue studying church music and worship, but I didn’t want to stay at Baylor and do the same thing.” He said he “wanted to go somewhere else.”

After visiting Southwestern and two other seminaries, he elected to study at the Fort Worth-based institution. He said three things distinguished the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern, including the faculty, the opportunity to study composition, and that he “also just loved that the school was very Great Commission focused and it seemed to be on the forefront.” Combined the three factors “were a big draw” which “kind of confirmed the Lord leading me to Southwestern,” Cheesman remembered.

James Cheesman (right) sensed God calling him to ministry as a teenager leading worship in his native Cuero, Texas. Cheesman has used his musical gifts to serve in several Texas churches and the larger SBC. As the music director for the 2023 SBC annual meeting, Cheesman assembled a worship band and coordinated the choirs from several churches, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southwestern Seminary to help lead messengers and guests in worship during the meeting in New Orleans.

Cheesman, who earned a Master of Arts in church music in 2015 and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Church Music and Worship, said his courses taught him the “depth of going deeper into the topics of the field,” including ministry philosophy and congregational song and hymnody.

“I think going deep allows you to make better decisions, musically, and then as a pastor, too,” Cheesman observed. “Even if it’s a music class, we’re always trying to ground everything in Scripture at Southwestern, and so I think that’s been helpful as a worship leader.”

He added that while “it’s not always in the curriculum, per se,” there is “an atmosphere of training people for local church ministry.”

“There’s a lot of good conversations, whether it’s from professors in the classroom, or . . . looking back on my master’s degree, to some of my friends just kind of sharpening each other for local church ministry,” Cheesman noted.

During his time on Seminary Hill studying for his master’s degree, Cheesman met his wife, Megan, who earned a Master of Arts in Church Music in 2013. He was also the worship pastor from 2012 to 2015 at Grace Baptist Church in Fort Worth before assuming his current ministry role at First Baptist Farmersville in 2015.

At the Farmersville church he serves alongside Pastor Bart Barber, a two-time Southwestern Seminary alumnus and current president of the Southern Baptist Convention. When Barber was elected for his first term as SBC president at the annual meeting in Anaheim, California, in June 2022, Cheesman was also elected to serve as the music director for the 2023 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans in June 2023.

Cheesman described the opportunity to coordinate and lead the worship elements of the annual meeting as “a lot of work getting ready for it but was a lot of fun.” He noted that “God opened so many doors to work it all out.”

He explained the coordination involved the selection of songs and worship groups and ensembles and working with the committee on the order of business, the SBC president, and the SBC entities. Initially, Chessman contacted one of his classmates from Baylor who now serves in New Orleans who “connected me with everybody else that I needed, really, in New Orleans to form a really good band,” he explained. Though many of the band members had played together previously, Cheesman said the “only time we played together was that event.” The band included representatives from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) and Hugo Encorrada, a recent graduate from Southwestern Seminary.

Cheesman also coordinated the singers for the SBC, which included choirs from First Baptist Farmersville, Franklin Avenue Baptist Church of New Orleans, Louisiana, First Baptist Church of Covington, Louisiana, the New Orleans Singers from NOBTS, and Southwestern A Cappella, a select ensemble from the seminary’s School of Church Music and Worship.

Cheesman reflected that it was “really neat to have everybody come together and God bring those pieces together.”

The goal was “for the whole body to worship together – to sing together – and focus on the Lord” and Cheesman believes this was accomplished as messengers to the SBC “were actually singing and worshiping.”

As Cheesman continues to apply lessons he learned in the classroom at Southwestern, he encourages potential music students to study at Southwestern for three reasons: the faculty, an environment “focused on local churches,” and the “spiritual growth” of students.

“I definitely encourage students that are going into ministry to come to Southwestern and definitely encourage students that are going into music or worship ministry to come to Southwestern” as the SCMW is “the only school of its kind in the world for preparation for music and worship ministry,” he added.

Southwestern is a “unique place” with a “strong faculty and an environment that’s really focused on the mission of the church making disciples of all nations,” Cheesman concluded.

*Photos courtesy of James Cheesman.