Cedar Heights Baptist Church on Neola Street in Cedar Falls, Iowa, is a Baptist congregation known for centering worship on God’s Word and calling people to “reflect the glory of God in all things.” It identifies as Baptist while remaining unaffiliated with any denomination. Its pastors fellowship with The Gospel Coalition of Eastern Iowa, and the church is committed to the 9 Marks of a Healthy Church.
Reflecting God’s Glory in All Things
CHBC’s mission shapes both the church’s gathering and its outward work. The church places a high value on regular corporate worship with God as the focus, and it encourages members to take part in an Acts 2:42 home group. In those smaller communities, people share a love for Jesus Christ and one another, receive intentional discipleship, and develop leaders who can serve in the church and wider community.
The mission also carries the church beyond its own gatherings. Members are encouraged to use their gifts in service, and the church desires to take the gospel to neighbors locally and to people globally. Cedar Heights describes the joy of participating in God’s work in the community, city and world as central to its shared life.
Two Sunday Gatherings on Neola Street
Sunday worship begins at 8:45 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. at 2430 Neola St. Services usually last about 90 minutes. Each gathering centers on the preached Word, and both services can be watched through Cedar Heights’ YouTube channel.
Arrival is designed to be straightforward. Visitors may use the circle driveway to drop off passengers or park anywhere in the parking lot. Greeters welcome people as they enter, answer questions and show them where to go. An upstairs welcome center in the foyer offers another place to get oriented before the service.
The nursery is staffed during both worship services for infants and toddlers through age three. A separate area is reserved for nursing mothers. Sunday school for preschool through sixth grade meets from 10:15 to 11:00 a.m., between the two worship services.
Cedar Heights preaches from God’s Word every Sunday. Its sermon archive includes messages that can be watched, listened to or downloaded.
Acts 2:42 Home Groups Where Faith Is Practiced
Cedar Heights’ home groups take their pattern from Acts 2:42, where the church devoted itself to the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. The church understands these small communities as places where people care for one another and deepen a common love for Jesus Christ.
Home groups are also a principal setting for discipleship. Members study biblical truth, share life together and help one another grow as followers of Christ. This discipleship is directed toward the next generation and the development of leaders who can serve in both the church and the community.
Nursery, Sunday School and AWANA
A Safe Nursery Through Age Three
The nursery provides a safe, inviting place for infants and toddlers while their families focus on the message. Families are greeted at the nursery counter and receive two matching sticker tags with unique codes, one for the parent or caregiver and one for the child. The tag is returned at the close of Sunday school or the service so the designated adult can pick up the child.
Cedar Heights’ Child Protection Policy includes background checks for volunteers over eighteen, annual training, adult-to-child ratios and additional safeguards. Volunteers welcome children into age-appropriate rooms for supervised free play and care.
Preschool Through Sixth Grade
Children’s Sunday school serves preschool through sixth grade. Its curriculum forms a continuum of learning across the elementary years, building on biblical truths as children advance. Parent resource pages are designed to support the conviction that parents are children’s first and primary teachers, allowing the church to partner with families in spiritual teaching and training.
AWANA on Wednesdays
AWANA meets weekly on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. for children in preschool through sixth grade. The ministry seeks to reach boys and girls with the gospel and train them to serve Christ. Its name comes from “Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed,” taken from 2 Timothy 2:15.
The groups are divided by age: Cubbies for preschoolers, Sparks for kindergarten through second grade, and TNT, or Truth and Training, for grades three through six. Weekly activities combine Bible lessons, small groups, prayer, singing, Scripture memory, games and snacks.
InnerChange, Oaks Connection and Young Adults
InnerChange for Grades 7 Through 12
InnerChange is Cedar Heights’ youth group for students in grades seven through twelve. It meets Sundays from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall for fellowship and teaching from God’s Word. The ministry seeks to point young people toward Christ and train them to pursue him and serve together within the body of Christ.
Monthly activities have included scavenger hunts and out-of-town overnight retreats. The group also offers a senior high Bible study throughout the school year and weekly hangouts during the summer.
College Ministry With Oaks International
Cedar Heights partners with Oaks International to reach college students in Cedar Falls and to serve alongside Oaks on campus. The partnership emphasizes more than attending church. College students are encouraged to become involved in the life of the church and use their gifts to build up the body of Christ.
Young Adults Through Age 30
The Young Adult Ministry focuses on people from post-high school age through age 30. It aims to foster a strong Christian community among young adults while building intergenerational connections. Gatherings range from bonfires and game nights to sports activities, and months without a hangout may include a shared lunch with families and other guests.
Men’s and Women’s Ministry
Men Grounded in the Word and Equipped for Service
The Men’s Ministry desires to see every man transformed by God’s Word into a Christ-centered servant-leader who affects his family and community through the Holy Spirit. Its aims include:
- Remaining grounded in the Word and connected with other men through fellowship and accountability.
- Praying for families, the church, God’s power and direction.
- Serving as authentic, transparent and active witnesses of Christ’s lordship.
- Recognizing personal gifts and using them to advance God’s kingdom.
Monthly breakfasts encourage fellowship and spiritual sharpening. Discipleship teams use a structured growth plan involving truth, equipping, accountability, mission and prayer. Book studies invite men to discuss and implement ideas from Christian books and teachers, while Project 4:16 adds biblical and theological training focused on life and doctrine.
Women Equipped to Reflect God’s Glory
The Women’s Ministry seeks to equip women to reflect God’s glory in all things through biblical teaching, supportive personal relationships and opportunities to develop and use spiritual gifts. Its studies and Scripture groups combine learning from God’s Word with the building of relationships, while ministry opportunities throughout the year emphasize fellowship, service and outreach.
Michele Green serves as Women’s Discipleship Coordinator and seeks to help women disciple one another. Caring and serving ministries include wedding and baby showers and volunteering with Alternatives Pregnancy Center.
Project 4:16 Leadership Training
Project 4:16 is Cedar Heights’ in-house biblical and theological training, built around 2 Timothy 4:16 and the call to watch life and doctrine closely. Its purpose is to develop leaders who embrace the authority and power of God’s Word, allowing Scripture to transform their lives and inform their doctrine.
Training addresses the doctrines of Scripture, the Godhead and angels, along with sin, salvation, the church and end times. Other subjects include biblical study, sanctification and communicating God’s truth faithfully and effectively. The Men’s Ministry invites men to participate in this training.
The cohort model emphasizes extensive reading, preparation of papers and projects, careful responses to the work of others and sustained engagement with Scripture.
Discover CHBC and Church Membership
Cedar Heights views membership as a means of encouragement, protection, discipline and instruction. The membership process moves through several deliberate stages:
- Discover CHBC: A two-week Sunday school class introduces the church’s doctrine, history and direction to people who want to understand CHBC more fully.
- Next Steps: Those pursuing membership continue to a Next Steps morning after Discover CHBC.
- Elders’ interview: Prospective members provide basic biographical information, describe God’s converting work in their lives and provide evidence through baptism. They also agree with the church’s doctrinal statement and covenant.
- Congregational affirmation: The elders recommend the prospective member to the congregation at a quarterly members meeting, where questions are addressed and a vote is taken.
A Covenant of Worship, Formation and Service
After receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and following him in believer’s baptism, members enter a covenant as the body of Christ. The church’s commitments include:
- Growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
- Love for God and neighbors.
- Meeting for corporate worship, observing the ordinances, adhering to biblical doctrine and practicing loving church discipline.
- Teaching children consistently in the Word of God and pursuing holiness according to Scripture.
- Giving cheerfully for God’s glory, the relief of the poor and the spread of the gospel throughout the world.
- Praying for one another, serving in love, cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit and pursuing reconciliation.
- Joining another congregation that preaches the Word of God if leaving Cedar Heights.
Historic Evangelical Faith and Congregational Life
Cedar Heights’ doctrinal commitments are rooted in historic evangelical Christianity, believer’s baptism and congregational polity. All who join the church affirm these beliefs. The Bible is affirmed as the fully inspired Word of God, without error in the original manuscripts and supreme in matters of faith and conduct. The church confesses one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Humanity is created in God’s image, while angels serve God and the fallen angels, with Satan as their chief, are addressed in the church’s beliefs about spiritual conflict.
Jesus Christ is affirmed as fully God and fully man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived without sin, died in a substitutionary atoning death, was buried, bodily resurrected and ascended to heaven. He now intercedes for his people and will return visibly. The Holy Spirit convicts concerning sin, transforms and empowers believers, and serves as helper, teacher and guide. Salvation is a gift received by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, apart from human merit, work or ritual, with salvation completed in resurrection and glory.
The church understands itself as a spiritual body led by Christ and composed of baptized believers associated for worship, work and fellowship. Elders and deacons serve the local church, which observes baptism and the Lord’s Supper as ordinances. Baptisms are administered by immersion following a profession of faith. The church also affirms the bodily resurrection of the dead, Christ’s return, final judgment, everlasting punishment for the unrighteous and the eternal reward of the righteous in a new heaven and new earth.
Marriage is affirmed as a lifelong, exclusive relationship between one man and one woman, and gender is affirmed as noninterchangeable. The sanctity of human life is affirmed from conception through natural death. This conviction includes preborn children, older adults and people who are physically or mentally challenged, and calls the church to defend, protect and value every human life.
A Gospel Shared Locally and Globally
Cedar Heights partners with individuals, families and organizations to share the gospel globally and locally. Its church-planting focus includes Christ Way Bible Church in Waterloo, extending the church’s mission beyond Cedar Falls. The college partnership with Oaks International also connects CHBC with students in the Cedar Falls area.
The church covenant commits members to cheerful giving for God’s glory, relief for people in need and the spread of the gospel throughout the world. Giving is available through Cedar Heights Baptist Church giving.
From worship and home groups to children’s ministry, leadership development, church planting and gospel partnerships, Cedar Heights Baptist Church keeps its mission to reflect the glory of God at the center of its life together.