Similar to your vacation question I ask “If you could go anywhere in the world and money wasn’t issue, where would you go and what would you do?” (you can turn this in a spiritual direction too but of course don’t have to. but it lends itself to talking about missions, lifestyles, poverty, helping/serving others, etc)

What is something that really makes you mad? or When was the last time you got really angry about something? (sounds like a weird question but you would be surprised how kids will open up and the oppurtunities it gives you to take things in a spiritual direction.)

I used to ask kids “Do you twitter?” but after several took it to mean something completely inappropriate and the police got involved, I don’t so much use that question anymore!!!

How can I pray for you? –you would be surprised how well this works, even with wait staff at restaurants will spill there guts with knowing little more about whether you drink tea or coke and that you like ranch on the side. Kids will open up too.

I also often ask kids if they have a myspace or a facebook? and A new one I am thinking about trying out is asking kids if they have ever googled their own name?

Along with question #1 one could ask what subjects do you enjoy? or what do you want to be when you head out of school?

All these add on’s are good for continuing on the previous questions to be able to know more about that student or whoever your talking to.

Just an idea.

If you could plan your family vacay… Where would you go? What would you do? Who would go with you?

A suggested question or topics for questions for high school guys could be games and girls. Maybe sports. I’m fairly certain that those topics are constants among high school guys. I wouldn’t get caught up in the drama but it’s always good to listen.

I’m not sure how I feel about the first question. If I were a high schooler coming to AM/SM, I wouldn’t want to talk about school. In fact, guests probably think of get togethers as an escape from school and all things about it. But then again, I was a little slacker kid in high school so maybe it depends on who you ask.

A quick tangent: I hate the phrase Sunday School. To me, the word school has a bad stigma on it and is associated with a place where people must go to be forced into learning things

@Jacob *Has never heard of John Pershing* Commence Wiki-ing.

Just accidentally stumbled upon two blogs that are loosely related to this very topic while I was catching up on a few threads posted on Tim Schmoyer’s Youth Ministry blog.

Here’s one… and here’s another.

Great question to add to the list!

You are correct in your assessment that fewer people (especially those between the ages of 15-24) read books than those who watch television/movies. Interestingly enough, I have had several unexpected and unsolicited conversations recently with teenagers about books (specifically the “Twilight” series).

Note that sometimes it may be necessary to distinguish between the last book that a person started reading and the last book that a person finished, but that just gives you more to talk about and more information about the person’s reading habits. The question can also be interesting because, while just about everyone watches movies at least from time to time, not everyone actually reads books. Unless the person never reads, there are lots of follow ups that could lead to more interesting revelations about the person and his or her interests.

At one time, one of my favorite questions to ask people was “Do you know who John Pershing is/was?” I’d dressed as Pershing for Halloween one year and was surprised to learn that no one knew who he was, so I decided to see just how many people could identify him. I probably asked 40+ people over the course of about 18 months before finally finding one person who knew who Pershing was. But that question tells the asker more about society and our educational system than it does about any individual person, and it might create some defensiveness too. (Almost everyone that I queries was very good natured about being asked, however.)

Greatness! You did miss the point of the blog… but your “triple-post” was awesome… so your confusion paid off with some wondrous results (and in no way will “wondrous results” ever be mistaken for “clutter” my friend).

(also… I will tackle the time-stamp issue as soon as I post this reply… thanks for the info…)