Our Blog

By: Pastor Nathan Berg

  I’ve been banging the drum for more than 2 years. Perhaps you’re tired of hearing about the new hymnal that’s coming. “I wish it would just get here already!” Believe me, I would love nothing more than to have the hymnals here and be able to start using them. “Patience is a virtue,” my dad used to tell me. I need to hear those sage words again. We’ll be able to use them soon, I promise.

However, before they arrive and before we start using them, it might benefit us to understand how this new hymnal was put together. In other words, what did the 13 committees and over 100 volunteers working on this project have as their goal as they assembled Christian Worship 2021? What you will be pleased to find is that first and foremost, Christ is at the center. Christ is the center of everything we believe, everything we teach, and so it only makes sense that Christ is the center of our hymnal, our worship resource. Additionally, all of the elements of the hymnal needed to be in line with Scripture. Worship is primarily God serving us with his Word and Sacraments. The hymnal needs to communicate clearly what God has done. Christian Worship 2021 accomplishes this goal. This hymnal will be a rich resource for both public worship and private devotion.

In that vein, Christian Worship 2021 sought to honor the experience of the church while at the same time being accessible to today’s culture and aiding the mission of the church today. Yes, there are new things in Christian Worship 2021, but the overwhelming majority of the book is familiar to our experience. This hymnal is not meant for the elite musician. It’s meant to be a singer’s hymnal. It’s meant for the average Christian to be able to use on a daily basis to be able to meet their Savior where he may be found: in his Word. Through rites and psalms and hymns packed with God’s Word, God speaks to us in Christian Worship 2021.

A new hymnal means change. Change is never easy, especially for Lutherans! At the same time, we’ve been blessed by our current hymnal for the last 30 years. There have been so many advances in technology and wonderful songs and hymns that have been written over those 30 years, that it’s a huge blessing to be able to make use of them. With the additional resources available with Christian Worship 2021, we are going to be able to save so much time producing bulletins and screen presentations, that we’ll be able to use that time to better carry out the ministry God has given us here.

God willing, by the time you read this, we’ll have our copies at Eastside. Don’t worry, we won’t be rushing into using them right away. My dad’s voice is echoing in my ears. But slowly and carefully, we’ll begin to mine the depths of this wonderful treasure God has blessed our synod to produce. And as we do, it is my prayer that you will grow in your faith and in your appreciation for all that God has done for you as we are privileged to worship him as Christians using Christian Worship 2021.