October 2, 2026
PIKEVILLE, Ky. (KT) – Eight years ago, upon graduating from Shelby Valley High School, life looked good for Jordan Hampton. He was an outstanding athlete and student in small-town Kentucky with an outlook so bright that sunglasses should be required.
Hampton had it all together, or so it seemed.
He even followed his parents and sister through the baptismal waters at a Freewill Baptist Church when he was in “the eighth grade or freshman year.” He remembers talking about his athletic achievements from the pulpit, a place he realizes today deserves much more respect and reverence than sharing about how well he played.
Back then, it was about him. All about him.
“I played the maestro well around adults,” Hampton said. “I was a good kid and told I was going to be president one day.”
Hampton packed his bags and headed for more success as a student at the University of Kentucky. The accolades he carried from Pikeville did not translate into the big city. Now he was a little fish in a big pond, and it was not long before he started to drown.
“I’m not the big guy anymore,” he said. “I’m not playing football, and the engineering school people are smarter than me. It created an identity crisis. I needed an identity.”
“I had a good, fun, wild time for a couple of months,” he said. “Living the high life, hooking up, the whole shebang. That was awesome until about December when I became aware of how anxious and depressed, I was. It hit me like a Mack truck.”
Hampton went to a therapist who diagnosed him with anxiety disorder and depression. Two months later, he attempted to end his own life and ended up in the emergency room. He then spent a week at The Ridge, a psych ward, with mental disorders.
“I get out, try to cope,” he said. “I’m not going to try and end it again, that was too much on my parents. I started dabbling in weed more, started selling it. Daylight to dark, every second, I was looking for the next high. I tried shrooms, coke (cocaine), and other party drugs. I’m numb and getting more and more depraved. I’m cheating on girlfriends and paying for sex.”
Hampton said his life verse, 1 Timothy 1:15-16, The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life, describes him best. “I was foremost of all sinners,” he said.
“My junior year, I tried to quit smoking over summer. I wanted to get my life in order. I went from people telling me I would be the president one day to flunking out of college,” he said. “I medically withdrew (from some classes at UK).”
But then he had a gospel intervention from a friend who played the video game Fortnite regularly with him. “He shared the gospel with me and continually was bringing up God and Jesus, saying he was praying for me and thinking of me. I’m making fun of him, saying things I knew he didn’t want to hear. It didn’t stop him.”
That friend saw him as a lost soul and never gave up on him, no matter what Hampton said to him. He kept sharing the gospel, kept praying, and kept pouring into him. Eventually, Hampton agreed to go to church with him where he “heard the gospel with the clearest ears I’ve ever heard in my life. I wept and wept and wept. As soon as the altar call came, I sprinted up there.”
Something clicked and the light started shining in Hampton’s heart, understanding like never before what the gospel meant. It was like nothing he had ever experienced, making him realize that going through the baptism waters those years ago did nothing more than make him cold and wet. This, though, was the real thing.
“I went to the therapist a week later and he took me off meds immediately,” Hampton said “He said I don’t know what you did for yourself, but you’re well. The mental disorders were gone, the addiction was gone immediately.”
Hampton had gone from a clean-cut kid from Pikeville with the world at his feet to someone who was struggling with pornography, alcohol, and drug addictions that almost cost him his life.
But the gospel changed it all and took away those destructive elements of his life. Hampton was on a new course.
Todd Martin of Ashland Avenue Baptist Church initially took him under his wing and those conversations resulted in immediate growth. He also started attending the Baptist Campus Ministry (BCM) in Lexington where he found more support and lifelong friends. BCM was a tremendous growing experience for him in his new walk. “I was saved on Sunday, BCM on Tuesday, and Converge on Saturday. Nick Parsons at Center Point Church discipled me intentionally for a year-and-a-half or two years. He was asking hard questions and helping me grow.”
Parsons became a trusted friend and officiated Hampton’s wedding. The BCM was critically important in his growth too. He began serving at BCM with the freshman group. “Throughout all this, I knew not only life, but my eternity changed. This gospel is the real thing. I wanted to do this for everybody. I saw exponential growth. I was growing like a weed, being poured into God’s word with intensity with the same intensity I had been pursuing the world.”
Hampton said he discovered what his friends and other young people in Pikeville needed too. His passion became returning home to share the gospel with as many people as possible.
“This is why so many people struggled back where I’m from. Discipleship was a weird buzzword. Two months into being saved, I told people I wanted to do ministry in Pikeville,” Hampton said.
Some wise counsel though told him to revisit that idea in a year. Be patient and continue to grow and learn. He was back in school and ready to graduate with a teaching degree in math. “Teaching feels so meaningless and pointless,” he said. “Nothing matters but the gospel, but I was told you need to sit and grow and learn. You are teaching for a reason you could never respect. The best thing to tell anybody is, 'Slow down.'”
Hampton began teaching at East Jessamine High School and after two years returned to Pikeville High School as a math teacher.
Meanwhile, his thirst for the things of God had only intensified. During his time teaching at East Jessamine, he spent intentional time with Graham Withers, executive pastor at Center Point and was able to preach at a nearby nursing home.
Taylor told him about Kentucky Baptist Convention consultant Jason Lowe’s report that showed 92 percent of Pike County was unchurched.
“He calls me during my second year at East Jessamine and says, ‘How about moving to Pikeville now and helping me plant?’” Hampton said.
Hampton sought counsel and decided to come home and move to a small house on Little Creek. His only training was BCM and the nursing home, but he had a love for the people of Pikeville like few others and his heart was broken that so many were without the gospel. He had experienced the life-changing power of the gospel and wanted everyone to experience it as well.
Glory Church launched in August 2024 and is experiencing steady growth.
Taylor said Hampton has been invaluable at the church. He is working with him through a pastoral training program with Josh Odom. They both hope to be ordained pastors soon.
“I called them up and said, ‘Heard you guys are interested in possibly doing ministry in eastern Kentucky?'" Taylor said. "They just signed on. It was like, ‘All right, we’re moving.’”
Taylor said Hampton and his wife have been important cogs at the church. Tabor and Lucas’ wife handle the social media and online presence for Glory Church. “It’s not us, it’s our wives,” Taylor said. “They are unbelievable.”
Hampton says, "My wife is a ministry powerhouse."
Taylor said Hampton went to church when he was in Pikeville but was not saved until college. Once he tasted the gospel for real, he has never looked back.
“The Lord saved him there through the BCM. A number of people who come to faith have to be held back for a minute. To see how he has matured so quickly and loves to serve people is amazing,” Taylor said.
Hampton has been leading the church’s flood recovery efforts in Pikeville. “He’s shop vacuuming homes all week basically,” Taylor said. “He has a servant’s heart and really wants everyone to know the Lord like he does. His heart is for the people around here who have been to church before and are a little bit like him. They’ve heard the gospel before but never really listened. His heart is to show what it really means to follow Jesus and count the cost.”
It is the same for his wife, Taylor said. She recently led a woman to the Lord and last weekend that woman's house was heavily damaged by the floods. The church has reached out to help her get back on her feet
“People like Jordan and Tabor have made such a difference for us,” Taylor said. “They have been great assets.”
Hampton loves serving in the mountains with his wife and they don't plan on going anywhere, unless the Lord moves them.
“I tell Lucas, I want to stay as long at Glory Church as possible until God makes it abundantly clear. I don’t have any plans. I want to do ministry in Pikeville,” Hampton said.
That includes Pikeville High School where his teaching has led to some gospel conversations with students. “It’s helped me reach kids,” he said. Hampton initially thought teaching was meaningless until realizing it was part of his ministry in Pikeville. Now he loves it and the opportunities it presents to share his testimony.
As for being president, it kind of came true. He served as president of the fraternity at UK. He also resigned from that fraternity after becoming a child of God.
His new life, with a new Savior, had no room for that part of his life.
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This story first appeared in Kentucky Today.
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