Last Saturday I painted my entire face gold, sprayed glitter in my hair and adorned myself with gold clothing. As I glimpsed at myself in the mirror I thought; the things I do for student ministry. I was about to head out onto the streets with some of my students to pray over the city and give gifts out to the students heading to the Students Union for a night out. And if I’m honest with you, all I wanted was to get into bed and catch up with Strictly Come Dancing.

Sometimes, in our job, we can be so guilty of getting caught up in the details of the little things or the admin of work or the meetings we need to arrange and we forget that there is more to our job. The reason why we dress up in silly costumes, stay up stupidly late, go to our student’s parties or pick them up early in the morning because God cares. He cares for the lonely, for the lost, for the angry, for the bereaved, for every single student.

When we start making our jobs about statistics and targets we forget about God’s primary positioning;

We love because he first loved us.

God’s heart is for his children, first and foremost. He cares for the individual. For them to recognise that they are created perfectly and have been created for a purpose more than this world sells to them.

But this takes sacrifice from our part, to love and serve people. If we really want to lead students in lifestyles of mission then we need to be willing to sacrifice our comfort and embarrassment and step out and take the lead first. Leading is not about a platform it is about sacrifice.

So what do you need to stop doing in order to see God’s children know that they are loved and that they are precious? What do you need to start to help your students see that mission can be easy?

You may find glitter in your hair a week later but I promise you, it’s worth it.