How Discipleship Enhances our Leadership Skills

Last updated on: October 6, 2024 at 9:03 am By Rob Giannamore

In September, the Benedictine teacher, Joan Chittester challenged us to think about discipleship through her Monastic Way newsletter. I found this edition to be incredibly intriguing as the other subject that I have studied more than contemplative thought is leadership. My first experience with leadership principles was in high school. For four years, I was part of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corp or JROTC and later in college, I would attend two years of the Senior Reserve Officers... Read more

A Contemplative Life Aids in the Discovery of Our Faith

Last updated on: September 29, 2024 at 2:18 pm By Rob Giannamore

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This week, Richard Rohr’s meditations are all about the monastic and contemplative life. He offers this on September 22nd, , “Parker Palmer writes, “The function of contemplation in all its forms is to penetrate illusion and help us to touch reality.” I almost became a religious monastic with the Catholic orders of St. Benedict or the Redemptorists. I was 17 when I had my first “call” experience. If you have never received a call to the ministry, it is... Read more

Spiritual Practices for Seasons of Transition

Last updated on: September 26, 2024 at 10:54 am By Rob Giannamore

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Autumn is Here Next week, we will be celebrating our youngest child’s 15th birthday. We have four kids, and each birth was different in its own special way, each pregnancy a season of transition. Having children requires a couple to go through a season of transition. For us, it was one child, then two, then three and finally four. On the other end of this, we have said goodbye to the childhood of two of our children and now are... Read more

The Art of Moderation: Considering Aristotle’s Golden Mean

Last updated on: September 22, 2024 at 2:15 pm By Rob Giannamore

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Moderation as a practice is a practice of patience, maturity and time. It is a practice that when done intentionally, matures as we mature. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church once stated that “buying, selling, and drinking of liquor, unless absolutely necessary, were evils to be avoided.” This statement followed a period known as the “Gin Craze” in the early 18th century where the production and consumption of gin skyrocketed in England. Wesley would be one of the earliest... Read more

Spiritual Practices That Can Help Us Release Shame

Last updated on: September 22, 2024 at 1:05 pm By Rob Giannamore

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Shame As a clinician, I deal with a lot of emotions on a daily basis. No emotion is so insidious as is shame. My client last week brought up the idea of “landfill emotions” but he could not exactly explain what he meant by it or where he heard it. Upon some digging, I found this: “Shame is the landfill emotion. It’s not organic, like joy. It was dumped there by someone else” (Burroughs, 2012). I cannot agree more... Read more

Would the Real Faith of Jesus Please Stand Up?

Last updated on: September 14, 2024 at 4:33 pm By Rob Giannamore

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Is the Seven Mountain Mandate Christian? A troubling theology or theory is plaguing our Christian landscape right now, potentially undermining the genuine efforts Christians have been making for thousands of years since Jesus left us. In this post, I want to explore the Seven Mountains theory, some of the theological history behind it and demonstrate how it undermines the Acts 2 mission and misleads our politics. Begun in 1975, The Seven Mountain Mandate, also Seven Mountains Mandate, 7M, or Seven Mountains Dominionism, is... Read more

Self Improvement Through the Spiritual Practice of You

Last updated on: September 11, 2024 at 10:40 am By Rob Giannamore

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The Spiritual Practice of You September is Self-Improvement Month YOU If you are reading this right now, pause and meditate on these words: “YOU are God’s Beloved.” “YOU are wanted.” “YOU are loved.” Now if you are in a place emotionally or mentally where this does not feel true, then change the word YOU to I and use this a trailing mantra: I am wanted, I am, I. When you come to the I, understand that that is you... Read more

How to Foster Genuine Connections in Ministry

Last updated on: September 7, 2024 at 5:06 pm By Rob Giannamore

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Connections with people within and without our church walls is vital for the life of our church. Has our inability to connect with the world around us sealed the death nail in our church coffin? How do we ministry with rather than for people In preacher school, we learn about missiology or the academic study of Christian mission history and methodology. My study was taught by an amazing woman preacher by the name of (Dr.) Diane Lobody and she had... Read more

Coffee with Jesus – Pumpkin Spice Season

Last updated on: September 4, 2024 at 9:42 am By Rob Giannamore

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I had Coffee With Jesus recently, it had been a minute, and we needed to catch up. After our usual pleasantries, we ordered our coffees, mine black, like Goth black and for Jesus, this time was an Americano, he said he with a wink that he liked the way the water made it taste more like coffee. It is beginning to look a lot like pumpkin spice season up here in the Northern parts of America and leaves are... Read more

How Can we Confront Religious Radicalizaiton?

Last updated on: September 1, 2024 at 12:18 pm By Rob Giannamore

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Religious radicalization is a global concern and a threat to traditional religious ideologies. In the religion class I teach at the Community College, I explain to my students that the world religion comes from the Latin word, re ligio, which means to bring together. What then has religion become today when we are so divided along simple expressions of belonging as suggested by Jesus such as “love your neighbor?” or “do unto others”. Why have we planted our subjective faith... Read more

Who was the wealthy woman who supported Jesus and the apostles?