I am a husband. I am a father. I am a pastor. And I am a coach, counselor and consultant. But mostly I am a recipient of the grace of God.
I spent most of my life looking for answers to my deepest questions and longings in the commonly prescribed cultural answers of material success and accumulation. But after 10 lucrative post-grad years in sales and marketing I came to the hard realization that no amount of these 
accumulations had the answers I was looking for. But then – by His grace alone – God transformed my life and gave me a new vision for a life following Jesus. After seminary and for the last 16 years, the Lord used our family to plant two fruitful churches in two very different contexts. And now, as I’m completing a Doctor of Ministry degree and continuing my coaching practice to fellow pastors, He has called us to plant our third church! All Souls Church of St. Louis
Testimonials
“Jay has a unique way quickly assessing a culture and engaging the culture. After only a couple of weeks of coaching, Jay was able to diagnose some of the greatest strengths we had as a church and some of our greatest weaknesses. What I loved about Jay was how he took that data and then helped me engage on bringing change in our organization. He asked me great questions and walked me through a process to discern some practical next steps. I believe that our church is healthier today because of Jay’s impact and leadership in my life. He is easy to work with, not afraid to say the hard things with grace, and a leader full of discernment and wisdom. I would recommend Jay to the youngest of church leaders up to the leader who is read for succession.”
“Jay helps preachers prayerfully discern the main point of the text and effectively target the heart of the hearers. Jay’s excellent at modeling how to methodically peel back the layers of a passage, expose the core heart issue or need behind it, and identify related areas of brokenness or need in our world today. Jay always points us to the all-sufficient hope and healing in Christ on offer in the text.”
“Jay Simmons is a spectacular preacher, but even more helpfully to those he coaches, he is a wonderful instructor of homiletical principles and style. Jay has enjoyed tremendous success, and he has done so in contexts that have brought tremendous challenge and nuance. So, he is seasoned and wise from real ministry experiences that produce deeper character and strength. Jay is extremely relational. He will coach no two people the same way, because he wants to get to know you. He wants to get to know your context. He wants to help you pastor your flock. You can absolutely be guaranteed that he will give you his attention, his prayerful reflection, and his well reasoned counsel. Pastors are used to thinking in terms of their calling to be prophetic, priestly, and Kingley. Jay has tremendous priestly gifts for your comfort and encouragement, and he also has tremendous prophetic insight for your congregation. He will help you to be able to discern the idols the culture is feeding your congregation and that your congregation is consuming and believing, and he will help you to see how the gospel brings light to that darkness, and how those idols can and must be displaced. Tremendous prophetic gift.”
“In a season when the voices of self-doubt were increasingly loud in my experience, Jay impressed on me that what the Kingdom of God wants from me is me, for me to be myself, to bring myself to the work God is calling me to do. Through years of mentorship, Jay has helped me to become who I am supposed to be; that journey is, of course, always unfolding, but Jay has been an indispensable guide along the way.”