For more than two decades, Reverend Tom Simmons has led St. Peter's Episcopal Church with a style that is both pastorally direct and unusually personal. His ministry has never been limited to Sunday mornings. It has unfolded during coffees and lunches, Bible studies, prayer groups, counseling sessions, , hospital rooms, vestry meetings, parish work days, and on emergency calls with the Purcellville Volunteer Rescue Squad. What distinguishes Simmons is not longevity or credentials, though he has both, but the clarity of his focus: bringing Jesus into the life of families, living by grace in hard relationships and learning how Jesus heals us.
Simmons grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, and came to ordained ministry after an early adult life that included service as an Army infantryman and work on Capitol Hill. That background still shows. He speaks plainly, expects a lot of himself and others, and has little patience for abstractions that do not translate into lived change. When he was ordained in the late 1990s and later called to St. Peter’s in Purcellville in 2002, he brought with him a conviction that faith reshapes daily life.
That conviction led him toward a focus on family life in his pastoral work. Simmons believes that family relationships are where Christian faith is first encountered and most tangibly experienced. Marriage, parenting, and intergenerational bonds are where God’s grace either becomes a lived reality, or a fading priority. In sermons, Bible studies, and pastoral counseling, he returns to the same core insistence: believing Jesus, following Jesus, and sharing Jesus begin at home, not as slogans, but as habits we must form intentionally.
Over the years, Simmons has spent a lot of time working on issues of emotional health, particularly anger. That emphasis did not emerge from theory or professional fashion. It came from experience. In the mid-2010s, Simmons confronted his own struggle with anger, a struggle he has spoken about openly in his teaching and writing.
Rather than hiding behind clerical authority, Simmons chose transparency. He sought help through structured programs, professional counseling, and sustained self-examination. He has spoken candidly about how that work exposed the assumptions, triggers, and unresolved wounds that fueled his reactions. He has been able to translate his learning into helping others.
What followed was a shift in his ministry. Simmons adapted what he had learned into teaching series at St. Peter’s and into written columns for the local Purcellville Gazette. The response surprised him. Parishioners wanted more than sermons. They wanted tools, language, and accountability. Some asked to continue the work one-on-one. Over time, Simmons found himself coaching men and women through anger-related struggles, not as a therapist, but as a pastor who knew the terrain firsthand.
This posture of shared vulnerability has become a defining feature of Simmons’s leadership at St. Peter’s. He often uses a simple image to explain his counseling philosophy: problems, he says, are like shadows on a cave wall. In the dark, they look monstrous. Brought into the light, they usually become manageable. That belief shapes how he meets people in crisis. He lowers the temperature, strips away shame, and insists that most problems can be addressed with honesty, patience, teamwork and the good news of Jesus.
The approach is not without risk. Simmons readily acknowledges that some people prefer their clergy on a pedestal, untroubled and unscarred. Transparency can unsettle those expectations. Yet he believes the alternative is worse. Judgy church cultures can lead to shallow relationships when people are guarded and anxious to display what good Christians they are. By contrast, when leaders model honesty, repentance and growth, congregations often follow.
Beyond counseling, Simmons has invested heavily in equipping families through education. Working with his children’s and youth ministers, they ensure that sermons and programming address the cultural forces shaping young people’s emotional lives. He points parents toward books, podcasts, and trusted mental health professionals. His goal is not to replace therapy or coaching, but to integrate spiritual formation with psychological insight in ways that respect both.
His community engagement reflects the same integrative mindset. Simmons has served as chaplain for the Purcellville Volunteer Rescue Squad and sat on the board of INOVA Loudoun Hospital. He has also helped found a local Marriage Mentoring movement, focused on marriage preparation and enrichment. This extends St. Peter's reach beyond its walls and roots its ministry in the concrete needs of his congregation and of the region.
The Marriage Mentor program pairs experienced couples with those preparing to get married or are navigating a difficult season. The emphasis is practical and relational. Couples discuss their expectations about conflict, communication, sex, raising children and extended family and faith facilitated by the Mentors, using tried-and-true communications exercises. The work helps couples surface their differing assumptions and deal with them.
Simmons’s vocational interests extend beyond parish life. With a Doctor of Ministry degree in preaching from Gordon-Conwell Seminary, where he studied under Haddon Robinson, he also serves as a sermon coach to clergy across denominations. That work mirrors his pastoral style. Rather than critiquing sermons line by line, he asks questions, helping preachers develop greater clarity, get their creative juices flowing again, and regain confidence in the pulpit. Clients often report reduced stress and renewed energy, outcomes Simmons sees as essential to sustainable ministry.
Outside the church, Simmons is a woodworker. His shop, known as Creation in Wood, produces items ranging from toys to furniture, custom millwork and cabinetry, projects that reflect patience, craft, and a passion for making things that are beautiful and useful. He has spoken about woodworking as a counterbalance to ministry, a discipline where he can obsess about efficient process and see his vision turned into reality.
At home, Simmons is a husband, father, and stepfather in a large blended family. Family life, in other words, is not an abstract pastoral theme. It is daily practice. That reality informs his credibility. Parishioners know that when Simmons talks about conflict, reconciliation, or endurance, he is speaking from experience.
After more than twenty years at St. Peter’s, Reverend Tom Simmons remains focused on fundamentals. He is less interested now in church growth strategies than in whether people are growing in measurable ways. Are marriages steadier? Are parents passing their faith to their children, especially in the teen years? Are children living their faith at school? Are people growing through relational “friction” in church groups and at home? Are they reading the Bible devotionally, and in small groups? Are they praying consistently? Are they giving their time and treasure to serve others? Those are the metrics that matter to him.
In a religious landscape often dominated by branding and production value, Simmons’s ministry stands out for its steadiness and its refusal to pretend that Christian faith provides “pat answers.” Instead, he argues, the news about Jesus equips people to embrace complex truths with wisdom and balance, trusting Jesus to make us whole. At St. Peter’s in Purcellville, that conviction continues to shape a community willing to do the hard, hopeful work of change.
