Doxology and theology: week 1

     According to Boswell, the five marks of worship are:
The worship of the church is God-centered, biblically formed, gospel-wrought, congregational and missional. The one that is most challenging to me is: the worship of the church is biblically formed. The reason for this is that I forget the importance of the theology of a song. I tend to judge a song by the way it sounds first. While I do look at the lyrics, I tend to pick songs more based on how much I like them as opposed to what they are actually saying. Because most of the songs I choose are ones we are already doing or from within the vineyard, I am spoiled. They are pre-approved. I don't have to put a lot of thought into the theology. While I am thankful for this, I am realizing that I need to be more diligent in doing this on my own instead of assuming someone else has already "screened" a song.

"What we truly believe about the gospel is evidenced by how concerned or unconcerned we are about those who are far from its grip." (pg. 19)
     This quote weighed deeply on me. I am not an extrovert by any stretch. The idea of evangelism actually terrifies me. I have participated in "treasure hunt" style prayer evangelism and it gives me anxiety to even think about it. One I the areas I struggle the most in my relationship with Jesus Christ is actually telling other people about him. I am happy to share all day with someone who asks, but put me in a situation where I have to initiate that conversation and it just doesn't happen. It's not that I don't care about people who are lost, I just seem to be paralyzed when trying to reach out to them. I'd love I say that I make up for it in prayers, but quite honestly I often forget to pray for those who do not know the Lord. This quote hit like hammer. It is an area I know I need to work on, but this quote really revealed the significance of reaching the lost.