CAMP IN ALL SEASONS....
...of the year
...of your life

Culture and Companionship Retreat
Thu., Mar 25, 10am - 4pm
$30 includes lunch and workshop.
Click here to download Registration Form

Understanding how different cultural experiences influence the way we understand the Gospel story is essential for participating in God’s mission in the world.  Together at this retreat, we will spend the day exploring these three questions:

1. What is contextualization and how do different cultural lenses influence the way we interpret theology and the Bible?
2. How do different cultural backgrounds and experiences affect the way in which we interact with the Gospel story?
3. How can we develop a cross-cultural communication for the sake of God’s mission in the world?

Our Presenters will be: Joseph Mbele, Professor in the English Department at St. Olaf College; Karl N. Jacobson, Assistant Professor of Religion at Augsburg College; and Paul and Akiko Maeker, Ph.D. Students at the University of Minnesota

Joseph L. Mbele is a citizen of Tanzania. He studied at the universities of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and Wisconsin-Madison in the USA and is now a professor in the English Department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, USA, teaching such courses as "Post-Colonial and Third World Literature," "Introduction to Literature," "Folklore," and "The Hero and the Trickster." He also teaches an inter-cultural course, "Africa and the Americas." He has published several books including "Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences".

Joseph is committed to international education and has been an advisor on the Lutheran Colleges Consortium for Tanzania (LCCT), GLCA Global Partners Program, and the ACM Tanzania program. He has founded his own consulting organization, Africonexion (http://africonexion.com). He is interested in cultural tourism in East Africa, following the direction of TourismConcern. This looks at the idea of tourism that promotes mutual understanding between people of different cultures, rather than the conventional kind that reproduces and sustains neo-colonial relationships and stereotypes.

Karl N. Jacobson is Assistant Professor of Religion at Augsburg College. He is a contributer to Crazy Talk: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms and co-author of Crazy Talk Too,: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms (forthcoming in 2009 from Augsburg Fortress). He has written on the Lord’s Prayer, the Psalms, world religions and has articles published in Word & World, Lutheran Forum, the online Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, and WorkingPreacher.org.

A graduate of St. Olaf College and Luther Seminary, Karl has been a parish pastor for ten years and is nearing completion of his doctoral work out of Union-PSCE in Richmond, VA. He currently exercises part time, disciplines his children 3/4s time, and indulges a passionate dislike of the Packers 24/7. Karl's wife, Kristen, is associate pastor of Central Lutheran church in Minneapolis; they have three children Hannah (11), Sam (9), and Lucy (3); they live in St. Anthony Park.

Paul and Akiko Maeker, Ph.D. Students at the University of Minnesota

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