Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the ELCA’s new primary worship resource, aspires to keep the central things of worship central and honors the principles of renewal to which we are committed.

Anyone growing up in Ohio in the late 1970s is certain to have memories of the Great Blizzard of 1978, but as the son of a Lutheran pastor I have another vivid memory from that year. On a Saturday morning at Westwood Lutheran Church in Dayton, I was an eager young kid excitedly tearing open cartons of new worship books. My excitement was part of a festive atmosphere that morning as we began a new chapter in the worship life of that congregation and joined in a churchwide renewal of worship that spanned three decades.

For that urban congregation with a predominantly African-American worshiping assembly, there were new things that stood out, such as the addition of hymnody from the African-American experience. Those community-specific changes were part of a much larger renewal of liturgy for the whole church that was given shape and direction by the Lutheran Book of Worship. There is no denying that for the past three decades the LBW has been the icon of this church’s worship life. Even within the wide diversity of practices that constitute the worship life of this church, the LBW remains the standard bearer for understanding how these divergent practices form a pattern with Word and Sacrament as center.

We now stand on the verge of the release of the next core worship resource for this church. The American context in which we anticipate the next generation of worship resources for this church is far different from 1978, and in this changing context many question the need for a core printed resource. As work was begun to generate new resources, it was clear that electronic resources would be a large part of the project, but it also was clear that a core resource was essential for an effective continuation of worship renewal around the central things. As this church gathers around font and table, Evangelical Lutheran Worship can serve as the new standard bearer to guide, inspire, and equip congregations in their worship.

Much of the discussion surrounding the new book revolves around changes from the LBW, but it is important also to celebrate the newness of much of this resource. Additional features that were not part of the LBW include a three-year cycle of prayers for the day; ten settings of the Holy Communion liturgy plus a service music section; a new Service of the Word; refreshed services of daily prayer; a new ecumenical daily prayer lectionary keyed to the Sunday lectionary; the whole psalter, refreshed in language; liturgies for Lent and Holy Week; a healing rite; a baptismal “welcome rite” to accentuate the baptismal process for adults and children; and Luther’s Small Catechism.

Given the broad range of materials contained in this resource, it is important to note its usefulness beyond the Sunday assembly. As families gather for daily devotions, and as small groups gather at school, work, and home, Evangelical Lutheran Worship will provide a primary resource for devotional materials to serve the continual formation of faith.

We anxiously anticipate and dream about the potential resources that will continue to emerge for our churchwide renewal of worship, but we cannot underestimate how significant it is that these resources emerge around a core one that helps us to keep the central things central and honors the principles of renewal to which we are committed.

Principles for Worship
The first installment in the Renewing Worship series was titled Principles for Worship, and it was rooted in The Use of the Means of Grace, a statement on sacramental practice approved by the 1997 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The process leading to Evangelical Lutheran Worship was guided by these principles, which are themselves products of the historic progression of dialogue about worship matters within this church and with our ecumenical partners. Foundational documents such as the reports of the Second Vatican Council and the World Council of Churches’ document Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry have created an ecumenical framework that helps us to see how our worship practices and priorities coincide with those of the church catholic. And in doing so we can see that in North America, the ELCA and its predecessor churches are looked to as leaders in shaping this broader ecumenical framework for our worship.

This historical perspective helps us to remember that there is much at stake in what we claim to be central in our primary worship resource. As a church leader who will be planning and leading worship for many years to come, I am deeply grateful for the careful and extensive dialogue related to the content of Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

The Renewing Worship website details the process that resulted in the production of this new resource. Each piece of the larger work was developed, critiqued, and scrutinized from multiple angles. We have been blessed with directors in this process who maintained a consistent emphasis on hearing the concerns of the whole church as we reviewed and finalized the content of the new resource.

Worship is one area in which diversity within the ELCA is quite evident. Matters related to worship lacking consensus existed before this process began and will persist after the release of Evangelical Lutheran Worship. I believe that the content of this new resource represents the broadest consensus possible for this church at this time. The content of the resource serves as a starting point for continued dialogue around many worship issues. While there are many topics that bear continued dialogue, I highlight a few that seemed to persist even as we neared the completion of our work.

Emphasis on Baptism
One of the central gifts of the LBW was a renewal of emphasis on baptism. The introduction to the LBW states that this was done “to restore to Holy Baptism the liturgical rank and dignity implied by Lutheran theology and to draw out the baptismal motifs in such acts as the confession of sin and the burial of the dead.” During the present process, we often have spoken of maintaining the trajectories of LBW. This is certainly the case with baptism. As we approached the end of the process, there were some helpful critiques that caused language to be sharpened to more clearly articulate Lutheran baptismal theology and to address the issues related to welcoming and including those not yet baptized. Even with new language added, there will undoubtedly be continued dialogue about what the new texts imply about human sinfulness, God’s forgiveness for all of humanity, and, more broadly, the relationship between baptism, liturgy, and mission.

Language
As individuals and assemblies tested the provisional resources, one of the hoped-for outcomes was a clearer understanding of where the church currently stands on issues related to language. Some thought that the language of the provisional resources had gone too far, while others thought that it had not gone far enough. In general, decisions related to language relied on this feedback as well as the language principles from Principles for Worship. These principles remind us that Evangelical Lutheran Worship is a resource for the whole church. The language of our new worship book will contain both the familiar and the new, making broad and deliberate use of many different historic and biblical images of God. Dialogue concerning how language choices affect worship in different contexts will continue to be essential.

Creeds and Communion
Ecumenical Creeds
In the LBW, our predecessor church bodies made a commitment to using the most current ecumenical translations of the liturgical texts that we hold in common with other churches. In continuing this commitment, Evangelical Lutheran Worship will include the most recent agreed-upon translations of these common texts. Two of the most immediately noticeable changes will be to the creeds. A thorough theological and historical explanation of the changes to the text will be an important part of the introduction of Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

Two footnotes will be included that will allow for the use of optional wording. While “descended to the dead” will appear in the text of the Apostles’ Creed, “descended into hell” will be noted as another translation in widespread use. In the Nicene Creed, omission of the “Filioque” clause (“and the Son”) is allowed. This is included as part of our ongoing dialogue with the Orthodox communion. Omission of this phrase would be particularly appropriate in joint worship services with Orthodox congregations.

Thanksgiving at the Table
At the outset of the development of the new resource, there was a commitment to providing a wide array of options for prayers at the table representative of the current practices and theological traditions present in the ELCA. Evangelical Lutheran Worship follows the pattern suggested by Principle 43 of the Use of the Means of Grace. Although the included prayers honor this church’s diversity of practice and understanding, the range of options is not intended to simply represent different points on a static spectrum of congregational practice. New options ranging from a chanted setting of the verba to fuller thanksgivings that include responses from the assembly will assist congregations in becoming more diverse in their Eucharistic praying. Again, while differing opinions exist about the nature and form of offering thanksgiving at the table, Evangelical Lutheran Worship seeks to be a core resource for the whole church and the included options reflect that goal.

Other issues were raised during the review process. It is clear that uniform understanding and practices do not exist around all matters of worship in this church, but that is precisely why a core resource is so important. ELCA Director for Worship Michael Burk reminds us that Evangelical Lutheran Worship is intended to be both common, in that it belongs to the whole church, and primary, in that it connects us to one another and beyond ourselves to the church that shaped our tradition and to the church that is yet to be.

It is our prayer that this new resource will be embraced by the church to renew our worship life as we also renew our commitment to our common mission to and for the life of the world.

Jonathan Eilert is senior pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Loveland, Ohio.