Louisville has always been home for Jammie Vance.
Born and reared in the Okolona section of Kentucky’s largest city, Vance moved to Bullitt County during his junior year of high school. After the move, Vance attended North Bullitt High School, located less than one mile from Little Flock Baptist Church.
On Aug. 5, Vance returned to his old neighborhood. On that day, Vance stepped into the pulpit of Little Flock to deliver his first sermon as the church’s senior pastor. A graduate of Boyce College and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Vance said he is excited about the opportunity to proclaim God’s Word.
“I enjoy the fact that I have been given the opportunity to have an impact on the lives of people by preaching relevant, biblical truth and seeing lives changed,” he said. “I enjoy the expressive, celebrative style of worship at the church. The people here are hungry for the truth of God’s Word and receive it with delight.”
Vance comes to Little Flock from High Street Baptist Church in Somerset, Ky., where he served as senior pastor. Prior to serving at High Street, Vance also filled the senior pastor role at Beech Grove Baptist Church in Campbellsville, Ky., and First Southern Baptist in Edinburg, Ind. Vance replaces Ronald Shaver, who served as senior pastor of Little Flock for nearly 20 years.
Two items stand out for Vance when it comes to his ministry focus.
“I have a passion for biblical, expository preaching,” he said. “This ties into my second passion, which is seeing changed lives.”
Vance does not view his role as being a “one-man band” when it comes to ministry. Instead, he said he wants to equip the people of Little Flock for ministry.
“I believe every member is a minister,” he said. “Member involvement is very important to me. I communicate to the church that it is not only my job to do ministry. It is my job to equip the saints to do ministry, based on Ephesians 4:11-12, and then it is my job to participate with them as a Christian in ministry.”
Vance earned his associate’s degree from Boyce in 1995 and returned to complete a bachelor’s degree in May 2001. In December 2004, Vance received a master of divinity from the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern and is currently pursuing a doctor of ministry from Liberty University.
Vance and his wife Tonya have been married for 13 years and have four children: Mikayla, 11; Alexis, 8; Jordan, 6; and Brycen, 3.
During his time at Boyce and Southern, Vance said God further clarified his calling to pastoral ministry, giving him a passion for shepherding God’s people and feeding them God’s Word. Vance said Scripture exposition would be central in his ministry.
“I will invest most of my time in studying and proclaiming the Word,” he said. “I want to be a Bible teacher and preacher that makes the exposition of Scripture the priority of his ministry.”
Converted at a youth camp at age 14, Vance said he began to sense God leading him into full-time ministry near the end of high school.
“I was convinced going into my senior year of high school that God was calling me into some type of preaching ministry,” he said. “God had used other people to lead me and point me in that direction and used circumstances as well. I also felt like God spoke to me through Colossians 4:17, which talks about fulfilling the ministry you have received from the Lord, to confirm that call in my life.”
Little did Vance know that the seeds of ministry the Lord planted in him in high school, would come to fruition just one mile down the road.