Each Ashram has an Ashram Director, an Evangelist, and a Bible Teacher.
Gary Wheeler – Ashram Director
Rev. Gary Wheeler began attending Ashrams in Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas as a teenager with his family. As Director, he guides the daily events during the Ashram as well as the Board of Twelve leadership team during the rest of the year. He is a United Methodist pastor who has served churches in Kentucky, Georgia and Ohio, and is currently serving Germantown United Methodist Church in Germantown, Ohio. His other activities include co-chairing the Miami Valley District Location and Building Committee as well as serving on the West Ohio Conference Camping and Retreats Ministry Team. He is very involved in the Greater Dayton Walk to Emmaus Community, where he is a Community Spiritual Director and serves on the Board. He is a member of the Faith-Based subcommittee with the Valley View Drug-Free Coalition. He is also a member of Dayton Pilots’ Club and serves on its Board of Trustees as the Treasurer.
Gary is married to Myra, who is a social worker with Children’s Services. They have four adult aged sons: Marty, Kevin, Matt, and Greggie. His hobbies include flying (he has his Private Pilot’s License), watching sports, computers, and music.
2019 Evangelist: Tom Albin
We are very blessed to have as our 2019 Evangelist the Rev. Tom Albin.
Tom grew up in Kansas, received degrees from Oral Roberts University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and a doctoral degree from Cambridge in England. He is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church.
After serving in the local church, Tom joined the faculty of Boston University School of Theology where he taught courses in American Church History, Wesley Studies, Evangelism and Church Growth. A year later, he accepted the invitation to develop a program in Christian Spiritual Formation at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. In 1999, he began working for The Upper Room in Nashville as the Director of Spiritual Formation and Congregational Life.
In 2013, he became the Executive Director of the United Christian Ashrams International. In 2015, he traveled with Anne Mathews Younes and others to celebrate the 85th Anniversary of the Christian Ashram in Sat Tal, India. Each year, he attends Ashrams throughout the world; by the end of 2018, Brother Tom had attended more than 65 Christian Ashrams in the USA, Canada, Korea and India.
Tom has written extensively on prayer, spiritual formation, Wesley studies, historical theology, mission, evangelism, and the Christian Ashram movement. Tom and his wife, Maryle, have three married daughters and seven grandchildren.
2019 Bible Teacher: John Oswalt
Our 2019 Bible Teacher is Dr. John Oswalt. Native of Mansfield, Ohio, he holds degrees from Taylor University, Asbury Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Brandeis University.
He was Research Professor of Old Testament at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. He has served on the faculty of Asbury Seminary twice previously, from 1970-1982, and from 1989-1999. Between those two appointments he was president of Asbury College (1983-1986) and a member of the faculty of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois (1986-1989). He is currently Visiting Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Dr. Oswalt’s writings have appeared in Bible encyclopedias, commentaries, scholarly journals, and popular religious periodicals. He has written or edited fifteen books. He was a member of the New International Version and the New Living Translation teams. He is currently writing a commentary on the Books of Kings.
John is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, served as part-time pastor, and is a frequent speaker in conferences, camps and local churches. He has preached and taught in sixteen countries outside of the United States. He is an associate evangelist with the Francis Asbury Society, located in Wilmore, Kentucky.
He is married to the former Karen Kennedy, and they have three children and five grandchildren.