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Best Small Group Ice Breakers for 2019

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Whether your small group will be brand new in 2019 or you have been meeting for awhile, a good icebreaker question or activity is a great way to get the conversation going at that first meeting in January. Icebreakers help everyone in the group feel more comfortable about entering the discussion before the Bible study starts. You can see our 2018 list here.

Here are a few more of my favorites.

M&M’s Game

Pass a bag of M&M’s around and tell everyone to take a few. Then, before they eat them ask them to share something for every M&M. For example, something about their family for every red one, something about their plans for the future for every green one, etc.

Life Catalysts

Pass out 3-5 sticky notes to each person in the group. Instruct group members to write one life catalyst that helped make them who they are today on each sticky note. It can be the name of an influential person or a life event. Then have each person share their sticky notes with the rest of the group as they stick them on a wall or on a large poster board.

My Life in Pictures

Bring a newspaper or magazine. Have each person tear out a picture, article or anything they think tells something about themselves. If there’s enough time they can make a collage that tells more about themselves.

Most Used Emoji

Ask group members to share their most used emoji and why they like it. As a bonus, have them show the the group the emoji on their phone.

Get To Know You Questions

  • What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
  • When you die, what do you want to be remembered for?
  • Describe your past week in weather terms. (Was it stormy, cloudy, foggy, mostly sunny…)
  • What is your favorite item you’ve bought this year?
  • What is your absolute dream job?
  • What would the title of your autobiography be?
  • Say you’re independently wealthy and don’t have to work, what would you do with your time?
  • If you had to delete all but 3 apps from your smartphone, which ones would you keep?
  • Who is your favorite Disney hero or heroine? Would you trade places with them?
  • Are you a morning or night person?
  • If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore who would it be; why?
  • What fictional family would you be a member of?
Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with more than twenty years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Teams at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN., and Seacoast Church in Charleston, S.C., prior to becoming the Discipleship and Small Groups Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is the author of  Small Groups for the Rest of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes. You can follow his blog at www.chrissurratt.com.
Group Leadership

Icebreakers for the New Year

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Whether your small group will be brand new in 2018 or you have been meeting for awhile, a good icebreaker question or activity is a great way to get the conversation going at that first meeting in January. Icebreakers help everyone in the group feel more comfortable about entering the discussion before the Bible study starts. Here are a few of my favorites.

I Know Who You Are

This is a twist on the Two Truths and a Lie game.

  1. Give each person two pieces of paper, and a pen or pencil.
  2. Have each participant write their name and three facts about themselves on one paper—the facts must be true, but should be obscure and probably not known by the other group members.
  3. Direct the participants to number the other paper with one number for each person present.
  4. The leader collects the papers and reads aloud the facts on each sheet, keeping track of the names that match the facts read.
  5. The participants write their guesses next to the numbers on their sheets.
  6. Once everyone has completed their sheet of numbers and name guesses, read aloud the answers and see who had the most correct to determine a winner.

This Tells About Me

This icebreaker will help new group members get to know each other a little better.

  1. Have each person pull out a personal item from his or her purse or pocket, or use an item of clothing or an accessory he or she is wearing.
  2. Go around the circle, with each person telling something about them as it relates to the item they have chosen. For example, a person may choose a wallet-sized picture of their husband and share how they met, or a comb and explain that they are a hairstylist.

Play Dough Personality

This icebreaker allows the group members to show their creative side.

  1. Have everyone sit at a table or provide a surface (such as trays) for this activity.
  2. Give each person a reasonable amount of play dough and instruct him or her to make something out of it that represents or describes his or her personality.
  3. After small group members are finished, have them take turns sharing their creation and telling the group about it.

Get To Know You Questions

  • What do you do for fun?
  • What would be your ideal vacation?
  • What superhero did you want to be, and why?
  • What is the most memorable activity you did with your family as a child?
  • What quality do you appreciate most in a friend?
  • What is a good thing happening in your life right now? What makes it good?
  • If you knew you couldn’t fail and money was no object, what would you like to do in the next 5 years?
  • What would you like said at your funeral?

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with over 23 years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Team at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, and was on staff at Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, for 15 years. He is also the Small Group Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. Chris’s first book, Small Groups For The Rest Of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes, was recently released by Thomas Nelson. You can follow his blog at chrissurratt.com or follow him on Twitter @chrissurratt.

Friday Features

Icebreakers: A Key to Building Group Relationships

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If you want your preschool son to someday play major league baseball, you don’t simply send him to Florida for a spring training tryout. You start with Little League. And you ease him into Little League by starting with coach-pitch baseball. And you ease into coach-pitch baseball by playing T-ball. And you ease into that with a giant red bat in the backyard.

That’s also a wise approach to take with Bible study—ease into it.

Review your study from the perspective of a guest, someone new to the group, or someone new to the Christian life. When we jump right into Bible study with a theological discussion, group members can feel lost. And certain questions early on can only intimidate them or leave them sitting quietly in the corner.

  • How have you experienced the blessings that come from following God’s instruction?
  • What is the difference between living by the law and living by faith?
  • How do we navigate the tension between needing to keep God’s standards and knowing we can’t?

We want discussion in our group, but the right question at the right time can make all the difference! The questions above are legitimate questions—they are a part of a Bible study my team is currently developing—but they come later in the study, after the passage has been studied and the interaction among the group members is comfortable.

So how do we get group members comfortable? How do we ease them into digging into the study?

Use icebreaker questions. An icebreaker question is one that doesn’t require a lot of thinking. It’s a question for which a person can readily think of a response; he or she may even want to tell a story. Here are some icebreakers I’ve used with my own group in recent weeks:

  • When have you really enjoyed making a mess?
  • When have you accomplished something you didn’t think you could do?
  • If you could have a lifetime supply of any product, what would you choose?
  • What’s your favorite comfort food?
  • Who is a neighbor you’re glad you’ve gotten the chance to know?

These may look like random questions, but they have a specific purpose:

  • The question about making a mess is used to segue into the messes we make that aren’t fun. It launches a study of how Jesus fixes our “messes.”
  • The question about comfort food segues into how some things can only offer temporary comfort. It launches a study of how we can be Christ to others and offer them real comfort.
  • The question about having a lifetime supply leads into a discussion of the grace of God, which is ours in unlimited supply.

A good icebreaker can be identified as one that is:

  1. Easy to answer. Everyone has an opinion or story of how they’d answer.
  2. Non-threatening. No one is pressured to reveal too much about themselves or give an answer of which they’re not certain.
  3. Fun to answer. It’s not necessarily “spiritual,” because it’s merely a lead-in to the topic of the Bible study.
  4. Gets people talking. This is the key strength of an icebreaker. How do you get a room full of people who don’t really know one another, or may only be casually acquainted, to talk? Through an easy question that makes people want to answer. And once they’re talking to each other, they’re far more ready and eager to engage in conversation as you dig into God’s Word.

The icebreaker question has…um, broken the ice!

Lynn Pryor is a team leader for adult resources at LifeWay. He and his wife, Mary, lead a Bible study group for young adults and have survived raising two sons to adulthood. A graduate of Southwestern Seminary, Lynn has previously pastored and served churches in Texas. Follow him on his blog at lynnhpryor.com.