A Bunch of Conversation-Starting Questions

The following questions are some of those you’ll find in Jonathan’s new book, GET YOUR TEENAGER TALKING, a book with over 1,000 questions sparking meaningful conversation!

Here are some classic (generic) and random questions to break the ice in your small group.

1. 1. What’s your name and your favorite pizza?
   2. If you were a car, what would you be and why?
   3. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
   4. Tell us your name and something about the shoes you’re wearing. (You never know what they’ll come up with. It’s fun and safe.)
   5. If we were at Baskin Robbins (or local ice cream place), what flavor ice cream would you order?
   6. What’s your favorite type of animal and why? (Another good question is: What animal would you be if you had to choose one?)
   7. What’s your favorite car and why? (Another good question is: What car would you be if you had to choose one?)
   8. What’s your favorite cartoon and why?
   9. What is the first cartoon you remember watching? And, if you could live in a perfect world, which cartoon world would you live in? Why?
   10. If you could hang out with a cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
   11. What’s your favorite thing to do in the summer?
   12. If you could visit anywhere, including fictional places, where would you visit and why? And who would you bring with you?
   13. What historic time period would you most like to visit, and tell why?
   14. Would you rather live near the beach or the mountains?
   15. If you could have any occupation in the world, what would it be and why?
   16. When you get older, do you think you’ll stay in this area or head for some place far, far away?
   17. What is one item in your house that you should really throw out but probably never will?
   18. How many brothers and sisters do you have? What are their ages?
   19. When you were little, who were you most likely to imagine yourself as?
   20. What did you get into trouble for most when you were younger?
   21. What makes a house an actual home?
   22. One thing I love/hate about my parents is ____________.
   23. What do you think you’d like about it? What would be challenging about it for you?
   24. Who is your favorite teacher and why?
   25. Are you a morning or night person?
   26. What would your family say you’re like first thing in the morning?
   27. What’s your favorite room in the house and why?
   28. If you get a day off school (not because you’re sick; more like because of teacher conferences), what do you do?
   29. What’s the weirdest thing you eat at home?
   30. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve eaten outside of home?
   31. How often are you caught posing, making faces, or performing in front of a mirror?
   32. When was the last time you said or did something stupid or goofy and realized someone you really like overheard or saw you? What was it you’d said or done? How did they react? How did you react?
   33. What goofy or funny thing does anyone in your family do to make you laugh?
   34. After an argument, who in the family is most likely to apologize first – if at all?
   35. What does someone in your family do for you that helps you most?
   36. Name one of your favorite things about your mom or dad.
   37. Share a quirky habit you have. How long have you had it?
   38. How have you seen either or both of your parents mature in the last year?
   39. Share a time when someone in your family did something that made you proud.
   40. If you could relive your childhood, how would you like to be different?
   41. Would you rather dress casual or dress up when you go out with friends or family?
   42. If they made a movie of your life, who would you want to play you?
   43. If someone made a movie of your life, would it be a comedy, a romantic-comedy, a drama, action, or science fiction?
   44. Have you ever been told you look like someone famous? If so, who?
   45. What’s the worst thing you did as a little kid? (smeared cheese on the wall, accidentally called Japan, called one of your mom’s friends’ fat, inadvertently downloaded Pentagon files to your dad’s computer, etc.)
   46. Tell us your name and what you like to do to relax.
   47. What is the greatest song ever written, and by whom?
   48. Finish the following statements:
       • • The most creative solution to a problem I’ve ever used was…

        

       • • One time I remember doing more than I thought I was able to do was…

        

       • • One thing I think God wants me to share with others is…

        

       • • One consequence (result) of a choice I’ve made was…

        

       • (Option to above: One negative consequence (result) of a choice I’ve made was… or One positive consequence (result) of a choice I’ve made was…)

1. 1. I really crack up when…

1. Is there anything you would willingly give your life for?
2. Would you rather have bad breath or bad body odor?
3. What is the one item you treasure the most and what would you do if it broke? (You could use this one to talk about the fall of man…God’s creation breaks.)
4. Dogs or cats… One has to be voted into extinction and the entire planet is all tied up. You have the deciding vote. Who stays? Who goes?
5. You have the exact same meal for the next 12 months. What do you pick?
6. What’s the best birthday present you could ever imagine receiving, and who would you want to receive it from?
7. When you put on shoes, do you put them on sock/sock/shoe/shoe or sock/shoe/sock/shoe?
8. What is one thing you can do that you think no-one else in the group can do?
9. What would you do with the money if you would win the lotto (like 100 million dollars or so)? *This society is very materialistic and lots of times kids think that way. A question like this sometimes can get at the heart of what they “think” would make them happy. (“If I only had this car, this house, this new gadget…”)
10. What would be your desert island… meal/pet/DVD/etc.?
11. What is your favorite website to visit when you get on the internet?
12. What is one movie that everyone loved but you hated? …or What is one movie that everyone hated but you loved?”
13. What has God been teaching you lately? (This one is good if you are discipling a student)
14. If you could cure one illness, what would it be?
15. If you could know the date of your death, would you want to?
16. If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
17. What is one irrational fear you have?
18. Do you bunch or fold your toilet paper?
19. Which characteristic of the person to your left is your favorite? Or… what is your favorite characteristic about yourself?
20. What’s your earliest memory? Or favorite memory?
21. What’s the biggest lie someone ever told you?
22. What was your favorite toy when you were a kid?
23. When you were growing up, was there any childhood toy that you REALLY wanted, but you never got? What was it? (*This question could be used to lead into a talk about “heavenly treasure”; that a lot of the things we chase after will be obsolete in a couple of years and that we all somehow manage to survive without the things we thought we couldn’t live without.)
24. If you could go back and change one thing about this week, what would it be? (Or… if you could do today over again, what one thing would you do differently?)
25. If you were a vegetable, which one would you be and why?
26. What is one thing you wish people knew, or understood about you, but you do not think they do?
27. What is it that easily embarrasses you?
28. What’s your favorite type of cheese? (i.e. American, Cheddar, Gouda, Bleu, Mozzarella, Cheese Sticks, etc.)
29. You’ve just sat down to used the restroom when you notice there is no toilet paper what do you use and why?
30. When replacing the toilet paper do you choose to have the paper dispense from over the top or underneath?
31. If you were stuck in an elevator for 24 hours with one person, who would you like that person to be?
32. If you knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow, who would you want to make sure knew about Him as the Savior today?
33. What do you call it…soda, pop, soda-pop, carbonated beverage (for those sophisticated folk) or everything is called coke?
34. If you could dispense any condiment out of your pinky finger, what would you choose and why?
35. Which is worse, failing or never trying?
36. What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
37. If you were a toiletry item, what would you be and why? (Example: “I would be a straightener because I’m hot” or “I would be lotion because I’m smooth.”)
38. Would you rather be vomited on by a stranger or be the one vomiting on a stranger?
39. If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do they all drown?
40. If you were a Crayola crayon color, what color would you be?
41. Has anything bad ever happened to you that turned out to be for the best?
42. What was the last thing you cried about?
43. What was the best gift you ever received for Christmas and what was the best gift you ever gave?
44. If I were to grab your iPod/iPhone and hook it to the sound system and hit shuffle and play, how many of you would be nervous as to which song would come up? Why?
45. Who is your best friend and what are some reasons why they are your best friend? What makes them the best?
46. If you could change one thing about your high school, what would it be? (* You often find out a lot of surprising things that go on in high schools with this one.)
47. If you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing before you started high school, what would it be?
48. What do you think is one of the biggest misconceptions people have about teenagers? (*This one helps them think about how teens are portrayed and how others perceive them; whether or not they think those judgments are fair and accurate; how they can change them.)
49. My life would be better if… ? (This one is good for discussion on what we think will bring us happiness and also for recognizing the blessings in our lives.)
50. What is one thing that you admire or like about the person sitting to your right?
51. If you could repeat any day in your life, which day would that be and why?
52. What was your best smell of the day? What was your worst?
53. When you were little, who was your favorite super hero and why?
54. If we formed a Justice League of Not So Super Heroes and chose five members who have extraordinarily lame super powers… who are they and what are their not so great powers? (*This could be followed with 1 Peter 1:3-8, about the “qualities” (true super powers) his “divine power has given us” that keep us from being “ineffective and unproductive.” You also could then have students draw pictures of them in “comic book” fashion.)