News
Resources - Fruit of the Spirit
This page has some general concepts that you may find useful.
There are also some limited copyright issues, which are towards the bottom of that page here. Please do read them. They are not complex!
I also make some comments about the source of material - again please read, especially if you recognise your material! I mean no offense.
There is also an Alphabetical list of resources here
Process
We looked at the fruit of the spirit, by covering one fruit each week. We had many speakers over the weeks who all tackled it differently as you can imagine! The main emphasis we took was that fruit grew by itself if you gave it the right environment - soil, water, sunlight etc. The "right environment" for us was letting God change us, and for us to do what we could when we could.
We also made it clear that failure would come - often(!) - and that was not terminal! We talked about God's forgiveness in this context.
To tie it all together we had:
- A tree onto which, each week, someone hung a cardboard "Fruit". We had this little "ceremony" at the start of each service, and it set the scene really well.
- A presentation that taught us the verse, and each week added the fruit under discussion.
Resources
1. A tree - we put a small twiggy branch, about 3 feet tall, into a flower pot, weighed down with bricks to make it a bit more stable. Each week someone hung onto the tree, a carboard fruit representing the fruit under discussion that week. It became quite an honour to add the fruit to the tree.
2. A presention. For the first week, we simply had the introductory slides, the verse, and the first fruit - love. Each week we added a fruit to the presentation. We encouraged participation by getting them to join in as we said the verse, and again to join in as we went through the presentation with each fruit. Our group of people really enjoyed this part.
3. Cardboard fruit to cut out. I have made two files available for you.
(a) A PDF file with all the fruit (3.7Mb) - one per page. This can be printed out
(b) A zip file with the individual fruit in PNG format (3.4Mb) - for you to use as you wish - in a graphics program, or to print, and or to use in a presentation.
Both the PDF and the ZIP file have each fruit twice - one a mirror image of the other. What we did was to print out the pair on the thickest paper that our printer could manage. Then cut them out, and stick them back to back. Much prettier than only one side with the picture on!
Although we did not do this, I see no reason why real fruit could not be used at some point in the series to add a bit of spice!
Similarly, to show that fruit does indeed grow in the right environment, why not plant a seed at the start of the series, and bring it back each week to see how it is getting on? If it is not fully grown by the end, keep bringing it back until it is. This can continue to act as a reminder of what was studied!
