Death in Sunday School

The mother was flustered and annoyed as she approached me. "What have you been teaching my boy this morning?!" she demanded, eyes glaring.

I was relaxing over a cup of coffee in the church lounge, enjoying the buzz and chatter, after what I thought had been a particularly excellent session. We had been thinking about the story of Lydia, and how she opened her ears, the Lord opened her heart, and she opened her home to Paul and his companions. The teaching material Click had suggested that I start with a demonstration on how to make purple cloth (you'll remember that Lydia was a seller of Purple in Philippi).

We mixed red and blue food colouring, and one by one the children dipped little squares of torn-up T-shirt into the mixture, and it came out Purple. OK, so it was more a muddy maroon – but you get the picture.

I stood there dumbfounded before Mum, who was on the verge of turning purple herself. "What do you mean?" I asked in my most "let's calm the parent down” voice. "I asked my boy what he had learned in Sunday School this morning," she said. "Dying" the boy replied solemnly. Concerned for the heavyweight subject for her delicate 4-year old, she asked: "Who was dying?" "I was!" replied the boy. Still hoping to rescue the situation, Mum asked the next question expecting the answer: "We go to heaven". "What happens when you die, darling?" "Turn purple!"

Fortunately, Mum roared with laughter when the truth came out. But it was a great lesson for me about language and little ones. Next time, I won't call it dyeing – I'll just say we are going to colour some cloth as Lydia might have done…

For some great training on how not to make more mistakes like this, do join us for the Growing Young Disciples Conference at All Souls, London or in Rugby next year!