If you invite married couples from your church to your home or a church event, try some icebreaker activities to kick off your event. An icebreaker encourages people to interact and make friends. Many icebreakers need little more than paper or pen and couples can get started almost as soon as they come in the door.
20 Questions
Provide a list of questions people must find the answer to within 10 minutes of so of the start of the event. Don't allow smart phones to be used during the icebreaker, but couples are free to ask anyone in the room the answers to the questions. For a Christian couples group, you might list the names of a biblical duo, such as Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, and Mary and Joseph. With a young group active in contemporary Christian ministry, you might ask the names of more current Christian couples, such as Jesse and Cathy Duplantis, Amy Grant and Vince Gill, or the Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith and Rickie Byars. To make this game more fun and challenging, have 100 or more questions in the pool and give each couple their own list.
“People Trivia”
Like 20 questions, people trivia asks you to discover the answer to questions, but the questions are about the people in your group. Your list could include questions such as, “Who has the most number of children?” “Who drives the most number of miles to church each Sunday?” and “Who is a vegetarian?” the couple that answers the most questions wins a small prize. Alternatively, give each person a question sheet and a colored dot. Have each person find their match and get answers to questions so they can introduce their “partner” at the end of the icebreaker.
Who or What Am I?
Guessing games can be fun, especially if you have no idea who, or what, you’re supposed to be. Hang a tag on each person’s back and have each person discover who or what she is before the end of the ice breaker. Your list could be Bible characters, Bible animals or plants, Bible locations or Christian character traits. Limit the number of questions a person can ask their spouse to three, so that couples must break up and talk to other group members. Have a few inexpensive prizes to hand out to those who excel at this game.
Crafty
If you want to see how creative your group can be, use a craft icebreaker and some inexpensive or recycled art materials such as pipe cleaners, toilet tissue rolls, crayons, yarn, dried pasta, socks and beads. Give each person a colored shape and set your groups so you have four to five people in a group. Set a timer for 10 to 15 minutes and don't provide any instructions other than each group must create one team craft project using eight or more items off the table.