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Salt & Light Company | |||
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Meaningful
Small Group Icebreakers
Bible Basketball Age
Group: Early and Mid Adolescents Get
all the teens in your meeting to put the chairs into a square with an
equal number of chairs on all four sides. Place a large garbage can in
the center of the room with the chairs around the can and facing the
can. Ask them a Bible related question, the first one to raise their
hand gets to answer the question. If they are right they get to shoot at
the can with a basketball. If they miss, the ball can roll until another
person gets it. While the ball is rolling no one can leave their seat. This
is a good way to review the previous week's lesson. Hint: give the four
teams NBA names to add to the fun. Bible Scavenger Hunt Teams
of 3-6 try to find items in the church with a list of Bible clues. Each
item needs two verses for the clue - one that hints at the room, another
that names (generally) the item. For instance, for the pulpit we had a
verse with the word "sanctuary" and one with the word
"altar." For a phone in the 3rd grade classroom, we had a
verse with the word "three" in it and a verse with the word
"bell." (Or something to that effect) Then we had a post-it
note hidden in or under the item so the kids knew when they found it. I
don't know if this is original, but I made up our version of it. Clothespin Opinion Poll *
Source: Youth Ministry Cargo, page 152 A
unique way to get your kids to share their opinions. Hang a clothesline
across the meeting room. On one end have a sign that says,
"Strongly Agree" and the other end says "Strongly
Disagree." Mark the center of the clothesline for reference. Get
wooden clothespins and allow the youth to decorate them as they wish so
they'll know which are theirs. Each week at the close of your youth
meeting, read a strong statement to the group. Ask your youth members to
think about, talk about and research the statement during the week. At
the beginning of the next meeting, have each member clip a clothespin on
the line where it best reflects his or her opinion. Spend the first few
minutes of the meeting discussing the results. The topic can be
independent of the meeting's main lesson or it may be used as a great
intro. to a relaxed subject. Commercial Craziness I
made this activity for last night's youth meeting and it went very well.
I thought I'd share it with all of you: Theme: Effect the media has on us /
What shapes our thinking / Where is our foundation Begin
with having the youth fill out the following survey. Then, while they're
working on the next activity, you can get the results together. What
Shapes Your Thinking? Please
rank the following from 1 to 10 in how much they influence the way you
think: (1
is most influence and 10 is least) __
Parents __
Television __
Bible __
Teachers __
Youth Pastor __
Movies __
Friends __
Video Games __
Music __
Books When
they have finished this, hand out the next activity, which is to be done
in a competitive manner. Have them get into groups of two or three and
work on this. Award prizes to the top two or three teams. Do not have it
be a race, but give them 15 minutes (this
gives you time to tabulate the results of the survey). 1.
Double the pleasure, double the fun Doublemint Gum. 2.
The scent opens your eyes Coast 3.
Oh what a feeling Toyota 4.
Just for the taste of it Diet Coke 5.
The choice of a new generation Pepsi 6.
The way to really fly Metra 7.
Something special in the air. American Airlines 8.
Softens your hands while you do dishes Palmolive 9.
Just do it. Nike 10.
Life is short. Play hard Reebok 11.
You got the right one baby, uh huh DIET Pepsi 12.
Just what the doctor ordered Dr. Pepper 13.
Make a run for the border Taco Bell 14.
Have it your way. Burger King 15.
Obey your thirst. Sprite 16.
Good to the last drop. Maxwell House 17.
The quicker picker upper Bounty 18.
Don't squeeze the ________ Charmin 19.
It does a body good Milk 20.
Take me away. Calgon 21.
The Uncola 7-Up 22.
Finger Lickin' Good Kentucky Fried Chicken 23.
I love this game! NBA 24.
You can't outlast the ________. Energizer 25.
What three temptations did Jesus face in the wilderness? Go
through the answers with them and announce the top three teams. Then go
through the results of the survey. Write them on an overhead projector
or dry-erase board. It has happened twice for me (Jr. High and Sr. High)
that parents, Bible, and friends were number 1-3. Television came in 6th
or 7th. And yet in the commercial game, most groups got 20-24 of the
commercial slogans right and only one group got all three temptations
right! And yet the young people place the Bible higher than TV as far as
what shapes they’re thinking. It was a real eye-opener for a lot of my
young people. I then followed it up with a teaching on Matt. 7:24-27
"The Wise and Foolish Builder." Where is our foundation? How
are we building it? Some important scriptures: Php. 4:8, 2 Pet. 3:1,
Prov. 1:8, Isa. 26:4. I hope this helps some of you
Commercial Selling Jesus This
works well with middle school and high school students and takes about
30 - 45 minutes. Have the
small groups think of an advertisement to sell Jesus to the world.
Like “Jesus the Peacemaker” off the Mentos commercial.
After they come up with an idea, then have them act it out and
get it ready to show in front of the large group.
When everyone is finished practicing have everyone get back
together in a large group and each small group come up front and put on
their advertisement. Find the Books of the Bible Age
Group: All Youth In
the following story, there are sixteen books of the Bible hidden. Can
you find them all? I
once made a remark about the hidden books of the Bible. It was a
lulu, kept people looking so hard for facts and for
others it was a revelation. Some were in a jam, especially
since the names of the books were not capitalized, but the truth
finally struck home to numbers of readers. To others it was real job.
We want it to be a most fascinating few moments for you. Yes,
there will be some really easy ones to spot. Others may require judges
to help them. I will quickly admit it usually takes a minister to
find one of them and there will be loud lamentations when it is
found. A little lady says she brews a cup of tea, so she can
concentrate better. See how well you can compete. Relax now, for
there really are sixteen names of books in the bible in this story. (One
preacher found 15 books in 20 minutes but it took him three weeks to
find the 16th.) (I think I found all the solutions, but I am not sure,
so you might want to try this yourself.
Focusing on Intangible Things With Tangible
Objects An
icebreaker I find effective is to gather a number of different items
that have to do with: the
particular group - BC Sophomores BC
stuff - hat, key chain, banner, sweatshirt social
life - beer mug. concert ticket stub, etc. academic
- book, diploma, etc. spiritual
- candle, bible, chaplain's brochure, etc.
generic
things - live flower, broken dish, seashell.
Ask
participants to consider any of the following: -
a symbol of where I am in my life right now -
a symbol of where I was at some past time -
a symbol of where I hope to be at some distant time. We
used this as a large group interaction after small group discussions for
the ENCORE retreat day and it worked well.
It could also be used as an icebreaker or a small group
discussion. Free-to-Fall 1.
Break the class into groups of 6 or 7 individuals. Have them stand in a
circle around one member of the group. The should close the circle in
until their shoulders are touching. 2.
The person in the middle will cross his arms across his chest and close
his eyes. When he's ready he will make his body as stiff as a board and
fall backwards. The other students will catch him and push him to
another side of the circle. 3.
After a couple minutes, another person will be in the middle. Each
person should have a turn. Human Machine Age
Group: All Youth Break
your group up into groups of no smaller than five and no bigger than
ten. Each person in each
group now must become one of the following body parts -- eye(s), ear(s),
mouth, brain, leg(s), arm(s), hand(s), etc. You can add or take away
body parts, depending on the size of your group. Just keep the most
important ones in place. Instruct each group to do their best to perform
a simple task, with each body part performing only its function. Here is
a sample task. Place a
Bible across the room and have each human machine attempt to
"walk" over to the Bible, find Romans 12:4 - 6 and read it out
loud. Remind your machines that each body part can only perform its
function. For example, the legs cannot go to the Bible until the eye
tells the brain where they are and the brain tells the legs how many
steps to take and in which direction. This works great to illustrate how
each member of a church or youth group is important and that we must
all work together as part of Christ's body. A suggested Scripture
passage is Romans 12:4-6. Jesus Ads This
is a great small group meaningful activity for all ages.
Each small group is assigned to sell Jesus or Christianity
through a commercial. The
idea is to spin off a TV commercial that the kids are used to seeing.
For example, “You’re not fully clean, unless you’re Christ
fully clean.” or “Air Jesus - the shoes Jesus wore to ascend into
heaven.” Then put these
ads on in front of the large group. Paper Planes - Salvation Object Lesson Give
each one in the congregation a piece of paper. Tell them all to make a
paper airplane. Then have each of them come up one at a time and attempt
to fly their plane out of the building or something impossible like
that. Find the one who came the closest and have them come up and say
that they were the best, but even the best we have failed. Then go into
how the word "sin" translates in the new testament as "to
miss the mark" as they all will have done. Then you can go into the
Rom. 3:23, about how we all have sinned. At the end, you can either pick
all the planes up (have people pass them to the center) or have someone
to be Jesus come and pick them up and carry them to the original goal.
This is to show that even though we all fail, Christ can carry us and
only through Him do we have salvation and can we reach our destination. Parable Modernizing This
is a small group activity that makes kids for all ages to focus on the
parables. Assign a parable
to each small group and tell them to modernize the parable or act it
out. This is a good way to
convey the message of the parables.
Then have the small group put on the parable in front of the
large group.
Poster Session This
is a creative way of getting all kids involved in a small group setting.
Have the group draw up a poster on the topic you are discussing
on the retreat. Have them
modernize it into something they can relate to. Some past examples include: the Lazurus raised from the dead
story in a south park theme or movie billboard to sell a story of the
Bible starring current actors and actresses.
Then have the small group explain their poster in front of the
large group.
Straw Towers Divide
your people into groups of about six-ish. Any number of groups (that can
fit in the room) can play. Tons
of drinking straws (about the diameter of McDonald's straws, BUT the
soft kind AND simple and straight) about 50-100 straws to each group. 2
small rolls of tape per group. One small 'corner' of the room per group.
Give about 10 minutes to see which group can make the tallest
self-supporting structure. Say that they then have to bring their
masterpieces to the front, and see whose structure remains standing the
longest. When
the construction time is up, have each group move their structure to the
front of the room. Then you proceed to give a short (not too short) talk
about what your life is based on. *
note - I don't have the slightest idea of what the speaker was saying at
this point (when I was participating in this game) so don't put too much
important points in your talk here. (everyone will be watching the
structures, not the speaker). As time progresses, these straw structures
will topple over/collapse/get blown down by the fan/etc one by one.
Acknowledge each one as it drops, and at the end you can discuss with
the group what makes the good ones stay up, and why those on the ground
have fallen. Pay particular attention to the base/foundations of these
structures. Conclude that one needs a strong (good/solid/big/firm/etc)
foundation (Jesus/Christian values) for ones life, or something to that
effect. (The best structures seem to be those constructed like the
Eiffel Tower or oilrigs. **
during the 10-15 minutes allotted to build the straw towers, you can
move around and watch to see who are the leaders and who are the
followers (if you wish).
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