He’s known as Hombirg.

Folks at Washington’s First Baptist Church refer to their youth minister, the Rev. Greg Hombirg, by his surname. Why? They’ve had the Rev. Dr. Greg Barmer as their minister of music for about 25 years. Two ministers with the first name Greg could be confusing. Hence, the newest staff member at the church is called Hombirg.

Before moving to Washington, Hombirg was youth minister at Cynthiana Baptist Church in Cynthiana, Kentucky. He studied elementary education and learning disabilities in special education at Kentucky State University and church ministries at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Hombirg, from Georgetown, Kentucky, taught school and coached basketball and baseball at the middle-school and high-school levels.

Hombirg’s wife, Leigh, is a speech therapist in Martin County. They have three children, Ryleigh, Layla and Victoria, who was born in Poland and adopted by the Hombirgs.

Hombirg believes his decision to become a youth minister is a natural progression for him, considering his background.

“Growing up, I always enjoyed playing basketball. I thought I wanted to teach and coach. I went to college and started pursuing my elementary-ed degree. I was coaching basketball at a local middle school. I just enjoyed being around kids and sports. I did that for, gosh, probably 10 years or so,” Hombirg said.

Then there was a change that affected Hombirg and his family.

“A couple of years ago, I guess my desires changed. I did enjoy coaching, but the teaching part started to fall off a little bit and wasn’t enjoying it as much. I felt like God was going to change our lives,” Hombirg said. “We were in the middle of an adoption, and circumstances at the job changed. I met with some trusted spiritual advisers, my pastor and some friends, and determined that we felt like it was a call to ministry. Youth ministry felt like a natural transition. … I enjoy that age group; they’re old enough to laugh and joke with, hang out with.”

In his current position for about six months, Hombirg said, learning about the youth — and their parents — he’s working with at the church is the main challenge he’s been addressing.

“I’ve been trying to convince the kids that church and God and the Bible are all relevant to them at the age where they are, that it’s not something that you have to wait until you’re an adult to do or wait until you’re married ore wait until there’s some sort of crisis, but that as a middle-schooler or high-school kid there’s life inside the scripture.”

Hombirg is aware there are many things in the world influencing children, with many of those things being destructive.

“The world is, obviously pulling them in every direction. A lot of the kids here we may only see a couple of hours a week. We just try to feed them some theologically sound information while they’re here. We try to really invest in the parents as well because that’s the biggest influence in their lives,” Hombirg said. “Hopefully, it’s going to be the home that helps us. If we can invest in the parents as well as the kid, the chances of them becoming followers and believers of Christ greatly increases, which is definitely not a popular thing now days.”

Hombirg said some of the youth he works with already have the seed of Christianity planted in them because they’ve been in church since an early age. “Being raised in the church is not a guarantee of anything. It definitely increases the chances of there being a biblical foundation or basis. Kids in the youth groups are just likely to be exposed to all the hard things in the world — drugs, alcohol, sex and all the other stuff we think we are shielding our kids from,” he said.

Since he’s been at First Baptist Church, Hombirg said, the most memorable time he’s had with the church’s youth came during a ski trip to Beckley, West Virginia, a few weeks ago, one, because no one got hurt. More importantly, he noted, one boy decided to accept Jesus as his savior, and another boy has been thinking about doing the same. The boy who accepted Jesus will be baptized soon.

Although those who went got to ski, they also were there to worship, which they did on a Saturday night and a Sunday morning — the main reason for the trip, he said.

Hombirg is a fan of Kentucky Wildcats basketball. He’s pleased that former Northside High School basketball standout Edrice “Bam” Adebayo decided to wear the darker blue of Kentucky than the Carolina blue of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I’m not sure if Beaufort County got the better end of the deal when I came here and Bam went there. I know people in Kentucky are really excited to have him there,” Hombirg said. “I’ve heard a lot of positive things about him. I’ve never heard a bad word about him.”