Chosen for the Places We Are In

Tyrell Quantz Reflects on Being on the Traveling Ministry Team (TMT)

My name is Tyrell, and I am in my second year in the 4-year counseling degree program. I came to Columbia because of the unique degree programs that are offered here in Practical Theology, but I have found CBC to be much more than just academics.

It has been a fantastic place to experience community in a variety of ways which, for me, included being a part of the Traveling Ministry Team (TMT). TMT is a group of musicians that go out from CBC on a regular basis to churches in the surrounding areas in order to lead Sunday worship services there. It has been an amazing experience in a couple different ways: 1) the ability to minister to churches in a way of just allowing the leadership to participate as a part of the congregation in worshipping, and 2) being able to experience worshipping with different congregations.

I have seen God at work in how, while we might be singing the same songs and sharing the same testimonies as we have before, different congregations will be receiving these things differently. Yet even in experiencing these “tastes” of different church communities, some of my more memorable experiences come from experiencing life within the context of the team itself.

In our practices we will often have deep group discussions, and I started to really feel like we were more than just a team… we were a family that stood by one another. We started by being able to relate to one another as musicians but grew to be able to relate to each other as people; in our struggles and in the things that bring us joy.

There is much that I learned on the journey of being with TMT, but one of the biggest things was in discovering more about myself as an artist, and as one who seeks to lead others in worship with my musical abilities. We often think of ourselves as inadequate for a certain role, simply because we know those that would do “better” within that role. However, we don’t often stop to consider the fact that whether there is someone who could do things better or not, we were chosen for the places we are in and the roles we play because of who we are, not just what we can do. Being able to embrace this and apply it to my role on TMT has been life-giving and life-shaping as I move forward into the rest of my time here at CBC and life afterwards.