by Cindy Peterson-Wlosinski
Vicar, St. Andrew's by the Lake

What do Madeline Island, a Target parking lot and the State Fair have in common?  They are all great places to do 'dislocated exegesis'.  What in the world is that?  It is simply doing bible study in a place that is dislocated (or very different) from where we usually study scripture.

Tweens, Teens and Adults from St. Andrew's by the Lake had a variety of opportunities to experience this technique of engaging scripture.  I learned of this technique through an article I read in Christian Century magazine by Lauren Winner - and later - at clergy conference in May when she was one of the presenters.

We took our teenagers to Madeline Island to spend a day 'practicing Sabbath' and looked at various passages from scripture while we were on the ferry dock, the beach, and the picnic area. We followed that day trip with a lock-in back at the church. There were lots of opportunities to open up our bibles, offer prayer, laugh, eat, laugh, play, laugh, relax.........and restore.

Our Tweens had a two day Vacation Bible Camp that included six different times of Bible study in places like: the beach behind St. Andrew's, inside the church, Target parking lot, McDonalds, a roadside rest on Highway 35, and Taylor's Falls Water park. They also did three service projects (Animal Allies, T-Shirts for Africa and a beach sweep) and learned about different prayer styles (Ignatian prayer, finger painting, praying in color, praying with clay, and Lectio Divina).

The Adults focused on 'generativity' - the way we create life in different seasons of our lives - particularly 'elder birth' and 'virgin birth'. For this, we went to the State Fair, did a scripture study on Mary and Elizabeth, and looked for signs of generativity all around us. Needless to say, we found a few. You know, all those 'foods on a stick' are really quite 'generative' - very creative!

Usually, I study scripture with groups at church or in my chair at home. Dislocated Exegesis is an awesome way to get out, open up the bible with others and experience God in our lives in a fresh way. We had a lot of 'God-sightings' this summer - and a lot of fun being with each other.