Reverend Tom Simmons stands in the pulpit at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Purcellville, where he has served as rector since 2002. His mission is clear: lift up Jesus Christ above all counterfeit gods through great liturgy, preaching and teaching to stimulate growth in God’s people and equip them to share him with others.
“My core gift from the beginning of my call to ministry is teaching the Bible,” he says.
That gift has shaped more than two decades of ministry. It’s visible in the sermon preparation he coaches for clergy colleagues across the country. In the Shop Class he teaches to seventh graders at Good Shepherd School in Loudoun County. In the strategic plans he develops for parish growth.
Before giving his life to the church, Simmons served as a machine gunner in the 3/116 Infantry Battalion and as a Capitol Hill staffer in both the House and Senate. He grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, and earned his master of divinity from Westminster Seminary in 1993. After graduation, he avoided the call to ministry he was sensing from God. His two pastors had modeled ministry in ways he didn’t think he could live up to.
God created an opportunity to try again at a small, troubled Episcopal church. Reverend Tom Simmons discovered he could minister well. He used his gifts of creative vision and leadership to raise the congregation’s morale, deal with conflict among leaders and help find a good path forward.
At the bishop’s urging, he entered the ordination process in the Diocese of Virginia. The process was extended by a year because he had more to learn. That extra year allowed him to earn a master’s in Christian Education from Virginia Seminary in 1998, the same year he was ordained.
He worked as assistant rector at a large church in Richmond for four years, serving under three rectors during a transition period. Then he was ready to become rector of St. Peter’s with a full head of steam.
Community Leadership That Reaches Beyond the Pews
Simmons doesn’t keep ministry contained within church walls.
For a small congregation, St. Peter’s punches above its weight in community leadership. The church has been heavily involved in missionary partnerships abroad, particularly in Guatemala and Liberia. They generate considerable resources to support partners overseas and send annual mission groups to Guatemala.
Locally, they were instrumental in creating Tree of Life, a food pantry serving the poor in Purcellville. Over the years, St. Peter’s has provided core staffing, both paid and volunteer, to sustain and dramatically expand that ministry.
The church also hosts what Simmons calls Famous Events throughout the year. Mardi Gras, Independence Day, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Thanksgiving Together and Christmas Eve bring the community together for great food, music, fun and prayer. The strategy deploys the congregation’s greatest strength, hospitality, to turn strangers into friends, friends into followers of Jesus.
Simmons raised St. Peter’s profile through direct community involvement. He wrote a bimonthly newspaper column called Church Chat until 2019. He served as chaplain of the Purcellville Volunteer Rescue Squad until 2020. He sits on the board of INOVA Loudoun Hospital.
His leadership style runs on creative vision, great liturgy and preaching, transparency and non-judgment to foster honesty and trust, connecting with others to build hard-working teams, permission-giving to encourage buy-in among leaders, staffing to build organizational capacity and upbeat confidence to stimulate hope and resilience.
“It takes a team,” he says. “My strengths are fairly narrowly focused and my inadequacies need to be shored up by strong, talented people on the team who share their thoughts freely.”
When he arrived at St. Peter’s in 2002, the place exploded with growth, doubling in size twice in six years. In recent years, the church has made immense progress improving and upgrading buildings and grounds to maximize their beauty, usefulness and capacity. With many talented people in the congregation, they’ve done an amazing amount of the work themselves. This has enabled them to lease property to a school and another congregation, which has been a financial boon.
Pastoral Care Built on Prayer and Partnership
Reverend Tom Simmons recognizes his limitations when it comes to pastoral care.
His approach has been to share that work with a team of people strong in empathy, intuitive care and connection. Together they maintain awareness of people’s needs and collaborate in providing multiple touches for people enduring illness, loss or other kinds of struggle.
In the last three years, he developed a discipline of praying for people daily. He uses prayer cards to capture the needs of the congregation. This helps him keep track and stay connected with dozens of individuals over time.
He texts people when he prays for them.
His core values guide this work: Follow Jesus. Be yourself. Own it. Let people decide for themselves. Allow people to say no and never use guilt to get to yes.
This transparency and integrity form the foundation of his ministry at St. Peter’s. The congregation knows where he stands. They know his strengths and his gaps.
“I try to not maintain a facade to meet people’s expectations, but be open and honest about my opinions and priorities, weaknesses and struggles,” he says.
The Sermon Coach Who Teaches Teachers
Reverend Tom Simmons St. Peter’s earned his doctor of ministry in preaching from Gordon-Conwell Seminary in 2017, where he studied under legendary preacher Haddon Robinson.
From that doctoral work, he now serves as The Sermon Coach to clergy colleagues, helping them develop their passion and skill for preparing and delivering sermons. It’s pioneering work that combines his core gift for teaching the Bible with his understanding of what makes preaching effective.
He teaches Shop Class to seventh graders at Good Shepherd School. Woodworking is a passion, a hobby and a side business called Creation in Wood. He loves making things that are beautiful and useful: furniture, toys, interiors, casework, kitchens. The bigger the project, the better.
He also served on the board of Coaching Mission International, a nonprofit dedicated to providing coaching services for frontline missionaries.
Now he’s launching a podcast. The format makes it easier to develop content and draw a crowd to share it. In-house talent at St. Peter’s makes the technical production and marketing aspects achievable.
The podcast offers new possibilities. A way to reach people beyond Purcellville. A way to get back to the teaching that’s always been his core gift. A way to build on the sermon coaching work that grew from his doctoral studies.
“I want to get back to teaching and I think it could help strengthen St. Peter’s for the future,” he says.
The podcast represents a return to his roots. Teaching the Bible. Stimulating growth in God’s people. Equipping them to share Jesus with others.
His leadership at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church has always centered on building vigorous faith through great liturgy and preaching. The sermon isn’t just what he delivers on Sunday mornings. It’s what he coaches other clergy to deliver in their own congregations. It’s the teaching method he brings to seventh graders learning to use woodworking tools. It’s the strategic vision he casts for how a small church can have an outsized impact in its community.
Looking Ahead With Hope and Realism
At 58, Reverend Tom Simmons is thinking about the future with both hope and realism.
He has a twelve-week sabbatical coming up in 2026. Deep rest and refreshment. A chance for reflection and discerning how to be most useful to God and his people in the years ahead.
His approach to leadership remains consistent. It’s the same approach he brings to his woodworking. Making things that are beautiful and useful.
St. Peter’s represents his biggest project. More than two decades of ministry in one place, the missionary partnerships in Guatemala and Liberia, the food pantry serving the poor, the community events that turn strangers into friends, the sermon coaching that helps other clergy find their voice, the daily prayers and the texts that follow.
He loves studying, playing strategy games, shooting, and preaching. He delights to see people’s lives change for the better.
Made a priest in 1998 with a mission to lift up Jesus Christ above all counterfeit gods. Through great liturgy, preaching, teaching. To stimulate growth in God’s people and equip them to share him with others.
The mission hasn’t changed. The methods keep evolving. The commitment to transparency, integrity and service remains bedrock.
It’s that honesty that makes Reverend Tom Simmons effective as a leader, a teacher, a coach and a rector. He knows what he’s good at. He knows where he needs help. He builds teams to fill the gaps. He stays connected through prayer. He keeps improving the facilities. He keeps teaching the Bible.
And he keeps turning strangers into friends, and friends, into followers of Jesus.