If your class is meeting online, invite students to bring supplies with them to class.

Remember the video we watched earlier of the geese flying a long distance? The task before them was made possible because they worked together as one unit.

In just the same way, following Jesus isn’t a “one-person” operation. Like the examples of teams we considered at the beginning of the lesson, we are also a part of a team—the Body of Christ. When we work together with God’s people, we not only set ourselves up to better serve and love Him, but we come alongside others in helping them to do the same.

But this is such an easy thing to forget! So often it feels like we are alone in our Christian walk. This is because, for the majority of our day, we are not with other people from our church or with other Christians we feel close to.

Now have your students engage in an activity to help them remember that we are not in this alone.

Distribute supplies (or invite students to have them ready at home). Have them write their name in bold at the top. Then have them write the memory verse (1 Corinthians 12:26-27) and/or the words “I AM NOT ALONE” on the paper below their name. Have the students pass their papers around to their peers in the class, writing notes of encouragement and support to the person whose name is at the top of the paper. If it is a large class, split the students into smaller or manageable groups as needed.

(If your class is meeting online, students can send encouragements to each other via text or the chat feature of your video chat software.)

Be prepared to share some examples if your students are having a hard time with this. It could be as simple as: “Hey, Ryan—I’m glad you’re part of my team!” or “Chloe, you always have kind words for everyone—thanks for being an encourager.” As the teacher, be sure you write brief notes to every student with something encouraging and engage adult helpers and/or church staff to do so as well. Make sure every student has received at least three encouragements.

As you go about your week, keep these notes of encouragement near you. You could put the paper in your binder, hang it on your mirror, keep it on the nightstand beside your bed—whatever works best. When you feel that you are alone, you can be encouraged as you look at what your Christian brothers and sisters wrote. Encourage your students to pay it forward throughout the week by concentrating on sending similar encouragement texts to others they know or following through on some of the other connection ideas presented earlier.

God knows we do better when we work together. It’s how He created us! On God’s Team we all have a part to play—and when we are all doing our part, we can know that we are never alone.

Close in prayer.