Bread of Life Ministries - Free Children' s Ministry Curriculum - The Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit

Game Show/ Hero Days

Adventure Days/ The Secret of Everlasting Life

Time Machine Days

Submarine Days

Detective Days

Swamp Days

Mission Possible Days

Celebrity Days

Wilderness Days

Construction Days

Emergency 911 Days

Minor Days

Beach Days

Holidays

Free Children's Ministry Curriculum

The Fruit of the Spirit

Goodness

Galatians 5:22 & 23

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy , peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against this there is no law".

"When a person accepts Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live in their heart. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit produces Christian virtues in the believer's life. These virtues are the fruit of the Spirit and we become more Christ-like. We will exhibit the fruit whether we are aware of it or not, it happens completely through the work of the Holy Spirit. We can't produce fruit by our own effort, it comes from God's presence and interaction in our lives."

Offner, Hazel. Fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press, 1987

Objective: The objective of The Zoo Children's Ministry is to reach kids with the Gospel message and to teach them about God's love and how to live as Christians in today's world.

The purpose of this particular series is to present salvation and explain that when they make a decision for Christ the Holy Spirit will live in their hearts. They can have the fruit of the Spirit begin to show in their lives.

Themes: We have chosen to divide the fruit of the Spirit into sets of three. With each set there will be a different theme. All props and stories will teach the lesson but incorporate the theme.

Pirate Days Theme

Preparation: The theme is "Pirate Days". It is easy to find lots of props for Pirate Days. Use anything nautical and tropical. Costumes for volunteers or leaders can enhance the effect.

Lesson Six GOODNESS

The goodness of God can dwell in all of u, through the Holy Spirit. It is seen clearly in Psalm 107. "The whole psalm is a majestic panorama of the operations of divine goodness transforming human lives." J.I. Packer.

Goals

To teach the children that goodness comes from God.
To help them realize the need to do good everywhere.

Opening

Brief skit between two pirate puppets. One has a long telescope.

Pirate 1: (Looking through the telescope) Look, Look. There is a ship approaching. I think it is loaded with treasure!

Pirate 2: Well, Let's go after it. We will shoot it and when it sinks we will steal the treasure. Then we'll be rich.

Pirate 1: I'd love to be rich but that would be wrong.

Pirate 2: So what, who cares?

Pirate 1: God cares. He sees everything we do and he would be unhappy. He wants us to do good.

Pirate 2: What about the treasure?

Pirate 1: God has an even better treasure lined up for us when we get to heaven. We will be happy forever. It will last but your money won't!

Pirate 2: I guess I'd rather have that treasure. I want to do good.

Review Rules

The rules can quickly become boring. Change the order and the wording for variety. Have the children tell the rules.

Prayer

This is usually very brief. It is important to make sure that prayer is occurring at other times. You may want to have a weekly prayer time with volunteers if it is possible.

Music

Another way to make the music time interesting is to have the children come up and lead the actions.

Games - Pirate Theme

Man Overboard

Select four boys and four girls for each team. The leader throws an inflated rubber ring to the first contestants. The contestants catch it and crab walk to the other side pushing the ring with their backsides. When they get back to the start, they hand the ring to the next person.

Treasure Game

This is a water balloon toss game. Select four players - two girls and two boys. One team member gets six gold water balloons and the other one gets a basket. They have to catch the balloons in a basket without breaking them. The team with the most balloons not broken wins.

Memory Verse

Interaction between Puppet and Leader

"Surely your goodness and love will be with me all my life." Psalm 23:6

This is the last week with "Blue Beard" the nasty pirate and the opportunity to get the final piece of the map and find the key and get the long awaited treasure!

Leader: We got two pieces of the map. If we get one more then we can find the key and get the treasure. Let's see if Blue Beard is here and will give us the next piece. Hey Blue Beard are you home?

Blue Beard: What do you want? Bugging me again, I can't believe it. You guys are a nuisance. Let me guess, you want the last piece of the map.

Leader: That's right Blue Beard. You said that if we could learn your memory verses we could get the pieces of the map. Isn't that right?

Blue Beard: Well, yes it is. This time I found a verse that is very difficult. I don't think you'll get it so I don't think you'll get my treasure.

Leader: Can we try?

Blue Beard: I guess I don't have a choice, here is the verse.

Leader: Let's read this one... "Surely your goodness and love will be with me all my life." Psalm 23:6. That doesn't seem bad, let's read it again together.

Blue Beard: Not loud enough, you guys!

Leader: Ok, let's read it again louder. "Surely your goodness and love will be with me all my life." Psalm 23:6.

Blue Beard: Oh yeah well I bet you don't know what all that means?

Leader: Well kids, what does it mean? (allow the kids to have to respond) That's right. It means that God's goodness and love will be a part of our lives forever.

Blue Beard: Not bad but you haven't done it without looking.

Leader: Ok.... "Surely your goodness and love will be with me all my life." Psalm 23:6. We did it. Hooray! Ok, Blue Beard you promised you would give us the last piece of the map.

Blue Beard: All right, here it is.

Leader: Ok, let's put it together.

The map is put together and a search is conducted for the key. The key is found and the treasure is revealed. Each child will go home with a package of five gold (chocolate) coins at the end of the program.

Object Lesson

To reinforce the idea of the lesson - doing good for others because the Holy Spirit has given us the ability to do so.

In this object lesson simply ask the children questions. Often they are eager to interact with the leader. Ask them to give examples of how they can do good in their community.

Story

This story is told by a gruff pirate captain who is a puppet. He requires interaction with the audience. Use pictures to illustrate the story.

Welcome to Pirate Boot Camp. We are going to train all you wanna-be pirates to be ship shape. When I'm in charge I expect your complete attention at all times. I expect you to answer me when I speak to you. These are the rules at the Pirate Academy. All right let's see if you can respond to my commands. Every time I yell out a command I want you to do it. (Have the children act out the commands).

Swab the deck, Hoist the sail, Batten down the hatches, Full steam ahead.

I'm not impressed, that wasn't good enough. If you want to be good pirates, it has to be better than that! Let's try it again: Swab the deck, Hoist the sail, Batten down the hatches, full steam ahead.

Not bad. I might let you join me on my ship. You make a pretty good class of Pirates. But I'm here to tell you about the last group of pirates that come to the pirate academy. They seemed really good but that is only half the story.

We were training a new bunch of Pirates. They had just joined the Pirate Academy. I spent four months with them. We did sit ups, push ups and jumping jacks. I worked them really hard. You have to get them in shape! You have to straighten them up. They were really good. They were always polite. They listened, they answered and they obeyed. They were becoming a tough group of Pirates. But I didn't know that they weren't always being good. In fact they were horrible behind my back. Every time I wasn't around they changed. When I was there they were excellent but when I wasn't they weren't so good.

One afternoon when it was really sunny I gave the new recruits some jobs to do. I asked some pirates to fix a crack on the side of the boat. I asked another group to practice tying knots for the sails and I asked the others to practice emergency drills. They all said "yes sir" and I expected them to do this. I went down to my cabin to catch a nap.

While I was sleeping, a storm came up. Suddenly, it got so bad that I fell out of bed. I heard a huge bang. I ran upstairs to the deck. The waves were crashing. The deck was almost covered in water. It was a terrible disaster. I began to yell orders to the crew. They ran around trying to fix the boat. They tried to mend the crack that they hadn't fixed earlier. The pirates were attempting to tie the sails down but couldn't . They were confused and scared so they kept bumping into each other. It was terrible. Fortunately, the storm let up. I began talking to them. I asked them why they didn't know what to do in the storm. It was then that they confessed that they hadn't been practising. When I had gone to my room to have a nap they hadn't practiced. They played games. They were good but only when I was watching.

Leader's Conclusion: Being good isn't easy. Goodness is something God can give you. He can help you to be good all the time. When you talk to Jesus and you ask him to come and be your best friend, he will live in your heart. He will help you to show goodness.