Start your meeting on time, but make sure you don’t talk about the most important stuff first. There will always be stragglers, but the goal with meeting openers is that those who are late miss the fun stuff, not the important stuff.

Ministry Trivia—Your old timers will be able to share details about your ministry that nobody else knows.

• How buildings were used in the past
• How God provided in the past
• Firsts and lasts

News of the Weird—Many times in the comic section of the news paper there is a column called “News of the Weird.” These tidbits are great fun to open with.

Paul Harvey and Patrick McManus—You will have to do a little bit of content editing, but both of these authors have short stuff that is fun to read to a group.

Getting to Know You Questions—Throw a question out there that allows people to share a little bit about themselves. Some favorites:

• Describe your favorite room in your future mansion.
• Share a kindergarten moment.
• As a kid what were you scared of?
• What did you want to be when you grew up?