Songs We're Holding Onto
[May 1, 2022]
The 30 CPIs on their last trip together to Acadia National Park.
This week marks the end of the 2021 Church Plant Interns’ time in Boston. Out of the 30 of us, half will be returning to our home churches. For those of us going back, the last weeks in Boston have been bittersweet. As we’ve taken time out to reflect over all we’ve received and experienced, we’ve marveled at how we experienced God’s zealous heart for the lost, how we witnessed God at work across the Northeast region, and how we got to be a part of the very first layer of our Boston church. Given how grateful we are to have been here this year, it may seem strange that we would go back to our home churches. After all, we’re leaving behind friends, students, and mentors that we’ve come to count as precious. Why go through transition again just one year after making a major transition to Boston?
Surveying the CPIs returning to their home church, a common theme stands out: moving towards needs. From Seattle to Chapel Hill to Santa Barbara, the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. We want to take all that we’ve been entrusted with in our time as CPIs and share it with the younger students in our home church. While it’s sad to leave, we’re excited to pour back out what we’ve received, building up Acts 2 churches in college towns all across the United States.
Asking the different returning CPIs about the transition, many pointed to songs and hymns that capture the different hopes and commitments they have about the next year. Here are just a few:
Jesus, All for Jesus
Jesus, all for Jesus
All I am and have
And ever hope to be
All of my
Ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these
Into your hands
For its only in
Your will that I am free
For its only in
Your will that I am free
Isaac and his roommates posing by Brooklyn Bridge in NY.
Of all songs, this one captures our CPI year. Joe and Irene, now leading the Irvine church, taught us all this song when we first arrived in Boston. They described how they would sing this song at tough moments, when following God involved hard choices and moments of sacrifice. The words of this song reminded us that moments of paying costs to follow Jesus were actually moments of sweet devotion to God. As we get older and the costs of following Jesus go up, it will be important to remember that sweet sentiment we experienced in CPI year: “Jesus, all for Jesus! All I am and have, and ever hope to be!”
Remembering the role this song played during CPI year, Kacie said, “when I was feeling anxious or discouraged, it uplifted me. It was a reminder of what I have learned in the past and brings back sweet memories…” Isaac, reflecting on the lyrics of the song, said, “This song was meaningful to me because it captures what I wanted to experience from this year as a CPI, a life surrendered to God. As I go back to my home church and start working while trying to be a minister, I want to remember that a life lived for Jesus is totally possible and is much more worthwhile than anything else that I have pursued in the past.” Truly, each of us has experienced how true freedom comes from obeying God. As Corrie Ten Boom famously said, “The safest place to be is at the center of God’s will.”
I’d Rather Have Jesus
I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I'd rather be His than have riches untold;
I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands.
I'd rather be led by His nail pierced hand
Than to be the king of a vast domain
Or be held in sin's dread sway.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
John So from Seattle with two other CPI brothers in New York
Returning to Seattle, John chose this hymn to capture the transition. He recalled learning it as a sophomore when his mentor told him that it was his favorite hymn. He didn’t really consider the lyrics until CPI year, though: “as I read the words of this hymn, it's remarkably simple. I'd rather have Jesus than ___. As I think about this transition moving churches and into a new stage of life, I'd like to hold onto this truth for my own life. I’ve seen so many examples of different mentors living their lives for the gospel and choosing Jesus over their careers, relationships, money, and fame, and I also want to confidently say, "I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today!"
All the Way My Savior Leads Me
All the way my Savior leads me,
Cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living bread.
Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see
Yoojin on her last CPI trip to Acadia.
Reflecting over her time in Boston, Yoojin chose this hymn to capture all that she’s experienced and how she wants to entrust her future to God. “It captures my experience of my relationship with God this past year as it's just been a hard year. I've struggled a lot with challenges and setbacks of ministry in Boston, family burdens, relational insecurities and tensions, and my own sinfulness, inadequacies, and weakness that have been sifted out through this year's context. But through each winding path I've gone through, I can confidently attest to God's guidance and provision for each step and to the grace that I've been shown by my church family that has really strengthened me through every trial. Also, I have experienced God's word addressing me in timely ways, becoming a spiritual lifeline for me and being the perfect living bread that satisfies my soul.”
In His Time
In his time, in his time
He makes all things beautiful
In his time
Lord please show me everyday
As you're teaching me your way
That you do just what you say
In your time
The experience of leaving Boston to return to our North Carolina church and entering a new phase of my life can be fraught with anxiety and a desire for control. Facing into the unknown, this song has become precious to me. My life is in God’s hands; He is my Sovereign Lord, the Leader of my life. I can trust that He will work all things together for my good and that He will complete the good work He began in my life. Looking forward to this next year, I don’t have to be storm-tossed and wracked by anxiety. Instead, I can be patient, simply obeying God one step at a time and entrust my future to Him.
Hanno at Sunday Service in Denby welcoming new visitors.
During CPI year, I have experienced the reality that God is a generous God who fills our lives with people to love and good work to do. In returning to our home churches and trying to love the students there, I know that God will continue to enrich me and my friends’ lives with people to love, that He will make our lives beautiful in His time.
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