I recently did a team building activity with a group of people in an interdenominational organisation who are not familiar with the 3 Color material, which I have been encouraged to share here as it was a huge success.
In my preparation I printed each of the fruit on a sheet of paper with a brief explanation and scripture verse eg
Joy - Rejoicing love, based on the 'joy of the Lord' not our circumstances. James 1:2 Whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.
Peace - Reconciling love, aims at the well-being of an individual or community in all aspects of life. James 3:18 Those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace.
and so on ....
I also printed the name of each fruit, one page for each, in large print.
This activity was conducted in a church hall with approx 30 people who were seated in a large circle. I placed the 8 sheets of paper with the names of the fruit on the floor inside the circle of people and the sheets of paper with the explanations of each fruit was also handed out.
The activity was introduced by asking "What is love?" and getting responses from my team. I then went on to talk about God being love and how His love is shown through us by the fruit we produce. I spoke about our strengths and opportunities for growth and then asked everyone to read through the descriptions on their sheet of paper and to identify what they saw as their strength and weaknesses. After a few minutes I asked my team members to go to the sign on the floor which they believed was their strength area and spend time in that group discussing how they could use their mature, ripe fruit to show love to others. Lively discussion took place.
Because of the type or organisation represented, I wasn't at all surprised to see no one in the goodness and self-control areas but kindness, gentleness and faithfulness were heavily represented.
After a reasonable time I went from group to group with the roving mic for feedback and when I came to 'goodness' and 'self-control' I was able to speak about them and give examples of how they are a necessary part of love in action.
I then asked my team to go to the area they had identified as their greatest potential for growth and we followed the same process with discussing ways in which we may be able to grow in this area and whether it is important to grow or to only concentrate on our natural strengths. Great feedback followed.
Everyone returned to their seats and I summed it up by pointing out that we are all different, we bring our own unique qualities to the team, we all have strengths and weaknesses and we complement each other to form one team. I also felt it important to emphasise that we recognise what is needed by the other person and show the appropriate expression of love. I gave an example by using the story of the Good Samaritan and saying that if he had approached the situation with "up you get mate, you'll be right, let's thank God for those great looking bruises" it certainly wouldn't have been what was needed at the time.