As the summer months pass and we look towards the new academic year, we as student workers can feel increasing excitement and expectation for the new crop of freshers about to arrive, we can dream about and imagine all that God will do in the next twelve months and feel a thrill at the thought. But we can also feel anxiety rising. Our minds can be flooded with all the things we have to get done, all the preparation, all that needs to get sorted, and the fast approaching Freshers Week by which time everything needs to be in place. We suddenly start to feel a weight and a burden. We may be full of ideas and yet we may also be fearing we don’t have enough, or that our ideas aren’t the right ones. We’re desperately hoping new students will join our church and yet also hoping the ones we had last year will come back and stay connected rather than drifting away…
It can all feel a bit much. It can feel like a lot of weight on our shoulders. It can feel like it’s all on us.
The thing to remember however, is that it’s not all on us. We’re not alone in this.
First and foremost, it is ultimately only God who can truly reach the hearts of students. It’s actually all on him, we just have to turn up, make ourselves available and partner with him - join him in what he is doing. He actually cares about students more than we do!
Secondly, we’re not the only people who care about students either. In fact some of the people who are most passionate about reaching students with the good news, and will be most good at doing it are in fact… students. Students are in the prime position to reach their friends. They know their friends, they know the culture, they know what missional ideas will work and what won’t, far better than we do much of the time. They’re on the ground - they’re in lectures, in libraries, in societies - they have a much better reach than we do. God will have put dreams on their hearts and ideas in their heads - we can listen to them!
There will also be people in our churches who have a heart for students and we don’t even know about it. They might be younger - recent grads with some time on their hands - or they might have been stalwarts of the church for decades, with wisdom to pour into the younger generation. Either way, they may well be longing to help serve students and are just waiting to be asked.
So I want to encourage you. You’re not alone!
I also want to challenge you with three questions:
1. How could you partner with what God is already doing among students in your city? What ideas does he have for student mission? Why don’t you ask him?
2. How could you champion your students and make their ideas a reality? How can you best support them in reaching their friends with the good news this year?
3. Who in your church has a heart to bless and serve students? Why don’t you ask God to point them out - it might not be who you were expecting?
