{"id":25,"date":"2020-11-04T22:52:43","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T22:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/?page_id=25"},"modified":"2020-11-06T16:58:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T16:58:11","slug":"m-simmons","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/?page_id=25","title":{"rendered":"M. Simmons"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"themify_builder_content-25\" data-postid=\"25\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-25 themify_builder\">\n    \t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div   class=\"themify_builder_row module_row clearfix fullcover fullwidth_row_container module_row_0 themify_builder_25_row module_row_25-0 tb_5o43260\">\n\t    <div class=\"builder_row_cover\"><\/div>\t    <div class=\"row_inner col_align_middle direction-rtl\"   data-desktop_dir=\"rtl\">\n\t\t\t<div  class=\"module_column tb-column col-full first tb_25_column module_column_0 module_column_25-0-0 tb_e1j8264 repeat\" >\n\t    \t    \t        <div class=\"tb-column-inner\">\n\t\t    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_v9sw266  repeat  \">\n            <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><strong>\u201cAt the tender age of thirteen I made a personal commitment to Christ following an Evangelistic weekend at my local Methodist church.\u00a0 Encouraged and helped by my parents and friends at the very same church I grew in my faith. In my mid-teens I joined a Christian folk group and had my first taste of evangelism through music.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>After leaving school at sixteen I began working in the family business of Electrical Contracting where I remained for 9 years. Then in 1982 I seized the opportunity to engage in full-time Christian work joining the Saltmine Trust, developing gifts in evangelism and music. Following 14 years in itinerant ministry I believed that God was calling me to \u2018ordained ministry\u2019 in the Baptist church. And so in September 1996 I moved down to London to begin training at Spurgeon\u2019s College and Chatsworth Baptist church.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Four years later I came out with a theology degree and a raging migraine! Accepting an invitation from Selly Park Baptist church to become their pastor, I headed off to Birmingham where I was inducted into the ministry on 14 October 2000.\u00a0 (I have been here ever since)\u201c\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Despite the most zealous efforts of some members of my family, I remain single! However I am the very proud uncle of 7 nieces 1 nephew, 5 great nephews and 2 great nieces (at the last count!) And,\u00a0 my Goddaughter\u2019s brother\u2019s Godfather\u2019s wife is Princess Anne! (Work that one out!) \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->\n\t        <\/div>\n\t    \t<\/div>\n\t\t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div   class=\"themify_builder_row module_row clearfix module_row_1 themify_builder_25_row module_row_25-1 tb_vlfq261\">\n\t    \t    <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top\" >\n\t\t\t<div  class=\"module_column tb-column col-full first tb_25_column module_column_0 module_column_25-1-0 tb_r3qp272\">\n\t    \t    \t<\/div>\n\t\t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAt the tender age of thirteen I made a personal commitment to Christ following an Evangelistic weekend at my local Methodist church.\u00a0 Encouraged and helped by my parents and friends at the very same church I grew in my faith. In my mid-teens I joined a Christian folk group and had my first taste of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-25","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"<p><strong>\u201cAt the tender age of thirteen I made a personal commitment to Christ following an Evangelistic weekend at my local Methodist church.\u00a0 Encouraged and helped by my parents and friends at the very same church I grew in my faith. In my mid-teens I joined a Christian folk group and had my first taste of evangelism through music.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p> <p><strong>After leaving school at sixteen I began working in the family business of Electrical Contracting where I remained for 9 years. Then in 1982 I seized the opportunity to engage in full-time Christian work joining the Saltmine Trust, developing gifts in evangelism and music. Following 14 years in itinerant ministry I believed that God was calling me to \u2018ordained ministry\u2019 in the Baptist church. And so in September 1996 I moved down to London to begin training at Spurgeon\u2019s College and Chatsworth Baptist church.<\/strong><\/p> <p><strong>Four years later I came out with a theology degree and a raging migraine! Accepting an invitation from Selly Park Baptist church to become their pastor, I headed off to Birmingham where I was inducted into the ministry on 14 October 2000.\u00a0 (I have been here ever since)\u201c\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p> <p><strong>Despite the most zealous efforts of some members of my family, I remain single! However I am the very proud uncle of 7 nieces 1 nephew, 5 great nephews and 2 great nieces (at the last count!) And,\u00a0 my Goddaughter\u2019s brother\u2019s Godfather\u2019s wife is Princess Anne! (Work that one out!) \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.spbc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}