*** SHOW NOTES (not fully edited or a transcript) ***

Lead:

Icebreakers sometimes suck, but it’s SO worth getting good at them. Here’s a two-part approach.

Intro:

Oregonians looove their coffee, and one of our homegrown companies, Dutch Bros, has developed a cult-like following and a presence throughout the western United States. And recently I had occasion to buy a gift card for a friend, and as I pulled through the kiosk this energetic high schooler pops her head out the window and said, “If you could be any celebrity you wanted, who would that be?” Now if I told you that I’d just prayed that morning for a chance to share Jesus, you might guess what I said…but how it ties in to the idea of you asking your own icebreaker questions is what you’ll have to wait for until we get to today’s All Our Minds segment.

AND since we often close out with a Psalm here, today’s closing Wisdom segment you will find refreshing, too, given that often times Psalms are kinda angsty like a Pink Floyd song.

Finally, today’s reading in Acts covers the chapter that is one of the essential examples that we teach when training Christian casemakers. I’m not going to do a debrief today, but listen for how Paul meets the Athenians where they’re at, and how his different is approach is compared to the speeches he and Peter have made to Jewish audiences.

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Bible:

Passage: Acts 17-18
Translation: HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 62
Words: ~1445

All Our Minds:

So, continuing with our story… this young gal asks me what celebrity I’d be, and I said, “Jesus.” And there was a long pause and a smile, and then she turned around and said to the other three people working there, “Hey, guess what this guy said!”

Peering through the window, I saw behind them on the wall a whiteboard. At the top of it was written, “Question of the Day.” And I thought, “What a great idea!” (even if you’re a skeptic and not at all thinking about how to tell people about this Jesus thing).

It’s common, of course, for conversations to start with “What do you do” or the equivalent. And for many of us — including me — that’s not always easy or comfortable. But I AM a big fan of questions rather than statements because how someone responds will not only teach you something, it’ll give you something to keep talking about. One of my favorite variations of “What do you do?” is, “How do you keep yourself busy during the week?”

But let’s say that you want to go deeper than small talk — and if NOT ever tried it, be prepared! You’d be surprised how many people are willing to talk about deep stuff, even when they don’t know you that well. And it’s seriously awesome for those who, like me, aren’t big fans of small talk in the first place.

Two (more) icebreaker questions (and a follow up):

“If you could ask God any question, what would you ask?” Note here that you probably don’t know what they think of God. And that’s part of the point — it doesn’t make any difference. This is powerful because you’ll probably learn two things — something that’s on their heart and what they think about God.

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?” To be fair, I’d bet that most of the time they’ll respond, “Depends on what it is?” Which is their way of saying, “You can ask, but I don’t know if I’ll answer.” Then it’s up to you to be tactful and gentle.

The second part — and you should always have a second question ready — is to ask something that takes their answer to a deeper place. “What do you mean by that?” or“Where did you get that idea?”

The bottom line

The truth is, in the case of the young lady at the coffee kiosk, I didn’t get to ask a follow up question. We won’t always. But that doesn’t mean you can’t think about it as a means of practice. She’d said, “Hey guys, guess what this guy said!” I could have followed up with, “Why was that interesting to you?” or “Why was that surprising?” or “What do most people say?” or “How do you decide what question to ask every day?” or ANYthing.

Wisdom:

Passage: Psalm 103
Translation: HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 22
Words: ~361

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

Thank you for supporting this ministry should you choose to use the Amazon affiliate links below.

Not used today, but one of my faves! —> Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2505.

#912: Acts 17-18 | Two-part icebreakers | Psalm 103