Stephen was born September 14, 1982 in Radford, Virginia.   His dad's (Pastor Gary's) job moved them to Wilson, North Carolina when Stephen was 5 years old.  In his bedroom in Wilson, Stephen accepted Christ into his heart at the age of 5.  He began playing drums for Wilson Community Church when he was 13 years old.  At the age of 16, Stephen began leading worship for the youth group at WCC, and also became Vice-President of the FCA at Fike High School.
 

Stephen attended ECU, where he received a BA in Music Performance, with a focus on Percussion.  He was very involved in Campus Crusade for Christ and led their worship for three years.  He attended  four Summer Projects with CCC.  The 1^st was called Myrtle Beach Summer Project in Myrtle Beach, SC, where their goal was to get a job and learn to have life-style evangelism with their co-workers.  The next summer, Stephen went back to Myrtle Beach Summer Project as the Project Director. Stephen's 3^rd Summer Project was the Keynote Summer Project, where they traveled the U.S. sharing their faith through music.  Stephen's 4^th Summer Project was to Saratov, Russia, where they shared their faith with Russians from the local college campus.  
 

Stephen met his wife, Caroline (Boyd) Combs, through Campus Crusade during his senior year at ECU.  They were engaged that year, then married in September 2005.  Caroline happily works in Admissions at Barton College.

Stephen answered the call to ministry his freshmen year at ECU, but didn't know what type of work that he would like to do until he became the worship leader at Campus Crusade for Christ in 2002.  Stephen was offered the role of Worship Pastor at Wilson Community Church upon his graduation from ECU in May 2005 and began serving full-time at WCC in July 2005.  Stephen says, "It is a great honor for me to be able to serve the Lord through my greatest passion, Worship, and to be able to spend this season of life with Wilson Community Church."