Humor

The Goat

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Two guys are walking through the woods and come across this really big, deep hole.

“Wow.. that looks deep!” “Sure does. Toss a few pebbles in there and see how deep it is.” They pick up a few pebbles, throw them in, and wait…..no noise. “That is REALLY deep… here throw one these big rocks and see how long it takes.” Again, there was no noise after throwing in the rock.

“Look over here, there’s a railroad tie in the weeds. Lets throw it in, its gotta make a noise.” The two drag the heavy tie over to the hole and heave it in. Not a sound from the hole.

The two stand there, amazed, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a goat appears, running like the wind. It rushes straight toward the two men and then past them, running as fast as its legs will carry it. Suddenly it leaps into the air and into the hole. The two men are astonished by what they’ve just seen.

Then out of the wood comes a farmer who spots the men and ambles over. “Hey .. you two guys seen my goat out here?” “You bet we did! The strangest thing we’ve ever seen. Came running outta nowhere like crazy and just jumped right into this hole!” “Nah”, says the farmer, “Couldn’t have been my goat. My goat was chained to a railroad tie.”

Get Icebreakers ebookIcebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

Icebreakers

squirt

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watergun.jpgMaterials
1. One water gun. Vary the type of water gun depending on the occasion, whether it is indoor or outdoor, if people are in a mood to get wet or not.
2. Source of water for refills

Game Objective
Participants must name items that fit into a particular category without repeating or taking too long too long to think.

Game Play
1. Sit the group in a circle.
2. Designate one person as the “squirter” for the 1st round and give him/her the filled-water gun.
3. This student calls out a topic, such as “sports cars” and everyone in the game secretly thinks of one or more items in that category.
4. The youth leader calls out the name of a person in the circle to get started.
5. The person whose name has been called must yell out an item that fits the category and another name before the squirter can shoot him/her with the water gun.
6. If you get squirted before you can call out the item, you then become the “squirter” and must select a new category. If the item is a repeat of what someone else has already said, the Squirter can also squirt you and you become the squirter.
7. The previous squirter gets things rolling by calling out the next name!

Variations
1. Choose categories related to your event, a holiday, or a Bible Study Topic and write them on pieces of paper and place them in a bowl. Have the squirters randomly draw the category from among the slips of paper.
2. Add the rule that a person cannot call the person who just called them to make sure the game rotates around the circle.

Warning: Squirters have been known to turn this into an all out water fight against everyone in the circle!

Get Icebreakers ebookIcebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

Icebreakers

Showing True Colors

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paper.jpgMaterials
1. sticky tape
2. pieces of paper of different colors
Note: To make it easier, add small pieces of double sided tape to each piece of paper so that youth only need to peel off the covering strip to reveal the adhesive.

Game Objective
Youth walk around the room introducing themselves to each other and taping colored paper pieces to people who remind them of that color in some way.

Game Play
1. Give youth several different-color pieces of construction paper and tape.
2. Have kids each walk around the room and introduce themselves to each other. They must share their name and something unique about themselves.
3. As youth are mingling, they must tape each of their construction paper pieces to people who remind them of that color. As they do so, they must tell the recipient why they chose that color for the person. For example, someone may pick Pink for a girl who’s always cheerful, blue for a guy who’s caring and warm, or brown from someone who is “down to earth.”. Comments must be positive in nature.

Note: Leaders should participate and be proactive to ensure all kids are receiving positive comments. If one or more of the youths seems to be getting little attention, personally provide a positive comment for them.

Application
A rainbow is made of many colors. Its the play of various colors that give it its beauty. A rainbow is also the symbol of promise, or hope. God created us all special and we each hold great promise to bring our gifts and talents to brighten up the lives of others and make life more colorful!

 

Get Icebreakers ebookIcebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

Icebreakers

Alter Ego

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Game Materials
None

Game Objective
Kids are to introduce themselves and tell the group who they would most like to be other than themselves. They may name fictional characters or actual people, either living or dead. For example, kids could name Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Meryl Streep, Michael Jordan, or Joan of Arc. Kids should not explain their choices. Allow kids to enjoy the mystery of the “why” behind each other’s choices.

Variation
Have kids introduce themselves as the characters or persons they’d like to be and tell their real names later in the meeting or event.

 

Get Icebreakers ebookIcebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

Icebreakers

Action Bingo

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Game Materials
Print the list of items on a sheet of paper for each person.

Game Objective
Each person must perform the action in front of someone and then those who participated or observed must sign beside the item. Items can be arranged in a normal bingo grid or simply as a list for simplicity. Whoever gets all the items signed first, wins! Wacky and silly fun for everyone. Have a digital camera ready for some really crazy snapshots!

Some possible items are:
* Tell a Joke
* Pretend you are taking a bath or shower in the middle of the room!
* Select someone else to sing a song with you.
* Recite a nursery rhyme.
* Imitate a comic strip character until someone guesses it’s identity.
* Behave like a duck for 10 seconds
* Say something nice about three different people in the room.
* Shake hands with three other people in the room.
* Pantomime a two year old child taking a bone away from a german shepherd dog.
* Walk from one end of the room to the other with an object between you knees.
* Act like an egg being cracked and fried.
* Do an impression of a well known celebrity. Identify the person first.
* Confer with another person and make a short poem about one of the leaders
* Select a few people to aid you in selecting a scene from a popular Bible story and act it out.
* Draw a picture of yourself and give it to someone in the room.
* Find something in your pocket or purse to give to the person on your left.
* Retell the story of Goldilocks and the three bears using the name of four other people in the room as the bears and Goldilocks.
ETC. ADD Your Own Crazy Actions!

 

Get Icebreakers ebookIcebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

Food for Thought

Choking on Bones

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fishbones.jpg

An old man once said, “For a long period, I puzzled myself about the difficulties of Scripture, until at last I came to the resolution, that reading the Bible was like eating fish. When I find a difficulty, I lay it aside, and call it a bone. Why should I choke over the bone when there is so much nutritious meat for me? Some day, perhaps, I may find that even the bone may afford me nourishment.”

Teaching Illustrations

Crutches

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A young man began his studies at a well-known university, and had to get around on crutches everywhere he went. He was a friendly, gregarious, and positive person, and he earned the respect and friendship of many of his fellow students.

One day a friend asked him what had happened that necessitated the crutches. He replied, “Infantile paralysis,” and seemed to close the conversation. But the friend was insistent, and continued, “With something as bad as that, how in the world can you face the world so cheerfully?”

“Oh,” the young man responded, “the disease never touched my heart.”

It’s all attitude, and we can choose.

Source: Unknown

 


MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

Learn More…

Humor

Points to Ponder

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* Before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?
* Is infancy a sin for infants if adultery is a sit for adults?
* How do I set my laser printer on stun?
* How is it possible to have a civil war?
* If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?
* If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest have to also?
* If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2?
* If work is so terrific, how come they have to pay you to do it?
* If you’re born again, do you have 2 belly buttons?
* If you ate pasta and antipasta, which have you done?
* If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
* Why is it called tourist season if we can’t shoot at them?
* Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?
* What happens when none of your bees wax?
* If the black box flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn’t the whole plane made of this material?
* Why is there an expiration date on sour cream?
* If most car accidents occur within 5 miles of home, why doesn’t everyone move?

Get Icebreakers ebookIcebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

Teaching Illustrations

Class Reunion

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A close friend of mine was asked back to his forty-year high school reunion. For months he saved to take his wife back to the place and the people he’d left four decades before. The closer the time came for the reunion, the more excited he became, thinking of all the wonderful stories he would hear about the changes and the accomplishments these old friends would tell him. One night before he left he even pulled out his old yearbooks, read the silly statements and the good wishes for the future that students write to each other. He wondered what ol’ Number 86 from his football team had done. He wondered if any others had encountered this Christ who had changed him so profoundly. He even tried to guess what some of his friends would look like, and what kind of jobs and families some of these special friends had. The day came to leave and I drove them to the airport. Their energy was almost contagious. “I’ll pick you up on Sunday evening, and you can tell me all about it,” I said. “Have a great time.”

Sunday evening arrived. As I watched them get off the plane, my friend seemed almost despondent. I almost didn’t want to ask, but finally I said, “Well, how was the reunion?” “Tim,” the man said, “it was one of the saddest experiences of my life.” “Good grief,” I said, more than a little surprised. “What happened?” “It wasn’t what happened but what didn’t happen. It has been forty years, forty years — and they haven’t changed. They had simply gained weight, changed clothes, gotten jobs…but they hadn’t really changed. And what I experienced was maybe one of the most tragic things I could ever imagine about life. For reasons I can’t fully understand, it seems as though some people choose not to change.”

There was a long silence as we walked back to the car. On the drive home, he turned to me and said, “I never, never want that to be said of me, Tim. Life is too precious, too sacred, too important. If you ever see me go stagnant like that, I hope you give me a quick, swift kick where I need it — for Christ’s sake. I hope you’ll love me enough to challenge me to keep growing.”

Author: Tim Hansel
Source: Holy Sweat, Word Books Publisher, 1987, Page 54-55

 


MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

Learn More…

Creative Youth ideas: 1700+ Resources for youth leaders, pastors, ministers to help plan camps, retreats, and meetings using games, illustrations, Children's Worship, Bible Studies, object lessons, sermons, creative ideas,creative activities