Devotions for Worship and Life

You see them so often that you might not even notice that they’re there: the well-worn hymnals neatly racked beneath or behind each pew. For many people, those hymnals that we use each weekend are part of our congregation’s rhythm of life. They serve as a pathway into our church’s culture. Their hymns and prayers speak to the heart of our theology and have a way of connecting our synod’s congregations around the country to one another. Hymnals have a way of teaching our members, even across generations. It is rewarding to realize that there is more to a hymnal than the pages between its covers.

An exciting part of our hymnal project is meant to help God’s people see a fuller picture of all those things that we often see in our hymnal and in our worship, but still more often overlook. The services that we use, the seasons that we follow, the and the roles that we play in worship are familiar to us, but how might we better appreciate them?

A book of sixty devotions will accompany the new hymnal, written specifically to help people understand and answer many of the questions that come to mind in our worship world:

Why do we confess our sins?
What are seasons like Advent and Lent all about?
What is my pastor’s role in worship?
What is my role as a singer or someone who serves?
What does Sunday morning mean for my children?
What guidance does God’s Word give as I plan my wedding or my funeral?

The devotions are designed for worshipers of all ages, together with study questions and prayers for each topic. Our goal in this volume is to open people’s eyes to the rich feast that awaits them in worship, so that they appreciate those things that they perhaps didn’t even notice were there.