John Thomas Hopton was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma in 1937 to John Henry Hopton and Constance Jean Hopton.

John had two siblings, a younger sister named Sylvia Jean Clark and a younger brother named Harry Stephen Hopton.

John Thomas Hopton (elder Emeritus) was ordained as a ruling elder in a Garland PCUSA church in 2001. In 2004 he became a member at Faith OPC, and in 2006 he was installed as a ruling elder at Faith OPC and continued to serve until his retirement in 2010, at which time the session designated him Ruling Elder Emeritus in recognition of his faithful service as a ruling elder for the past 10 years