Pauline Baptist Church

CELL GROUP BOUNDARY BREAKING

Once students have gotten to know each other, Boundary Breaking activities help to create a sense of community and an awareness of other people.  Listening is basic to learning about other people.

Have the students sit in a circle with name tags or name tents visible to all other group members.

To begin the session, the cell group leader should explain that there are certain expectations or 'rules' for the activity.  The cell group leader can then make the opening statements:

1. Everyone is expected to answer every question.
2. While each person is answering, watch him/her closely; you may learn a great deal by the look of the face, the movement of the hands, the turn of the head, or by what is not said.
3. We are concerned with discovering each other.
4. We are here to listen.
5. We are not here to debate; this is important!
6. We are not here to disagree.
7. We are here to look for the person that is each of us; too often in life we have been so busy defending our own little world that we have never listened to all of the hearts beating around us.
8. As each person answers, collect these answers in your head; develop an idea about each person.
9. Once more, the key word is listen...listen...listen.
10. If we all do this, maybe a connection can be made with each other.

EXAMPLE OF A SET:

1.      What is you favorite song/group?

2.      Who is important to you?

3.      What was the last movie you saw?

4.      What makes you mad?

5.      What is one of the coolest things you have ever done?

6.      What is your Favorite Food?

7.      Who are you closest too?

8.      If you could have one thing, what would it be?

9.      (introduce a leading question about the lesson)

Some possible Boundary Breaking Questions

• Who is the person most relevant to our time?
• What is the title of the last book you read?
• What is the best movie you've ever seen?
• What is the most beautiful thing about people?
• What physical thing do you want to build more than anything else?
• What is the most sacred thing you know?
• What is the ugliest thing you know?
• What leisure time activity pleases you most?
• What even of the last three months stands out in your mind the most?
• What force of history are you most aware of as you plan your life?
• On what basis do you select your friends?
• What is the most overwhelming thing you know? The thing that makes you feel humble?
• What is the greatest problem in the United States?
• What is the best regular program on television?
• What is the greatest value that guides your life?
• If you could be any animal other than a human...what animal would you choose to be?
• What is the greatest crime one person could do towards another?
• If you could smash one thing and only one thing, what would you smash?
• What is the best book you have read?
• What do you want to be doing ten years from  now?
• For what do you think you would lay down your life?
• What do you feel when you stand on the shore of an ocean?
• How would you symbolize the human soul?
• If you were making a CD and you wanted to put the sound of violence on that CD, what sound would you use?
• What sound would you put on the CD for beauty?
• If you could travel to any place in the world, where would you go first?
• How many children make the ideal family?
• What is your favorite sport?
• What emotion is strongest in you?
• What would you like to put on your grave stone?
• What word best describes your total life at this moment in time?
• What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?
• What is your biggest worry?
• What do you think people like in you the least?
• What do you think people like you the most?
• What person most influenced you life?
• When do you feel lonely?
• What word describes people your age?
• What one day in your life would you like to live over?
• Of what are you most certain?
• What subject is the most frequent topic of discussion among your friends?

Wrap Up Questions - Synthesis Set

After you have gone through a set of questions, you will want to put some closure on the activity with the following synthesis questions:

1 Who gave an answer (yours or someone else's) that surprised you the most? Why?
2 From the answers, Who would you like to know more about?
3 From the answers, Who do you think was the most honest?

4 Who do you feel that you are the most like?

5 Who would you like to spend more time getting to know?