Mansions of the Heart
Exploring the Seven Stages of Spiritual Growth
by Thomas Ashbrook
In Mansions of the Heart, author R. Thomas Ashbrook begins with his personal story of frustration and confusion while serving as a pastor of the church. He tells of discovering a new path of spiritual transformation and offers seekers a way to move forward on their own spiritual paths.
Written for anyone who wants to develop a deeper, more meaningful relationship with God, Mansions of the Heart offers a step-by-step guide through a spiritual-formation road map based on Teresa of Avila’s seven mansions. This spiritual classic reveals various phases of spiritual formation, for which Ashbrook offers a personal guide to spiritual transformation. Mansions debunks commonly held myths that lead to spiritual dead ends and describes a clear pathway to a deepening love relationship with God. The book also offers church leaders a process for helping people in their faith communities grow as disciples of Christ.
2019 Fortress Press
About the Author
Tom Ashbrook has served as the co-founder and team leader for Church Resource Ministries’ (CRM) international spiritual formation ministry, The Order of Imago Christi for the past 15 years. 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 and coaching for pastors, churches, and missionaries in various parts of the world and teaches in spiritual formation discovery seminars and other spiritual formation settings. Before Imago Christi, he served as a Lutheran pastor for 26 years. He lives with his wife Charlotte in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
Tom has 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 from George Fox Evangelical Seminary.
Tom 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.
Tom’s passion is to see the Church authentically live out the loving presence of Jesus and invites everyone to know Jesus as Savior. To this end, he desires to help Christian leaders grow in an intimate relationship of love with God that enables them to flourish as spiritually healthy leaders with the spiritual authority that emerges from their relationship with Jesus. Tom is zealous in his conviction that it is the love of God, His very essence, which transforms us into Christ-likeness and motivates and empowers our love for others.
To learn more about Tom and is ministry, see:
www.ImagoChristi.org