{"id":8,"date":"2015-04-04T00:35:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T00:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/about-us\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T14:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:54:18","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/?page_id=8","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pastor:<\/strong>\u00a0 Reverend Dr.\u00a0 Elliott Cooke<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pastor&#8217;s Assistant:<\/strong>\u00a0 Rev. John Conforti<\/p>\n<p><strong>Secretary:<\/strong>\u00a0 Mrs. Patty Murphy<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interim Organist<\/strong>\u00a0 Dr, James Tartella<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sextons:<\/strong>\u00a0 Mr. Jack Williams, Jr. &amp; Mr. Ed Sallurday<\/p>\n<p><strong>Board of Deacons:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Anthony M. Kniolek II, Chairman<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">John Conforti, Chairman of the Joint Board<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Dr. James Tartella, Interim Organist<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Val Srebro, Christian Education<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Elaine Saar, Secretary<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Richard Bailey<\/p>\n<p><strong>About us:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jackson Street Baptist Church is a Christ-centered, Baptist\u00a0church, founded in 1871 and\u00a0committed to the Holy Bible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Core Beliefs (doctrine):\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Bible is inerrant, infallible and inspired<\/li>\n<li>There is one living God, eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit<\/li>\n<li>Man is unique and a direct creation of God as recorded in Genesis<\/li>\n<li>Man was created in innocence in God&#8217;s image but voluntarily sinned and therefore all men are now sinners by nature and choice, utterly devoid of that righteousness required by law and thus under just condemnation to an eternal punishment in hell.<\/li>\n<li>Christ died for our sins as a substitutionary sacrifice and all who repent and believe in Him are declared righteous<\/li>\n<li>Salvation is by grace (undeserved) and through faith (not be effort on our part) in Christ<\/li>\n<li>All who are truly born again are eternally secure in God&#8217;s salvation<\/li>\n<li>Christ&#8217;s return for His Church will be personal and premillennial<\/li>\n<li>All men will experience bodily resurrection, the unsaved to everlasting punishment, the saved to everlasting life<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>History:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our church originated on a September evening in 1871 when a small splinter group of Welsh members broke from Welsh First Baptist Church to form Second English Baptist Church of Hyde Park.\u00a0 By the end of the year, the group purchased a lot on Jackson Street for $3,500.\u00a0 Economic woes delayed church construction of the original building, which was completed in 1877 and re-branded as Jackson Street Baptist Church of Scranton.\u00a0 It had seating for 450.<\/p>\n<p>By 1890, membership boomed and the church was rebuilt to accommodate the growing congregation. The new building, which could hold 1,500 people, was finished in 1891 and is the same structure that stands today at it&#8217;s present location, 1206 Jackson Street.<\/p>\n<p>In 1901 renovations\u00a0were completed\u00a0following a mine cave-in that affected the church.\u00a0\u00a0Evangelist Billy Sunday comes to Scranton in 1914, inspiring the formation of numerous men\u2019s and women\u2019s classes within the church. That year, the congregation reaches 1,371 members.\u00a0 In\u00a01919 the church liquidates its mortgage and finds itself debt-free for the first time.\u00a0\u00a0By 1955 major renovations turn the sanctuary into a cruciform shape with added classrooms and\u00a0a re-dedication is held the following year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/untitled.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-29\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/untitled.png\" alt=\"untitled\" width=\"234\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pastor:&nbsp; Reverend Dr.&nbsp; Elliott Cooke Pastor&rsquo;s Assistant:&nbsp; Rev. John Conforti Secretary:&nbsp; Mrs. Patty Murphy Interim Organist&nbsp; Dr, James Tartella Sextons:&nbsp; Mr. Jack Williams, Jr. &amp; Mr. Ed Sallurday Board of Deacons: Anthony M. Kniolek II, Chairman John Conforti, Chairman of the Joint Board Dr. James Tartella, Interim Organist Val Srebro, Christian Education Elaine Saar, Secretary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1248,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/1248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}