Tom Ashbrook
Spiritual Formation Associate and Co-Founder of the Order of Imago Christi
Tom has served as a member of the Core Community of the Order of Imago Christi, since 2004 when he co-founded the ministry with Bill O’Byrne and Endi Kovacs. In 2000, he joined Church Resource Ministries (now: Novo) to establish their spiritual formation ministry. As a missionary with Imago Christi, Tom develops spiritual formation resources and coaches Christian leaders and churches to live and lead with a spiritual authority grounded in loving intimacy with Jesus. He provides spiritual direction for pastors and missionaries and teaches in spiritual formation discovery seminars and other spiritual formation settings. He has also taught spiritual direction as part of Selah, a ministry of Leadership Transformations.
Tom now serves as an Associate member of Imago Christi and serves as Minister of Formation with the Spiritual Formation Society of Arizona. (see www.SFSAZ.org)
Tom also extends his ministry through his writings on spiritual formation. He is author of Mansions of the Heart: Seven Stages of Spiritual Growth, and co-author of Mansions of the Heart Study Guide. In 2014, Tom published a novel, Presence: What if Jesus Were Really Here, and a companion study guide, Discovering Christ’s Presence. His article, “The Right Disciplines at the Right Time: Understanding the Journey with Teresa of Avila,” was published in Conversations Journal in 2014. He published a collaborative book, Contagious Fire: Enflaming Hearts for God and Mission in 2018 (see Books by OIC Authors).
Tom earned a B.S. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Arizona State University, an M.S. in Management Systems from the University of Southern California, and an M.Div. from Luther Theological Seminary. He received his D.Min. in Spiritual Formation and Leadership from George Fox Evangelical Seminary.
Tom describes his call to the ministry of spiritual formation. “While pastoring in Sandy, Utah, I began visiting a Trappist Monastery, where my passion for spiritual formation became kindled and my contemplative side awakened. I discovered the vast journey of a deepening love relationship with God that extends beyond what I had traditionally known as “discipleship.” In my own deepening intimacy with Jesus, God ignited a passion for helping Christian leaders deepen their intimacy and love with the Trinity. Fifteen years later, God gave me a vision for a community of men and women who would invite the leaders of His church to minister out of their love for Him rather than the many other alternatives. The fruit of that vision would become Imago Christi. I have been forever formed through the wonderful experiment of ministering in this covenant community which stands on our First Order Calling to love God and then follows Jesus together in our Second Order Calling as spiritual formation missionaries.”
Tom lives with his wife, Charlotte, in Fountain Hills, Arizona in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Change link below to tom@tomashbrook.us