John Cheeseman went to school at Epsom College in Surrey and was converted to the Christian faith at the age of 17 during a Scripture Union houseparty, never having previously attended church or Sunday School. He received his call to the ministry at Oxford University, where he studied Classics.
After a gap year during which he taught English at a North London Comprehensive school, he moved on to Trinity Theological College Bristol, where he studied under Jim Packer and Alec Motyer. But he always said that the best thing he gained from theological college was his wife Joy who was training to be a church pastoral worker.
In 1976 he became assistant minister to Kenneth Prior at Sevenoaks Parish Church and served subsequently at St. John’s, Egham, where he was also a chaplain at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He then became Vicar of Christ Church, Leyton in East London (1982-90) and thereafter Vicar of St. James, Westgate-on-Sea in Kent (1990-2001). He also served for some years as Vicar of Holy Trinity, Eastbourne (2001-2010), a large town-centre church with a strategic ministry to tourists and holiday makers.
More recently, John concentrated on an itinerant ministry of Bible teaching, and serving as vice-chairman of Church Society and Church Society Trust. John and Joy have three grown-up children – Peter, David and Cherry. John is the author of three Christian publications: Saving Grace (1999) and The Priority of Preaching (2006), both published by the Trust, and a book on the life of Elijah, Elijah: Man of fire, Man of faith, published (2011) by Day One in their ‘People in the Bible’ series. He was called home to be with the Lord on 15 April 2017.