Friend Makers:

1. Friendly Disagreements

Goal: People will discover and apply biblical principles for disagreeing in healthy and productive ways.

To begin, ask people to form two groups, those who prefer to keep quiet when someone disagrees with them and those who tend to argue for their position when someone disagrees. The have people form foursomes that contain two members from each group.
Give each group a sheet of paper and a pencil. Challenge groups to list in one minute as many subjects as they can about what they disagree. Areas of disagreement might include politics, favorite foods, styles of parenting, role of husbands and wives, or anything else.
After one minute, have groups report how many disagreements they were able to uncover and what those areas are. Then ask the entire group the following questions:

· How easy was it to identify areas of disagreement?
· What does this say about the members of the group?
· How can disagreements make us stronger? Weaker?

Then say: Whenever two or three are gathered together, there are bound to be disagreements. In many cases this diversity of opinions is good, for it makes us stronger and wiser.
However disagreements can divide us from each other and can end up destroying the group. So we are going to spend some time discovering and discussing how we can deal with our disagreements in a healthy, friendly way.
Assign each group two of the following biblical passages: Proverbs 10:19, 15:1, 17:9, 14, 18:13, 24:26, 26:4-5, 17, and 29:20. Instruct groups to read their passages to discover principles for avoiding or dealing with disagreements.
While groups are discussing, hang a sheet of newsprint, and draw a line down its center. After five minutes of study time, have groups take turns reporting their principles and examples.
Then instruct each group to choose two members who disagree on a subject to apply these principles listed on the newsprint while they present their opinions about that subject for four minutes. Have the other group members observe the discussion so they can comment on the discussion later on. After the first pair finishes, have group members compliment positive uses of the principles and suggest ways they might apply them even better.
After all the groups finish ask the following questions:
· What was difficult about disagreeing in a friendly way?
· When do you think its best to speak up? To remain quiet?
· How can we make it easier to disagree within the group?

Then have each group member share he or she thinks needs help applying during disagreements within the group. When everyone has shared, close by having people pray for the person on their left, asking God to help that person disagree in a healthy way and to accept even those people whose ideas he or she rejects.

More Coming Soon!