ABOUT US

Learn more about Gospel Light and the leadership of our dedicated pastors.

OUR PASTORS

PASTOR

Matt Swiatkowski

Matthew, who was born and raised in Kearny, has a strong connection to the Kearny community. At the age of ten, he understood his need for trusting Christ as Saviour. After his mother explained the gospel to him, he went out into the backyard, and behind a shed, he bowed his head and trusted Christ as Saviour.

He dedicated himself to the ministry at Gospel Light Baptist Church after committing his life to the Lord during his senior year

of high school. He briefly left Kearny to attend Bible college,where he met his wife and then returned home to continue his work in Kearny. In 1995, he was called to be the pastor after his predecessor, Harold Elting, resigned to start a church in Illinois. Together with his wife, they raised four children: Matthew, Melanie, Ethan, and Evan. Three of their children are married and serving the Lord, and they currently have five grandchildren.

SPANISH PASTOR

Jorge Moran

Jorge started going to Gospel Light in August 2005. In September of 2009, he surrendered his life to preach, later feeling the Lord’s leading to start a Spanish ministry, and Iglesia Bautista Luz Del Evangelio was born in 2011. Jorge has a burden and passion for the Hispanic community in and around Kearny. He and his wife Fanny have been married for twenty-nine years and have raised three wonderful children – Alicia, Erin, and Adrian.

YOUTH PASTOR

Ethan Swiatkowski

Ethan has been attending Gospel Light since he was born. After graduating college, he came right back home to help start a youth ministry. He and his wife, Sarah, have a passion to reach the teens of today's generation.

OUR BELIEFS

THE WORD OF GOD

We believe the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God in its entirety written by men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit and that it is the sole authority for the Christian's faith and conduct. We believe the King James Bible is the preserved word of God for the English-speaking people.

Psalm 12:6, 7; 2 Peter 1:20, 21

THE GODHEAD

We believe in one God eternally existing in three persons the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe that they are equal in every divine perfection.

Genesis 1:26; I John 5:7

GOD THE SON

We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, a virgin so that he might reveal God and redeem sinful men. He is both the Son of God and God the Son.

Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:26-28; II Corinthians 5:21

ATONEMENT

We believe the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice and that all who believe in Him are justified on the merit of His shed blood.

I Corinthians 15:1-4

SALVATION

We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work on Calvary. He is the only way of salvation.

Ephesians 2:8-9; John 14:6

SECURITY

We believe in the eternal security of the believer. Their security rests in his finished work. All the redeemed are in his hands kept by his power and nothing can separate them from his love.

John 10:28-29; I Peter 1:4-5; Romans 8:38-39

SECOND COMING

We believe in the blessed hope, the personal, pre-tribulation, pre-millennial, imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at which time the church will be gathered together unto him.

I Thessalonians 4:13-16; I Corinthians 15:51-58

THE CHURCH

We believe in the church local and visible. It is a congregation of baptized believers banded together for the worship and work of God. It is to be autonomous and responsible for propagating the gospel to the world.

Acts 2:41-47

THE ORDINANCES

We believe that the scriptural ordinances of the church are baptism by immersion and the Lord’s supper. They are symbolic in nature not sacramental.

I Corinthians 11:23-26

SEPARATION

We believe in personal and ecclesiastical separation.

I Peter 1:15; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17