Forty Years on Sandtown Road
Cheatham Hill Baptist Church sits on West Sandtown Road in the rolling landscape west of Marietta, Georgia, where it has anchored a Southern Baptist congregation since 1982. The church marked its 40th anniversary in 2022 and continues to draw families and longtime members to a campus where Sunday School meets at 10:00 AM, worship begins at 11:00 AM, and Wednesday nights during the school year fill the building with children, students, and adults gathering around tables, song, and Bible study.
The church's identity is shaped by four decades in Cobb County. The 40th anniversary homecoming invited members to take a look back into forty years of ministry, and the congregation continues to describe itself the way its founders would have recognized: a body of immersed believers who rest their faith wholly on the Lord Jesus Christ, regard the Bible as the inerrant, inspired Word of God, and aim to carry out the Lord's work decently and in order.
Pastor Steven McEntyre, born in Marietta in 1969, grew up in the same community where he now preaches. He married his wife Karri in 1996 during the Atlanta Summer Olympics, and the couple now lives in Waleska, Georgia, with their two children, Whitney and Conner. Before entering the ministry, Steven spent more than twenty years as a firefighter and paramedic in Cherokee County. Asked about his vision for the church, he says, "I believe that worship and preaching should be uplifting and exciting. Jesus is alive and we should act like it." Outside the pulpit, he enjoys hunting, fishing, golf, baseball, and Georgia football.
Sundays: Sunday School at Ten, Worship at Eleven
Sunday mornings at Cheatham Hill follow a familiar Baptist rhythm of Bible study followed by gathered worship. Sunday School classes for all ages begin at 10:00 AM and run until 10:45 AM, with a fellowship hour woven into the time. Jesse Murray leads the Sunday School ministry, which is built around Bible lessons, application, fellowship, and activities for every age group.
Among the classes is the Kingdom Connection Sunday School Class and the Sisters of Faith Sunday School Class, a community for women of all ages that meets weekly to share prayer requests and praises, work through Bible lessons, and apply Scripture to daily life.
The morning worship service begins at 11:00 AM and is led by Pastor McEntyre. The service is livestreamed on Facebook each Sunday morning and archived on the church's YouTube channel, so members who are traveling or unwell can still follow along. Audio recordings of recent sermons are available online, and a sermon archive stretches back to 2021.
Wednesday Nights: Three Programs, One Building
When the school year is in session, the church's Wednesday evenings fill the building with activity for every age. From 6:30 to 8:00 PM, three programs run side by side: CHBC Kingdom Kids Bible Club for children, the 4:12 Youth group for students in grades six through twelve, and Table Talk, an adult Bible study class. The children's and youth programs begin slightly earlier, at 6:15 PM, so that a shared dinner can be served to families before the lessons begin. The Wednesday programming reflects a church that sees discipleship as a whole family project, with children, students, and adults sitting down at the same hour in different rooms to study the same Scriptures.
Kingdom Kids and 4:12 Youth
CHBC Kingdom Kids, led by Kelly Durbin, welcomes children from age three through twelfth grade for a Wednesday night Bible club that takes young disciples back through the Bible to learn about Jesus. The program is free, dinner is provided each week, and families register through an online form. The kids and youth ministries team up each fall for Trunk or Treat, opening the church grounds for desserts, games, candy, and hayrides for the wider community.
The 4:12 Youth ministry takes its name from 1 Timothy 4:12, "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." Students in grades six through twelve meet for Sunday School at 10:00 AM and again on Wednesday nights from 6:15 to 8:15 PM during the school year. The group also gathers once a month for Sunday Sundaes, a relaxed lunch and ice cream outing at a rotating local restaurant.
A Music Ministry for the Whole Church
Music has a long-standing place in the worship life of Cheatham Hill Baptist. Pastor McEntyre leads the music ministry alongside pianist Vicki Newton, with Shirley Duncan serving as organist and pianist, and Andrew Cline and Clifton Westbrook on bass and keyboard. The choir, instrumentalists, and congregational singing together carry the focus of the music ministry, which the church describes simply as worship of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through choir, instrumentalists, and congregational singing.
Men's Brotherhood and the Sisters of Faith
Two adult fellowships give men and women their own regular rhythms within the church. The Brotherhood Ministry, led by Travis Cline, gathers men for a quarterly Brotherhood Breakfast on Sundays at 8:00 AM and for an annual men's retreat each September.
The Sisters of Faith, led by Karri McEntyre and Kelly Cline, meet on the first Tuesday of each month at 1:00 PM in the fellowship hall. The afternoons are built around food, fun, devotions, and preparations for the events and mission projects the women's ministry takes on throughout the year.
Senior Saints
The Senior Saints ministry, led by Steven and Gail Fulford, is open to anyone 50 and older who enjoys day trips and fellowship. The group holds a monthly luncheon at a changing location on the last Friday of each month, plans annual outings such as a Nashville trip with dinner and a show, and gathers for seasonal traditions like A Show on the Square at the Strand Theatre on Marietta Square each December.
A Twenty Article Statement of Faith
Cheatham Hill Baptist Church publishes a thorough Statement of Faith and Beliefs, twenty articles that articulate the church's doctrinal commitments. The church holds that the King James Version of the Bible is its official translation and teaches that the Old and New Testaments are the inerrant, verbally inspired Word of God. It confesses one true God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and a literal six-day Creation.
Salvation is taught as a free gift received by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from any human works. The church observes two ordinances: believer's baptism by single immersion and the Lord's Supper, which is reserved for believers and preceded by self-examination.
The statement sets out a premillennial view of the Second Coming, affirming the personal and imminent return of Christ, the rapture of the church, a seven-year tribulation, and the establishment of an earthly Messianic Kingdom. The church teaches a literal Satan, a fallen angel whose work was defeated at Calvary and who will be confined to the Lake of Fire.
On Christian living, the statement calls believers to personal separation from the world, walking in holiness and Christian love, and spiritual separation from organizations contrary to biblical truth. Marriage is described as a sacred bond between one man and one woman, and the husband is identified as the spiritual leader in the home and in the offices of pastor and deacon. The statement addresses divorce and remarriage, teaches that human life begins at conception, affirms religious liberty, and calls Christians to tithe as a baseline of giving under church leadership's stewardship.
Becoming a Member
Anyone interested in joining the church can do so in one of three ways. The first is by baptism: a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ followed by scriptural baptism by immersion. The second is by transfer letter from another Baptist church of like faith, which the church will handle on the member's behalf. The third is by statement of faith, for believers who have been baptized by immersion but are not currently members of another Baptist church.
Outreach, Giving, and Online Life
The church's outreach is shaped by three words: inviting, investing, and involving. The goal, the church says, is to be a place where every person who attends matters, and members are encouraged to look for ways to serve their neighbors in the name of Christ.
Giving is available online through Pushpay, and donations can be made at any time. The church also maintains an active Facebook page where events and livestreams are posted, and a YouTube channel where past sermons and worship services are archived. The church can be reached by phone at 770-426-5883 and by email at k.durbin@chbcministries.com.