Fruit of the Spirit - Paul's letters and Overview

Drama Workshop Sketch

Week 1

Summary: Narrated Tree Skit followed by a Fruit Salad snack.

Supplies: 1 shiny apple, 1 rotten banana, fruit salad, bowls, spoons, pencils, Journal Page:  “What fruit do you want to BEAR or GROW”.

Lesson

Have them sit in family groups. If there are any children without their parents, ask them to join in with another family.

Say: Here’s a question to discuss in your family group: If you could be any fruit in the world, what would it be and why?

After a minute or two, call their attention and ask a few people to share their answers with the group.

Say: In the Bible Jesus and others used fruit to teach us about how God wants us to live.

Tree Skit

Say: Get together with another family. In your group one of you will become the tree, one of you become the farmer, some of you will be the fruit on the tree, some of you will be people who will eventually pick and eat the fruit. Choose parts and then listen for your part.

Now let’s act it out ….The fruit tree is growing very large and healthy. What is the farmer doing to get the tree to be healthy? (water it, prune it, fertilizer it). FREEZE! Who do you think the farmer represents? Who do you think the tree represents?

Act it out again …. When the fruit tree is growing and healthy, what does the tree produce? (fruit). Ok, fruit, act out being very tiny and then growing and showing yourself on the tree. FREEZE! If the farmer is God, and the tree is us, what you do think the fruit represents? (our lives)

Act it out again … along come some people and they see your fruit. They pick it and eat it! Pretend it taste bad! FREEZE! What’s something you might be doing or saying that you’d have “bad” fruit? Taste again … pretend it tastes good. FREEZE! What would you be doing or saying that it would be good.

Fruit Salad Snack

Say: Let’s all sit together and share some plant fruit!

Pass out fruit salad for families to share. While they’re eating, Ask: When we eat plant fruit, we pop it into our mouths and it’s gone! No one can see it. But our “life fruit” shows to other people all the time. Think about the words you use, the things you do, and the way you treat others. That’s our “life fruit”. Does the way you talk and act show others that you know and love Jesus? Do your family and friends know by your “life fruit” that you belong to Jesus?

Is your life fruit like this? (show shiny apple) Or like this? (show rotten banana) Which do you think God prefers us to be like?

Matthew 7:20 say 'Thus by their fruit you will recognize them'

The fruit of the Spirit is what we’re going to spend the summer talking about. When we say we believe in Jesus and chose to follow him, then God’s Holy Spirit comes into our lives … to guide us and show us how to be a follower of Jesus.

Just like a tree grows “plant fruit” we grow “life fruit”. The life fruit is the fruit of the spirit … and let’s look at the Bible verse we’ll be learning:

When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Galatians 5:22-23

Journal What Fruit would You want to Be?

Distribute pencils.

Say: Earlier I asked you “what fruit would you want to BE”. Now I’ll ask “what fruit do you want to BEAR or GROW”. Go to your family journal and turn to the first page. Look at the list of fruit and discuss together for a few minutes which life fruits you see in each other and those you each need to work on. Fill in the blanks on the sheet.

Closing

Watch the time and close in prayer before sending the families off to the other workshop.

Fruit of the Spirit - Paul's Letters

Art Workshop Sketch

Week 1

Summary: Object Lesson “It’s Hard to Tell the Good News”, journal page, followed by creating a water color Cover Page for their journal.

Supplies: for each person: chocolate candy, a lemon slice, salty crackers, cups. Unsweetened Kool-Aid drink already mixed, and a pitcher of water, bibles.  Per family: pencil, a sheet of water color paper, a set of water colors, paper towels, paint brushes and a cup of water, doutangs, Journal Page-“Write 13 things they know about God.”

Lesson

Distribute Bibles and read together Philippians 2:9-11.

Object Lesson “It’s Hard to Tell the Good News”

Have each person eat a piece of candy and say, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Then have each person suck on a lemon piece and say, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Then have each person eat a salty cracker and again say, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Lastly, have them try to wash down the crackers with unsweetened Kool-Aid as they say, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Pass out cups of water to wash it all down!

Say: There are times when it’s hard for our mouths to keep telling others about Jesus. But the apostle Paul was someone who never stopped telling people about Jesus … Who remembers Paul from last month at the LIGHT? What kind of things happened to Paul because he was a Christian? (beaten, jailed) Did he stop spreading the Good News? (no!)

Say: Paul was a writer. He wrote 13 books of the Bible with God’s help. He wrote the letter to the Philippians that I read from the verse above. He wrote the letter to the Galatians where he talks about the fruit of the Spirit. He wrote more books in the Bible than anyone else.

Ask: How many books of the Bible did Paul write? (13)

Hand out 2nd page in their journal. Tell them to work with their family and write 13 things they know about God.

As they write ask “Is it easy or difficult to write 13 things you know about God?”

Do you think it was easy or difficult for Paul to write 13 entire books? Why? Paul had very special help from God, and Paul wrote exactly what God told him to write.

If you didn’t think of 13, you can finish at home and ask God to help you. Be aware in every day things how good God is and you will notice more things to add to your list. You might even discover more than 13 things about God and you can continue the list on the back!

Art Journal Cover Activity

Say: We’re going to work on the cover for your Fruit Journal. Pass out one water color paper to each family and a set of water colors. Also paper towels, paint brushes and a cup for water.

Tell the parents to sketch a tree lightly with a pencil. Kids will water color the tree. Ok to paint scenery around it, but DO NOT paint fruit on the tree. Each week they’ll get a sticker to add to the tree with the fruit we learned about that week.

As they work, ask them to talk about in their family why they think their faith might be like a tree. Tell them that the journal page has a place to record this … parents can record while kids are painting.

Closing

Pass out to all family members a doutang to use as there Journal holder.

Watch the time so they can clean up and move on to the other workshop.

Jan @ First Presbyterian Church, Napa CA

Some ideas from these lessons came from:
Rotation.org
Children's Ministry Magazine, July-August, 2001
Msscrafts.com and its ministry links

A representative of Rotation.org reformatted this post to improve readability.