the lower room

The theme for April 16 will be _____.  We'll save the war discussion for May, when we have a bigger group, as April's group might be a little small.

As Rose read in our meeting Sunday night, we received the following email from Leonard Sweet this week.

Eli and Colleagues

I am so excited to hear about your newest initiative . . . “The Lower Room.” I love its play on words with “The Upper Room,” and hope you will continue that creative thrust in all you do. As you begin this new worship walk, I’d like to anoint you with a poem. It’s one that has guided and guarded me this past year, and seems to mean more to me the older the get. It’s called “Anyway,” which is the Christian counterpoint to the cultural mantra “Whatever.” Kent Keith is the poet who wrote this

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives, Be kind anyway . . .

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight, Build anyway . . .

The good you do today, people will Often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough, Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway. Kent Keith, “Anyway”

What you are doing is between you and God . . . Anyway. Your “Anyway” friend who believes that Jesus is the Only Way, Anyway Leonard Sweet

Much thanks to Len for the kind words.  You can learn more about him at his website: Leonard Sweet.com 

Our theme for the lower room in March is Mercy. Our worship time and our discussion will be focused on the theme of Mercy, and how Jesus’ example of love for sinners can be summed up by the story of the woman caught in adultery. This story can be found in chapter 8 of the book of John. Please read and meditate on this story and think about the following questions:

• How does this story make you feel?
• Did Jesus respond differently than you would have?
• Do you identify with any of the players in this story (Jesus, the woman, the Pharisees)? If so, in what way?
• What can we do to show mercy today?
• To whom can we show mercy today?

If you have any additional resources to bring to the meeting that might help us learn about mercy, please bring it, whether it be other Bible stories, poems or other literature, drawings or other visual arts, songs, etc.

Feel free also to use the comments on this post to start the discussion, and we’ll see you March 19. Dinner (potluck) will start around 5.

Last night (March 5), we had our first meeting in the lower room.  It was a small beginning, but it was valuable for getting the core team together to talk, plan, and pray.  One important decision we made was around our meeting time.  As of now, we will meet in the lower room on the 3rd Sunday of each month at 5 PM, beginning March 19.  Each meeting will begin with a potluck meal, with Morning Star Church providing table service and coffee.  Everything else will be up to us.

Our worship time and discussion/teaching time will be based around a different theme each month.  The theme for the March meeting has not yet been determined – stay tuned here for updates.  We have printed up cards which can be used to let folks know about the lower room website.  If you would like some of these cards to hand out to people, let us know here in the comments.