I serve as Worship Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Ashland, Ohio, where Bec and I have made our home since 2013. In a given week, I am planning services, rehearsing with the choir and worship team, writing and arranging songs, and working on a dissertation. The thread running through all of it is congregational worship: how it forms a people into the image of Christ over time.
I grew up in Buffalo, New York, in the home of a lay-music minister, surrounded by melody and harmony before I had words for either. In high school, I studied brass under Gerald Soffer of the Buffalo Philharmonic and played in the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra under Gerard Floriano. I came to saving faith in Christ at eighteen, and shortly thereafter followed God’s call on my life to ministry in the local church.
My training took shape at Crown College, where I earned a Bachelor’s in Church Music and a Master of Christian Education, and where I later returned as an adjunct faculty member and director of the Crown College Choir. Concurrently, I served as Fine Arts Department Chair at Temple Academy in Powell, TN. Singing with the Crown College Choir under Dr. Earl Holloway brought me across the United States and the United Kingdom, and over the years I have continued that missional legacy of singing by leading the Celebration Choir at Carnegie Hall and the American Festival Choir at the Kennedy Center.
A pull toward study led me through a Master of Arts in Ministry at Luther Rice College and Seminary and a Master of Divinity at Liberty University. I am now completing a PhD in Christian Worship at Liberty’s School of Music, with graduation expected in 2027. My research applies Randall Collins’s interaction ritual theory to congregational singing in Free Church Baptist worship, asking how a congregation’s shared singing generates the emotional energy and sense of belonging that shape lasting community. This is the work I find most engaging, and it feeds straight back into how I plan and lead worship each week.
I also write and record as an independent singer-songwriter, published through platforms such as New Mercies Music Publishing (ATL) and J.W.Pepper (MyScore), having written dozens of songs and recorded four full-length albums at Daywind Recording Studios in Hendersonville, TN. Bec and I write together, and our hymn “Christ, My Resting Place” took first place in the SBCMC national songwriting competition (2026). We also have a No.1 song on Christian Country Radio, “Live to Fight Another Day” (2021). For worship leaders, pastors, and volunteers navigating the weekly realities of the calling, I host the “Worship in the Trenches” podcast, where Sunday’s worship meets Monday morning (available wherever you stream).
Ministry has taken me well beyond the church walls. Since 2013, I have served as a Law Enforcement Chaplain for the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office. I sit on the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association Chaplain’s Board and serve on the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Member’s Assistance Team, leading quarterly worship for first responders across the state. In 2025, I began teaching with World Hope Ministries International, training national pastors overseas through short-term intensives. Closer to home, I serve on the boards of the Ashland Public Library and the Appleseed Community Mental Health Center.
My life with Bec began in 2010, and our home grew with twin boys, Wes and Gabe, and our daughter, Anna. They inspire me every day to serve Christ, the church, and my family.
I am also available to speak, teach, mentor, coach, and lead choir clinics, whether you are a worship leader seeking guidance, a choir director looking to sharpen your ensemble, a church planning an event, or a team seeking to grow in how you lead worship. Bec and I are also available to lead worship at events, churches, camps, and retreats. If any of that fits where you are, reach out.
Thanks for taking the time to get to know me. Whether you lead worship, study it, write about it, or simply want to think more carefully about the church’s liturgy, I would love to connect.
Josh Cehulik