Provisional resources for the next generation of ELCA worship

In the years since the publication of Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) in 1978, the pace of change both within the church and beyond has quickened. The past three decades have seen not only a growing ecumenical consensus but also a deepened focus on the church's mission to the world. The church has embraced broadened understandings of culture, increasing musical diversity, changes in the usage of language, a renewed understanding of the central pattern of Christian worship, and an explosion of electronic media and technologies. These shifts have had a profound effect on the weekly assembly gathered around word and sacrament. The present situation calls for a renewal of worship and of common resources for worship, a renewal grounded in the treasures of the church's history while remaining open to the possibilities of the future.

Renewing Worship is a response to these emerging changes in the life of the church and the world. The goal is to renew the church's worship as Christ's mission is carried out in a new day.

Renewing Worship is a process that involves the whole church in the development of the next generation of worship resources. Whether participants submit their own work for consideration, serve on designated editorial teams or development panels, attend introductory events, incorporate trial-use materials in their own congregational worship, and/or provide feedback, people across the ELCA have the opportunity to help shape worship in the 21st century.

Renewing Worship is a series of provisional materials that will be tried and tested in a variety of worship settings. These trial-use resources will include newly developed, ecumenically shared, and recently revised texts, rites, and music. Materials in the Renewing Worship series will be available online through this Web site and in print from Augsburg Fortress Publishers.