All About Me Bags
Today we welcomed two new members into the church, and we can’t wait to get to know them better! Really, though, it’s always fun to get to know people better, even those we know well, and the All About Me bag is a great way to do it.
To start, gather enough of the same kind of bag for everyone to have one. You can use brown paper lunch bags, grocery bags, gift bags – anything works. If you’ve chosen plain bags, each person can decorate their bag to reflect their personality. Then they should gather five items to put in their bag, things that really encapsulate who they are. Think about representing things like accomplishments, hobbies, memorable experiences, and preferences (favorite foods, colors, movies, etc). All five objects MUST fit in the bag, so be strategic about the size of your bags AND your objects.
Then, share them! Give each person an opportunity to share their objects and talk about why they chose each one. Everybody else can ask questions if they’d like. It’s truly as simple as that, though there are some opportunities for twists on the concept:
If you play with extended family/friends/coworkers (anyone you don’t know well enough to immediately recognize their objects), you can make it a guessing game. Trade bags and share the objects inside, then guess whose bag it is. The person whose bag it is can talk about their objects once they’ve been successfully identified.
If you play with close family, trade bags and share somebody else’s objects. Each participant should try to put themselves in the other person’s shoes and really understand why they chose each object. When it’s your turn, introduce the other person as if they are the most fascinating person in the whole world, and each object belongs in a museum devoted to how awesome that person is.
On top of being pretty fun, this activity also has lots of replay potential. You might play again with different-sized bags, or with a different number of objects (What happens if everyone is permitted seven objects? How about just two?). You can also just wait a few months and play again the same way! We are all constantly changing, and by checking in on these shifts in the people around us, we can remain connected to who they are now rather than who they used to be.
What will you include in your All About Me bag? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
