The Identity Bucket exercise, DIY edition.

Some assembly required. Instructions included. Run it in your home, workplace, or church. All you need is some paper, a Sharpie, ten containers, and your people.

STEP 01: Gather what you need.

Nothing fancy. Four things you probably already have around the house, plus a room full of people willing to be honest.

Containers

Cups, bowls, bags, whatever’s in the cabinet.

Set-Apart Item

Make one look different. One red cup, nine blue.

Sharpie

For labeling the containers and writing on index cards.

Index Cards

One label or phrase per card. Slips of paper work too.

Your People

Family, coworkers, or your small church group.

The red cup is not like the others. Only God puts anything in that one. Everything else in this exercise is negotiable, that rule isn’t.

STEP 02: Label your buckets.

Ten containers, ten labels. Nine hold things about you. One holds who you are in Christ.

Preferences

Past Experiences

Physical Traits

Character

Personality

Skills & Gifts

Jobs & Roles

Purpose & Calling

My Name

Identity

Add, remove, or reword as you’re led, as this list isn’t sacred. The red one is.

STEP 03: Write your cards.

One label or phrase per card. Write some ahead of time, then let the group add their own. From Kent’s own list:

Non-identity words that may describe you

Who you are in Christ

Most of these feel like part of who we are. But only a few belong in the red cup. Sorting out which is the whole exercise.

STEP 04: Run it.

Three builds, same set of parts. Pick the one that fits your room.

In your home

  1. Set up at the kitchen table.
  2. Deal the cards. Everyone adds a few of their own.
  3. Sort one card at a time. Which bucket does it go in?
  4. Let them wrestle. That’s the point.

The “Identity” bucket does the teaching for you.

At your workplace

  1. Read the room. Faith-friendly? Green light. If not, this isn’t the hill.
  2. Order in lunch. If you feed them, they’ll let you say almost anything.
  3. Keep it conversational. In the right context, this feels like a really good staff meeting.
  4. Run the sort. Same cards, or let the team write their own from life at work.

Nobody ties their identity to a job title on purpose. It happens slowly. Undetected.

In your church

  1. Pick your scale: sermon, small group, staff retreat, Bible study.
  2. Sort the cards together as a group.
  3. Extend grace. The metaphor isn’t perfect, and that’s fine.
  4. Encourage dialogue, not agreement. “I’ve let a lotta lies pile up in my identity bucket” = win.

Two words out front: grace and dialogue.

AVAILABLE DECEMBER 1ST

This exercise comes from a book.

Everything you’ve seen here comes from The Identity Bucket by Kent Evans.

“An identity based on anything but Christ is a house of cards. You’ll find a simple and easy way to understand your true identity. God alone makes deposits into our identity!”

MARK BATTERSON

NYT bestselling author of The Circle Maker