Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

Hey. So. We have a new bishopric, and our RS/EQ activity was gonna be to have an ice cream social and "meet" the new bishopric. This would've been next Tuesday, but the bishop requested that we switch it to tonight.

The problem with tonight is I don't have any counselors this week. And not really any planning buddies. Hi, Boardboard!

What are some activities we can do to help "meet" the bishopric? I'm hoping to keep it fairly casual, but should I make it more formal? I'm also concerned that people will be bored because they're just listening to some old(ish) men talk about themselves. What are some activities we can do to help the bishopric "meet" us?

(Yes, I put "meet" in in quotation marks.)

You could ask them some more unusual "get to know you" questions, such as their favorite movie, the last book they read, or their least favorite subject when they were in high school or college. Shoot, you could just click "random" on the Board and repurpose some of the more interesting questions you come across.

If you ask them the questions ahead of time, you could even make it a guessing game with prizes.

I grabbed these from the "What's Your Favorite" category:

Favorite food?
Han Solo or Indiana Jones?
What kind of dinosaur would you like to be?
What is your favorite word?
What is the worst job you've ever had?
What is your best birthday memory?
What is something you have that most people don't have?
What is something you don't have that most people take for granted?

Ideally, I think it would be nice to get them to share stories that illustrate their personalities or life experiences that they don't normally share. (I.e., there are some things we're used to sharing over and over again: jobs, kids, birthplace, so try to break past those.)

I like some of those questions a lot!

Defy V had this idea where each member writes down a story (perhaps in response to a question like "What's your favorite birthday memory?") and then someone reads each one and the congregation has to guess which story belongs to which person. I might do a couple of those, a couple of vs. questions, maybe a name game so they can start to learn our names...

C is for wrote:I like some of those questions a lot!

Defy V had this idea where each member writes down a story (perhaps in response to a question like "What's your favorite birthday memory?") and then someone reads each one and the congregation has to guess which story belongs to which person.

I think that's a great idea.

C is for wrote:I might do a couple of those, a couple of vs. questions, maybe a name game so they can start to learn our names...

You could also ask some questions to help them get a feel for the group, like: "Who was born the farthest from here?" "Who went to the smallest high school?" "Who has the most unusual last name?"

In case anyone was curious how this resolved:

A good portion of time was spent waiting in line for the food (we grilled hamburgers), a good portion of it eating and sitting awkwardly in circles on the grass (maybe it was just me that felt awkward, since I didn't know if I was supposed to sit with my friends or with the new kids that were already turning into a clique), and then the bishopric introduced themselves, then they made us introduce ourselves. I was kind of sad the games I'd tentatively planned didn't work out, but it was also okay. Casual is good too.