A Group Exercise for Re-discovering Your Context

PURPOSE:  To re-discover the context that surrounds you, to get a sense of where God is already at work in your neighborhood, and inspire missional imagination in your faith community.

WHAT YOU NEED:  This project is best done with a group of 10-15, which breaks into smaller groups of 3-4 and will require:
4 digital cameras,
4 writing tablets,
the capability for projecting digital pictures (computer, projector, photo-software),
and a medium to gather and summarize the group’s discussion (white board, flip-pad, etc.).

FIELD STUDY ASSIGNMENT:  In teams of 3-4 walk in different directions starting from your location, bringing with you one digital camera per small group.  As you walk take pictures of things that you are drawn to and things that you avoid.  Be discreet and respectful.  You are an anthropologist and do not want to disrupt the environment that you are studying.  As you walk look specifically for 5 things:  Community, meaning, worship, healing, and marginalization.  Take photographs as you look for:

1.  Places of community: gather to find a sense of identity, belonging and connection.
2.  Places of meaning: ideas are shared, experience is reflected on, information is gathered, and opinions are formed.
3.  Places of “worship”: spend their time, money, and affection.
4.  Places of marginalization: most of the neighborhood excludes, ignores and has disdain.
5.  Places of healing:  hurt is engaged, brokenness is held, comfort and reconciliation are possible.

Journal some of your gut level feelings and observations as you take photographs.
(This study could also be done by individuals and families as they commute between their residence and their church location.)

SMALL GROUP DEBRIEFING:  While the small groups are debriefing, one person should be loading the images onto a computer in order to project them and share them with the whole group.

1.  What were you surprised to see?
2.  What were you surprised not to see?
3.  Write a ‘meta-story’ from your collection.

WHOLE GROUP:  Project the group’s images in a slideshow:
1.  Create lists for “places of community, meaning, worship, healing, and marginalization”.
2.  Compare and contrast the groups collections of photographs.
3.  What are the compatibilities and tensions between the collections?
4.  Are there discernable patterns of images, reactions, and stories?
5.  What do these images tell us about the place we wish to embed ourselves and love?

6. Where are places to join God already at work?  Where are there unmet needs?
7.  Write a ‘meta-story’ from the combined collection.