If you had told Jonathan Cheek when he attended his first Mass that in a few years’ time, his whole family would be Catholic and he would be filming a YouTube series about the faith, he wouldn’t have believed you.
Cheek has worked at Arkansas Nuclear One since 2008, the same year he married his wife Jessica. Together, they have two daughters, Presley, 12, and Peyton, 10. Jessica grew up Methodist, and Jonathan began attending church with a friend in college.
But growing up, Jonathan didn’t attend church.
“One of the reasons we didn’t go to church on Sundays was because Dad wanted to work in the yard, work on our race cars, work on other stuff. Work was how I made it through college. I didn’t have a backup plan. I didn’t have anybody paying for it,” he said.
As Jonathan and his wife started a family, he realized he wanted to lead his family in faith — but that meant he had a lot to learn.
“As soon as I had a break from a shift at work, I would wake up at 1 and 2 in the morning to study the Bible for hours before work,” he said.
Jonathan was determined to figure out faith just as he had worked to figure out everything else up to this point.
“I found out about how to look up Greek and Hebrew words, to find deeper meanings in English words,” he said. “I read the Bible in Greek and English side by side, or Hebrew and English side by side. I started finding patterns. I started finding how much more serious it was, compared to what I was being told.”
Jonathan studied his Bible and different Bible translations for some time, eventually joining his church’s men’s group.
As he tried to balance his faith, family and work life, he also dug into the history of the Church.
“I found some of the reasons the churches split. I just worked my way backward through all the schisms and why they split. … When I studied the book of Matthew, I noticed this trend about how Christ used faith to show his authority — over sickness, over diseases, over the winds and the waves. He’s shown to be like the new Moses, going up on a mountain, giving a new law and a sermon. … That’s when I realize that Jesus actually started a church.”
He attended his first Mass but found himself with more questions than answers.
“It was very different. … But I knew they had the right to bind and loose. I knew they had carried the faith for over centuries.”
Once Jonathan understood the Eucharist, all of the other pieces fell into place.
“Once I understood that it was the bond between men and God … I wanted to do what the original Christians did — it properly ordered me. … I honestly wouldn’t know how to be a Christian anymore if it wasn’t for the Catholic Church’s teachings and the relationship with Jesus Christ and the Eucharist. I can’t just go back to reading Bible verses and singing songs.”
A new priority emerged for Jonathan.
“When I realized that the Church was made by Christ … I knew I had to get my family to the Catholic Church.”
Similar to Jonathan, Jessica, Presley and Peyton struggled at first to grapple with a new faith life, especially when so many of their friends and family were Protestant. But soon, the family began to study the faith more and make friends at their parishes.
The family converted together during Easter of 2023. Today, Jessica teaches as an interventionist in math and reading for grades K-6 at St. John School in Russellville, and Presley and Peyton altar serve for St. John Church.
“I was raised Methodist, and when Jonathan first started researching things, it was a really hard transition. But the more I learned, the more I felt like it was really the right place for our family, the right place for us to be,” Jessica said. “And I have never looked back, never regretted it.”
“It feels amazing to be Catholic,” Presley said. “I really enjoy it and I’ve definitely grown in my faith journey.”
But both Presley and Peyton shared that the faith journey hasn’t always been an easy one — many friends and classmates were confused and not as enthusiastic about the sisters’ blossoming faith.
“It’s been hard, because a lot of my friends are connected to Christ in their own way, and they have their own beliefs,” Peyton said. “So they fight about it. I tell them they can believe whatever they want, but this is what I believe.”
In the summer of 2024, Jonathan worked with a friend to film a video series to help educate other aspiring Catholics on Church teachings and beliefs that he analyzed and navigated himself. They can be found on his YouTube channel, Jonathan Cheek at youtube.com/@JonathanCheek-m7d/videos.
“I think in America, especially in the South in the Bible Belt, it’s hard to become Catholic because you don’t really have a chance to,” he said. “When everybody you know goes to a church or when every generation of your family has gone to the same church … it’s hard to truly search or to think of doing something different.
“I now know certain things. I know the divisions of the Church. I know how Jesus used the word faith. He used the word love. He used the word grace. I know the requirements and the prophecies of the kingdom of God. I now know this stuff. To me, it would not be nice to not share it. I don’t want to be in the judgment line and somebody I know could’ve had a better chance if I would’ve just told them about it. So my YouTube video series is a chance for people to understand a different way of words they’ve heard their whole life.”
Jonathan’s series, called “Love is a Catholic Word,” consists of an introduction and six parts: Faith, The Kingdom of God, Love, Salvation, Good Works and Grace. Each video, ranging from nine minutes to 32 minutes, talks about the history of the Church and complicated topics that many non-Catholics might struggle to understand.
Cheek worked with a friend to film and produce his series in his living room.
“The very first video is an intro, but ‘Love is a Catholic word’ is the title. That is me trying to catch people’s attention,” he said. “Also, I’m going to prove it’s a Catholic word. That if you truly love God and love your neighbor, in the fullness of that love, you’ll be Catholic.”
Jonathan said the series condenses down most of his four years of research and studying into two hours of videos. He has contemplated making more videos as he learns and experiences more as a Catholic.
“The only reason the Church isn’t fully dominating the world is because we haven’t been on the offensive,” he said. “Evil cannot overcome it. The Church will never die. So we have to have the courage to go and continue to bring the kingdom every day into our lives and the lives of those around us.”
