The Drunk Intruder

4 shiney stars

This is not a game but an interesting 'event' you can use to generate some good discussion amongst your group.  I would only recommend using this for older groups (16+).  Not every group will be comfortable with it, but it has been a fascinating exercise I still remember and reflect on 20 years later.  

You need to organise someone who is a good actor, mature, over 18, and who no one in the group will know, to wander into your group's meeting mid way through.  They should have a can of beer or bottle of alcohol, and act under the influence, without going over the top.  

The reaction of your group can be interesting - how do they handle this scenario?  Do they recognise an opportunity to help an outsider?  Or do they want to shut them out?  

As the leader, you need to carefully determine when to intervene and announce it as a setup, but then move onto a discussion about the experience.  

  • How did you feel about this person?  
  • How did we handle it as a group?
  • How should we have handled it?
  • How would Jesus have handled the situation?
  • etc
  • Finally, did you feel tricked?  Did you feel we as leaders were dishonest?    It's important to acknowledge there may be some that feel this way.

 



Features
  • Free / Low Cost
  • Night
Objectives
  • Discipleship / Bible
Space
  • Indoor
Age
  • Teens (Age 16-18)
  • Young Adults

Group Size
  • Small Groups (1-9 people)
  • Medium (10-29 people)

Duration
  • Medium (11-29 mins)
  • Short (1-10 minutes)
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Comments

Love this idea!
- Jeremy (3 Apr 2014)

GOOD ONE I WILL TRY THIS IN TODAYS TRAINING SESSION & COME BACK WITH FEEDBACK I KNOW THIS ONE WILL BE A GOOD HIT.
- Arvind Gawai (12 Jun 2015)

This happened for real in my church's mid-week Bible study with children, teens, and grown-ups. A drunk person really did walk in. We really were not prepared for it. When we met on the following Sunday, we had a long discussion about what we did and what we should have done.
- Martin (25 Mar 2018)

When did youth group become the place for weird social experiments? This has nothing to do with anything, and in a time when kids can't even feel safe in a movie theater or school, why would you play with them feeling safe in their own church? The youth leaders who do this are the ones who get fired for doing stupid stuff.
- Matthew (30 Sep 2018)

To respond to the comment above, this kind of 'social experiment' helps people to respond in times of uncertainty and reveals how they would truly act. The object is not to point people out for being 'wrong' but to get others thinking about the way Jesus would want them to respond. Especially for 16-18 year olds, these kind of life lessons are necessary. How do we react vs how the world would expects us to react? No space is truly 'safe'.

I agree that for younger groups it might be distressing, but at this age we need to really be pushing the idea of what Church is. A bubble building where nothing from the outside world enters? Or the fellowship of individuals, each with the love of Jesus in their hearts?
- Troy Wright (14 Jul 2019)

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