During the lesson, the information for you to know is written in regular type, and what we suggest speaking or reading aloud to children is in bold. All resources for this lesson, including the Teacher Guide, Student Page, Family Connection Card, and other resources can be downloaded in a ZIP file by clicking on the following link:
In some lessons you will find "resource articles." These are articles written by experts from around the world to help equip you for your work with children and adolescents. Share them with parents or guardians if you consider it appropriate.
Before class, place the vine, rope, or tree branch in the middle of your space. This will divide it into 2 areas for the Connecting game. Clear the areas as much as possible to allow the children to move freely around them.
I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain joined to me, and I to you, you will bear a lot of fruit. You can’t do anything without me.
John 15:5
Without a vine, branches would not be able to live. Much in the same way, we cannot have eternal life without Jesus. How wonderful it is that God loved us enough to send us His Son so we could live with Him forever! Connecting to Jesus is only the beginning. Once you are connected to Him, you can bear fruit. Your life begins to fill with His fruit of love, joy, hope, and peace as you grow more like Him.
Does the fruit of your relationship with Jesus show in your life? What do you do to make it grow? Perhaps you spend time reading the Bible each day. Maybe you get together with other Christians to share what you see God doing in your lives. However you continue to nourish your faith, remember, Jesus says you cannot do anything without Him!
Encourage families to observe what they see when walking outside this week. Ask them to look for vines and trees so they can talk about how the branches and leaves connect to the vine or tree trunk. If possible, have them say a prayer to thank God for connecting them to Him.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
Welcome the children as they enter and instruct girls to gather on 1 side of the space and boys to gather on the other side. If you have only boys or only girls, divide the children into 2 groups.
Today you will play a special type of tag. For this game, you will stay with the group of children in your area. I will choose 1 child in each group to run around your area and gently tap other children on the shoulder, arm, or back. We will call this person the “Connector.”
The first child who is tapped by the Connector will link arms with the Connector at the elbows.
Ask for a child to volunteer to demonstrate how to link arms. Bend 1 arm at your elbow and have the volunteer do the same. Link arms with the volunteer so that the inside of your elbows meet. You may want to put your hand on your hip to keep the link.
The Connector and the person he tapped will then move around the space together. The next person to be tapped will link elbows with the child at the end of the Connector’s line. You will continue playing and linking elbows until all the children in your group are linked in a line together with the Connector. People who are linked to the Connector can also tap other children.
As you move around your area, you must be careful to remain connected with the person on your right and left. If you break loose from the Connector’s line, you and those still linked to you must move away from the line and wait to be tapped again. Raise your hand if you would like to be the Connector.
Choose 1 child from each group to be the Connector and have this child stand near the vine you placed in the middle of the space. Ask each group to stay on its side of the vine. Have the children spread out in their area of the space. Then allow the children to play tag until all of the children in both groups are linked to the Connector.
That was fun! You may sit in a circle around the “vine” in the middle of our space.
Give the children time to sit in a circle around the vine.
In our game, you all connected together to form a chain of children. As you connected together, you had to hold on to the others in the chain. It was important to stay connected so your team could finish the game. It is important for us to be connected to others, but it is even more important for us to be connected with Jesus. Today we will learn why it is important to stay connected to Jesus and how this can help us to grow in faith.
For this portion of the lesson, you will refer to the “vine” in the middle of the circle.
Look at this vine.
If you are using a rope, tell the children to imagine it is a vine with leaves on it.
Do you think the leaves would stay alive and healthy if they were not connected to this vine?
Why would the leaves die without the vine?
Allow 2–3 children to reply.
The leaves would dry up and become brown if they were not connected to the vine. The branches coming out of the main vine would also die if they were cut off from the vine. Without the vine, the branches and leaves could not live. Water and nutrients are taken in by the roots and travel through the vine to branches and then to the leaves and fruit. Jesus told us that He is the vine and we are the branches. It is important to stay connected to Jesus so that your life can create fruit. Listen to what Jesus said to His disciples.
I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain joined to me, and I to you, you will bear a lot of fruit. You can’t do anything without me.
John 15:5
Jesus is the vine. He provides all that you need to keep your faith strong. Jesus said if you remain connected to Him, you will bear a lot of fruit.
What do you think it means to bear fruit?
Allow 2–3 children to respond.
Bearing fruit means many things. One is that you help others to come and see Jesus, just as Andrew invited Peter to come and see Jesus. The Bible tells us about the type of fruit you will produce when you are connected to Jesus.
But the fruit the Holy Spirit produces is love, joy and peace. It is being patient, kind and good. It is being faithful and gentle and having control of oneself. There is no law against things of that kind.
Galatians 5:22–23
You may have learned about the fruit of the Spirit before. You learned these are not fruit you can eat. When you know and follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit changes you and the way you live so that you begin to see the qualities of the Holy Spirit in yourself.
What does fruit need to do before you can gather and eat it?
It needs to grow.
If you wanted to help fruit grow, you would water the plant it is growing on. You would also protect the fruit from birds and other animals so it could continue to grow and become ripe.
What can you do to help the fruit of the Spirit grow in your life?
Allow 2–3 children to respond.
You can water your fruit by listening to stories from the Bible about who God is and about what His Son did on earth. You can ask for God’s protection of your fruit as it grows. You can also surround yourself with others who believe in Jesus so they can help your fruit to grow. This is what you do each week when you come to class!
Together, our class has created a community of people who you can safely talk to and share your faith with. Our community can encourage and teach each other to live in a way that is pleasing to God, which will help your fruit grow.
A very important way to help your fruit grow is to develop a relationship with Jesus. You can do this by praying and reading the Bible. The Bible tells us why Jesus wants us to remain connected to Him and grow fruit. Listen to what Jesus told His disciples.
I have told you this so that you will have the same joy that I have. I also want your joy to be complete. Here is my command. Love one another, just as I have loved you.
John 15:11–12
When you have the love of Jesus in your heart, you will find joy! This joy begins to show itself in the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you live your life. The love of Jesus can help you to have hope and to experience joy! When you share this love with others, it can help both you and them to be more joyful.
God knew we needed a way back to Him, so He sent His Only Son to save us from our sin. Jesus died on the cross so that we could have a way back to Him. Listen to this Bible verse about what Jesus did for us.
But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
If you have moved your arms from the “we sinned” motion, put your left arm out to your left side at shoulder height and extend your right arm straight in front of you.
Have the children sit in a circle. Place the vine, rope, or tree branch in the middle of the circle. This will be the “vine” for the following activity.
Let’s all sit in a circle. I will place this vine in the centre. You just learned Jesus is the vine and those who believe in Him are the branches. Branches must stay connected to the vine for the leaves to be healthy. I will give each of you a leaf.
This leaf represents love and faith in Jesus, the Son of God. Let’s all think about how we can be strong and healthy in our relationship with Jesus.
Allow 2–3 children to respond to each of the following questions.
In a moment, each of you will come up to the vine and place your leaf on it. As you put your leaf down, you will say 1 way you can stay linked to Jesus. It is okay to say the same thing someone else says, if you want to.
Walk to the centre vine and place a leaf next to it and say something that keeps you linked to Jesus. Allow the children to speak 1 at a time and place their leaves on the vine.
There are so many ways to stay connected to Jesus. Coming to class is one way. Going to church, singing songs about Jesus, and praying are a few others. When you remember Jesus’ love for you and you remember His goodness, it helps you to remain connected to Him.
Optional: If you are using Student Pages, give the children time to cut or tear out their puzzles. Then allow about 2–3 minutes for the children to put them together.
God loves us so much that He sent His Son to connect us back to Him. Listen again to this Bible verse.
If you are using the Memory Verse Poster, show it to the students.
But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Let’s review the motions for the Gospel in Simple Words to help us share with others what it means to follow Jesus.
These motions are intended to be done one after the other. Keep your arms in the position of the previous motion as you transition to the next motion.
End class by saying this blessing, based on John 15:5, over the children.
Blessing: May each of you be joined to Jesus, who is the vine. May you bear a lot of fruit as you remain in His love.
Lead the children in singing this quarter’s song, if possible.
Life on Life ©2020 David C Cook. Reproducible for home or classroom use only. All other uses require written permission from David C Cook [email protected]. All rights reserved.
