The first five minutes of your small group are the most important. It is a good idea to start with some kind of icebreaker—a get-to-know-you question. Ideally, this will tie in to the lesson itself. For example, if you are teaching the story of the Prodigal Son, you might ask everyone where they fit in the birth order of their family. The story specifically mentions an elder brother and a younger brother, so birth order is relevant. Once we spend a few minutes with an ice breaker, we dive
into the lesson itself, starting with the introduction.
In this article, I want to talk about the introduction to the group Bible study & discussion time. What is a good introduction to do, and why is it important? Why do we need an introduction—or do we? If you use the suggestion in this article, you will never again struggle to keep people’s attention.
The introduction should answer the question, “Why should I give you my attention today.” The easiest way to do this is what I call, “Introduction by Promise.”