by Sam Brock

Starting a meeting on the lighter side can do several things. First, it may allow you to start on time without stragglers missing any important items on the agenda. Second, it will help your team settle in for the meeting and prepare to listen. Third, it will let your staff, especially newer staff, know that you are not just an announcement machine but a real person who can laugh. Fourth, it can give a sense of community as the group shares and laughs together. Following are some ideas for starting meetings on the lighter side.

• Something a staff member would be famous for, but no one knows about it (e.g., Ben told us he likes to drink pickle juice).
• All things favorite—e.g., ice cream, fast food item, spot in the world, childhood toy. Eventually let them come up with the favorites topic. This one can be done over several meetings.
• Analyze Herman cartoons—you can get several editions on CD for about $5 on eBay.
• Guess the number with a piece of trivia about your ministry. (We used 11,180 stamps last year . . . really.)
• Guess the number with trivia in general—you can get this from a newspaper, magazine, or even The Guinness Book of World Records (e.g., how many credit cards does the average American have? Answer: 9).
• Share a near-death experience from childhood—this normally digresses into a my-mom-fed-me-cold-lima-beans list.
• Paul Harvey’s For What It’s Worth and The Rest of the Story are old enough to not be part of the e-mail rounds but still funny enough to use a few.
• Show old pictures and videos of your ministry from years gone by. (We recently watched a twenty-year-old video of the camp and were amazed at the changes in facility and the people in the video.)
• What is the best thing you found on the side of the road? (Our winner was a tie between a doll house and $200.)
• Me too—a staff member shares something that he does that is unusual and sees if there is a “me too” in the group (e.g., collected all the quarter states, plays a brass instrument, still has wisdom teeth, etc.)
• The Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series of books each contains a few articles that can be used. Their far-fetched facts at the bottom of each page are also of interest but highly suspect as to their veracity.