Cherokee Hills Christian Church sits on North MacArthur Boulevard in the northwest corner of Oklahoma City, a few minutes from Lake Hefner and the neighborhoods that grew up around it. The congregation is led by a team of four ministers and a five-member board of elders, and its life is organized around a single sentence that appears on everything it produces: "Helping every ONE see and follow Jesus by loving God and loving others authentically." The phrase is not just a slogan. It is restated in a slightly different form for every age group: "Helping every CHILD see and follow Jesus" for children and "Helping every STUDENT see and follow Jesus" for students, and it shapes how the building is used and how the week is laid out.
A Sunday Built Around Three Hours
Sunday at Cherokee Hills begins at 9:00am with Sunday School for adults, students, and children. Adult Sunday School classes, called Connection Groups, meet in various rooms around the building and change topics as the year goes on. Students gather at the same hour for a time of games, conversation, and a Bible study, while children from birth through fifth grade head to their own Sunday School. The point of the 9:00am hour, in the words of the church, is to give people a smaller setting to study God's word and to meet others at Cherokee Hills before the larger gathering.
At 10:15am the main worship service fills the auditorium. That service is also the time of Children's Church for birth through fifth grade, so families with young children can drop them off in the kids' area while they attend the main gathering. The children's ministry is led by Brooke Lindrud, a lifelong Cherokee Hills attendee who grew up in the same children's wing she now oversees. Children's programming is intentionally aligned with what the adults are learning, so the same Scripture and themes travel home with parents and children together.
A sermon archive goes back several years and is available online, including a year-by-year record of series from "Brick by Brick," a walk through Nehemiah, to earlier studies in Romans, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Minor Prophets.
Wednesday and Thursday: The Rest of the Week
On Wednesday nights at 6:30pm the building comes back to life. Adults gather in classes around the church, students meet in the student area for games, worship, a message, and small groups, and children from birth through fifth grade have their own Wednesday programming at the same hour. Topics for the adult classes change throughout the year, and the Wednesday night hour has become one of the main entry points for new people getting connected.
For those who cannot make Sunday morning or Wednesday night, there is a Thursday option. Thursday Morning Bible Boost meets at 10:00am and works slowly through Scripture together. The church describes it as a quieter alternative for people who want a mid-morning study.
Children and Students: Investing in the Next Generation
The children's ministry runs from birth through fifth grade and is built on the conviction that families grow best when they walk together. Programming on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights is custom tailored, often built around the same passages the adults are studying, so the Bible teaching parents hear is the same teaching their kids are hearing. The kids' area has been refurbished as part of the church's 2nd Mile campaign, with new paint, refreshed toys and books, regular carpet cleaning, and one-way mirrored window tint that lets adults see in without distracting the children.
The student ministry, led by Dustin Roberson, is for middle and high school students. It meets at 9:00am on Sunday mornings and at 6:30pm on Wednesday nights. The Wednesday night format includes games, a time of worship, a message, and small groups. The student ministry page makes clear that the goal is not to replace parents as the primary disciple-makers in the home, but to walk alongside them. Throughout the year the students take part in special events, including overnight retreats and a fall Family Night that brings multiple generations together.
Small Groups and Classes for Adults
Cherokee Hills believes that discipleship happens best in the context of community, and the small group ministry is the main way adults live that out. Small Groups meet on different nights of the week in homes and other locations across the city, and they come in several shapes: couples' groups, men's groups, women's groups, and recovery groups. Each group is built around three habits - growing in Christ, connecting with one another, and serving together. People can sign up for a group online, and the church follows up to help match newcomers with the right fit.
For people who are newer to the church or to faith, the Get Connected page lays out a set of "next steps." Baptism is described as a picture of entering into the grace and mercy of God through Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, and the church encourages every believer to be baptized. A membership class is offered for those who want to go deeper into what the church believes and how to belong. Serving on a ministry team is presented as the simplest way to be "all-in" with the mission of the church.
The 2nd Mile Campaign: Going Further Together
In the fall of 2025, Cherokee Hills launched a campaign it calls "2nd Mile Church." The phrase comes from Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:41 - "if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles" - and the campaign has become a kind of umbrella for ten separate projects designed to extend the church's reach both inside and outside its walls. Several projects are already complete.
The Nursing Cry Room is a small room at the end of the main hallway, designed for mothers with babies to feed, change, and care for their children during services. The Kids' Area Refurbishment refreshed the children's wing with new paint, toys, and one-way window tint. Monitoring Cameras have been added throughout the kids' ministry so parents can see what is happening while they are in the main service. A Date Night Childcare program is offered several times a year so parents can go out, do some Christmas shopping, or take a nap.
Other projects push the church outward. The Food Pantry Extension supplements the church's regular third-Friday-of-the-month food pantry with shared meals throughout the year, so that the people who come for groceries can also experience a sense of belonging. A Family Night Out program brings church families together for intentional time of connection and gives them an easy way to invite other families in. The Senior Members Assist Team is set up to help older members with practical needs or simply provide a listening ear.
The Pastoral Training project, held in October 2026, hosts ministers from across the state for a week of training and respite. The goal is to invest in other pastors so they can remain faithful in their ministries back home. The campaign also includes a planned welcome area refresh for the kids' ministry and a website upgrade that is already live.
What Cherokee Hills Believes
The church's statement of faith is openly posted and centers on a classic, Trinitarian confession. Cherokee Hills affirms belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit - one God in three co-equal persons. Jesus is confessed as the Son of God, born of a virgin, fully God and fully man, and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer and is fully divine. The Bible is described as the perfect, divinely inspired word of God. Mankind was created in God's image, all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, and all are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. Baptism is taught as a sacred act of obedience commanded by Jesus and practiced by the early church. The church itself is described as the body of Christ, tasked with making disciples of Jesus.
Cherokee Hills identifies with the Restoration Movement and embraces the traditional summary of that tradition: "in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love." On essential doctrines - the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of the cross, the indwelling of the Spirit, salvation by grace through faith, and the distinctiveness of Christianity - the church says there is no room for disagreement among followers of Christ. On non-essential doctrines, it allows freedom and works hard to keep those differences from causing division.
The Team: Ministers and Elders
The day-to-day ministry of the church is led by four staff ministers. Jerad Joslin is the Lead Minister. He grew up two miles from the church, graduated from Ozark Christian College in 2000, and later completed a Master of Leadership in Ministry at Hope International University. He and his wife Kassie moved back to Oklahoma City in 2021 and were invited to lunch with the elders while their belongings were still in a U-Haul truck. Dustin Roberson serves as Youth and Music Minister. A native of Muskogee, Oklahoma, he joined Cherokee Hills to lead worship and found himself taking on the youth ministry role as well. Layton Lewis is the Discipleship Minister and helps people take their next step in their walk with Christ; he also graduated from Ozark Christian College. Brooke Lindrud, the Children's Minister, grew up in the church and came back to lead the same ministry she served in as an adult.
The spiritual oversight of the church rests with a board of five elders. Phil Mock serves as Chairman, with Sam Pappas, Ken Murphy, Joel Gilmore, and Eric Cornelius rounding out the group. The office is supported by Noni Hisey, who has been part of the Cherokee Hills staff for more than thirty years, and Lenny Hisey, who handles facilities and first connected with the church forty years ago through friends who brought him to a service.
Getting Connected and Getting In Touch
Visitors and newcomers can find their way in through the church's Sunday morning Connection Groups at 9:00am or the main worship service at 10:15am. The building is at 6601 North MacArthur Boulevard, on the north side of Oklahoma City, and the phone number for general questions is 405-721-5861. Online giving is set up through the church's Church Center account, and a regular weekly email is available for people who want to stay in the loop. The food pantry is open to the community on the third Friday of every month, and volunteers are always needed across children's ministry, student ministry, small groups, and the wider serving teams.