{"id":4850,"date":"2017-01-03T13:34:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T13:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?page_id=4850"},"modified":"2026-07-24T08:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:34:36","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/about","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-12369e1d wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"padding-top:1rem\">\n\n\t\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:42%\">\n\t\t\n\t\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full gc-about-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/garycombsorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2024\/05\/About-photo-2.jpg\" alt=\"Pastor Gary Combs\"\/><\/figure>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-container-core-column-is-layout-ff668fa7 wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:58%\">\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<p class=\"gc-dropcap\">Gary W. Combs, B.A., Radford University; M.Div., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, is the senior pastor at <a href=\"https:\/\/eastgate.church\">Eastgate Church<\/a>, which has campuses in Rocky Mount and Wilson, North Carolina. He was born in Bristol, Tennessee, but grew up in Bristol, Virginia. He was the first of four children. Gary majored in music with an emphasis on classical guitar at Radford University. This is where he met and married his college sweetheart, Robin Conner, in 1979.<\/p>\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<p>He began working for the Jack Eckerd Corporation in 1980. He was the District Manager over the Eastern North Carolina district when he resigned in 1991 to answer God\u2019s call to full-time ministry. He finished his seminary work with an emphasis in Biblical Languages in 1994. While attending seminary, Gary planted Wilson Community Church in Wilson, North Carolina, in 1992. WCC was renamed Eastgate Church in 2022 to match the church\u2019s vision to plant churches east of I-95 in Eastern NC.<\/p>\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<p>Gary and his wife Robin have three grown children: Stephen (wife, Caroline); Jonathan (wife, Nicole); and Erin. They have ten grandchildren. Gary enjoys reading, playing guitar, riding his motorcycle, travel, disc golf with his sons, and hanging out with friends and family.<\/p>\n\t\t\n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity gc-fleuron\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-a0aff248 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"\/blog\/message\">Sermons<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--1\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"\/blog\/oyb\">Daily Devotions<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><a class=\"gc-quiet-link\" href=\"\/blog\/getting-started-with-the-one-year-bible\">Getting Started with the One Year Bible \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n\t\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gary W. Combs, B.A., Radford University; M.Div., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, is the senior pastor at Eastgate Church, which has campuses in Rocky Mount and Wilson, North Carolina. He was born in Bristol, Tennessee, but grew up in Bristol, Virginia. He was the first of four children. Gary majored in music with an emphasis on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4850","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4850"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14383,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4850\/revisions\/14383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}