Materials
None

Icebreaker Description
Youth will answer questions of scruples in this group icebreaker.

Preparation
Create a list of questions that test the integrity of a person but do not have easy black and white answers?

• A fellow student offers to sell you the answers to last years test for $20. You know the test is different each year. Do you buy them?
• Is it OK for a Christian man to wear earrings?
• Is it OK to have devotions in the evening instead of the morning?
• Is it OK to hunt for sport?
• Is it OK to screen my telephone calls and not answer, even though I’m really home?
• You e-mail your picture to a gorgeous person you met on the Internet. Do you mention you gained 30 pounds since the picture was taken?
• You know your best friend and fellow employee is stealing from the cash drawer. After a year the owner makes you a manager. Do you fire your friend?
• You made personal Christmas Cards on the company copier. Do you pay for the copies even though no one knows?
• You work in a store and catch a fifteen-year-old shoplifter. He says it’s his first time. Do you give him a chance or prosecute?
• You work in a video store. You’re out of stock on a particular item. Do you send your customer to your competitor?
• Someone drops a $20 bill on the floor. Do you try to find the owner or do you keep the $20?
• Your friend helped get you a job at a music store. After three months you find out that he’s been stealing CDs. Do you report him?
• You’re a waiter in a restaurant. You see the cook drop a steak on the floor. He cooked it well over a fire. Do you serve it to the customer?

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Icebreaker Activity

1. Have youth form two circles, one within the other. The students should be facing one another.
2. The inner circle of students move counter-clockwise while the outer circle moves clockwise.
3. When you call “Stop!” each youth should face a new partner.
4. Ask a question and the youth should discuss the answer with the partner they face.
5. Go from easy questions like “What’s the best ice cream” to hard ones that involve scruples.
6. Keep rotating and asking new questions for discussion.

Optional Debrief
What was the most interesting answer you heard during the icebreaker?

Conclusion
Scruples are personal principles about practices that are essentially neutral in themselves, and are not shown to be morally wrong or black-and-white in Scripture. Sometimes there may be conflicting principles at work. For example, “smuggling Bibles” into a country where Bibles are illegal is seen as wrong by some believers, based on the clear Scriptures that deal with deception and lying. Other Christians see Bible-smuggling as morally right, fulfilling the Great Commission, and obeying the clear teaching of Scripture that “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Romans 14 gives us some principles for dealing with such situations.

Application
A morally neutral practice can become morally wrong for us if we disregard the teachings of Romans 14 and fail to “act in love” towards others! So let’s show love and patience with each other as we seek to sort out lifestyle and behavior matters in the light of Scripture. Let’s make sure we apply the principles of Romans 14 when it comes to scruples!

Scripture
Romans 14:1-3

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