The Spiritual Formation Mission
In the winter of 1998, after twenty years of pastoral ministry, five churches, and an advanced study in spiritual formation, God spoke to me with new directions:
"I want you to form a cross-cultural and international community of men and women
that will help the leaders of My church lead out of their love for me rather than the alternatives."
In the next few years, I had left my pastoral call, joined an international missions organization called Novo, earned a doctorate in spiritual formation, and founded Imago Christi in partnership with a career missionary in Russia and a spiritual formation ministry in Hungary.
We found Christian leaders who felt powerless to minister to a world culture caught up in massive secularism, humanism, and political upheaval. The worldwide Covid epidemic had substituted online discussions and social media for gathered worship and genuine loving relationships in many of their churches. Pastors left their ministries in record numbers and seminary applications plummeted. Had religious strategies and organizational structures become false shepherds that blurred our vision of Jesus, our Good Shepherd?
At the same time, in some parts of the world, Christianity is spreading in amazing ways so that thousands of pastors and leaders will soon be needed and must be trained and equipped. In all these conditions, Christian leaders must not only survive, but flourish wherever they serve. For this to happen, Christian leaders must learn how to abide in Christ in an intimate relationship of love that enables their transformation into Christ’s likeness and empowers them to lead like Jesus.
OUR MISSION - Encourage and help leaders deepen their loving intimacy with God so that He can transform them into His likeness and enable them to minister in His power and authority.
Today, over twenty years later, Imago Christi (Image of Christ), has worked with pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Turkey, The Czech Republic, Singapore, Fiji, Indonesia, China, Cambodia, South Africa, South Korea, Lithuania, Kenya, Canada, France and the US. We provide supportive relationships, coaching, spiritual direction, and formation resources that can be adapted to individual cultural contexts.
Tom also serves with the Spiritual Formation Society of Arizona which works to provide places for believers and leaders to create safe environments where learners and leaders can experience and grow in the love of the Trinity. Similar Societies are spreading to other locations in the US.
In both these contexts and independently, Tom is available to collaborate in these spiritual formational endeavors:
Collaboration
01
Locally Adapted Teaching and Training
Through the use of Zoom and other internet tools, unique opportunities can be created for churches and ministries using my publications and resources.
02
Developing Spiritual Forming Community
Exploring ways to transition task groups such as committees, boards, Bible study groups, ministry teams, fellowships, etc. into caring communities that experience abiding love in Christ and facilitate spiritual growth.
03
Spiritual Formation Consulting
Assisting other ministries explore how they might integrate spiritual formation in their own settings.
04
Spiritual Direction for Pastors and Christian Leaders
Helping find spiritual directors especially suited for Christian leaders.
The man that God used to lead me to Jesus gave me shared this profound insight: “When a person is experiencing God, it’s important to be with others who are experiencing God.” We find this particularly true in the spiritual formation movement. We need one another for encouragement, wisdom, strength, and intercession. I have listed below some aspects of spiritual formation that I am learning about and sometimes help others explore in their own contexts.
THE HEART OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION
TOM'S BIOGRAPHY
I grew up in a poor family without Jesus (at least that I knew of). A short, red headed, freckled face kid, and totally inept at sports, I came to believe that I was unworthy and unlovable. Then God brought me my fourth grade teacher who showed me that I wasn’t stupid, so I learned to seek worthiness through performance - engineering maybe.
Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Masters in Systems Management.
In the midst of my failure to find worthiness, God brought me a college professor who introduced me to Jesus. What better way to become worthy than to bring people to Christ. I would perform well as a pastor.
Masters of Divinity.
In the midst of my failure to find worthiness through performance in preaching, teaching, and growing churches, God brought me a Trappist monk named Boniface who introduced me to real intimacy with Jesus and the journey of becoming His beloved. I began learning to listen in prayer, intuit God’s heart, and most of all to love.
Doctor of Ministry in Spiritual Formation.
God used twenty-six years of pastoring, founding a spiritual formation Order called Imago Christi, and another twenty years ministering as a spiritual formation missionary to bring me to one singular focus:
Living into a new identity – God’s beloved!
Now a days, I have the privilege of working with the Spiritual Formation Society of Arizona and continuing much of the ministry fun I’ve had before. Caught up in the most amazing love affair with my wife Charlotte where we live in Fountain Hills, Arizona, and totally blessed by three amazing kids and their spouses, and five brilliant college-age grandkids.
I share all this simply as context for my desire to walk with others that our Lord has called to become one with Him and one with one-another in a journey of discovery. As we’re caught up in the whirlwind of the Holy Spirit we discover Jesus in new ways; we discover others in the light of God’s love; we discover the Church as the Body of our Beloved; we discover ourselves for who we really are – the beloved of the Most High God… worthy!
Maybe our Lord can use some of what I have written and shared to encourage your journey of becoming with Him. Maybe our lives can touch and we can journey a bit together.
BECOMING GOD'S BELOVED
I am so grateful to have been caught up by the winds of the Holy Spirit in this amazing movement called Spiritual Formation. God called me from an Aeronautical Engineering profession into pastoral ministry. Unfortunately, I took with me the assumptions that I could use a formula to bring people to Christ and lead the church. All I needed were key biblical principles and the right tools. It even seemed to work for a bit. Fortunately, Jesus intervened and led me down a path of personal transformation out of which I began to learn to intuit His heart, become His beloved, and follow His leadership as a Pastor and then a Spiritual Formation Missionary. I’d like to share some of what I am learning in support of your own journey of discovery and invite you to connect if you feel led.