The congregation I began to serve in June 2022 had not yet moved in the direction of adopting the new hymnal. For a number of years, it had been making use of materials from Christian Worship: Supplement. Without the service of a keyboardist in the summer of 2022, the congregation also found itself making use of HymnSoft recordings for worship. Over a period of 24 months, there has been a gradual move toward using the new resources. For nearly a year we have had the new hard copy hymnals in the chairs and for nearly the entire two years, Christian Worship: Service Builder (CW:SB) has been utilized for generating bulletins. Musical forces now available are piano, guitar, flute, and violin, and the choir numbers about a dozen.

Liturgy-wise (in terms of Christian Worship 2021), all of this meant that, in 2022, the congregation was familiar with Setting One (that dates back to The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 and beyond) and Setting Four (that dates back to Christian Worship: Supplement of 2008, where it was known as Divine Service 1). To date, the congregation has learned one new service setting from CW 21 (Setting Three). Over several months, the choir learned this setting and introduced it to the congregation. We have not yet used Settings Two and Five, and those who plan worship are just beginning to consider whether or not to explore one of them this coming year. It may be nothing more than exploration at choir rehearsals, since at this stage there is sufficient variety in the use of Settings Three, Four, and the hymn tune canticle settings (Six through Ten).

In connection with orders of service, Dr. Luther somewhat famously said, “We must dare something in the name of Christ.” The one thing we have dared is trying out some of the additional gospel acclamations beyond those that match specific service settings. These are labeled as Sets 1 and 2, along with Festival Settings. Introducing and using the same new alleluia refrain for seven weeks in a row has been manageable for us over the past year.

From the hymn selection history in CW:SB, the total number of hymns chosen in roughly two years has been about 325/683. That leaves only 358 that have not been chosen thus far. But to be honest, 325 is probably a little higher than it needs to be and we’ll probably keep reducing that number, because there are plenty of new hymns that we haven’t tried yet. On the last Sunday of the month, we sometimes play and sing a new hymn for the congregation before the actual opening hymn, encouraging them to just listen or sing along if they choose. If we are making use of one of the more modern new hymns, there’s almost always a YouTube video of it, and a link to that video goes out in the weekly e-mail prior to the Sunday service. The same can be done with the first option of the appointed Psalm of the Day. Type “CW Psalm 46” into a search engine. If we’re going to sing that setting of the psalm on Reformation Sunday, we would include that link in an e-mail as well.

A few months ago, “Christ Is with Me” (CW 681) was a good fit for the readings. Even though it was in CW: Supplement, we sang it as the opening hymn two weeks in a row. Year B is the lectionary year that treats Jesus’ bread of life discourse, now spread across three Sundays instead of five. On each of those three Sundays we sang “I Am the Bread of Life” (CW 544) and, as was the case the first time we sang it a year ago, this video went out in the weekly e-mail.

In the Worship the Lord newsletter, it was very common to find congregational stories. The reason for this one, with these particular details? Our congregation has been introducing the hymnal for two years, and we still have quite a long way to go. What’s your story?

If your congregation has not yet acquired the new hymnal resources and you’re thinking about doing so, there are plenty of materials available for the coming church year. Year C was the lectionary year during the first year of the new hymnal’s release, and this coming Advent, Year C is coming around again. Along with the complete Commentary on the Propers, Year C volume, there is a whole year’s worth of hymn and scripture reading and service setting selections based on Year C, 2021-2022, all geared for gradual (or slightly more ambitious) first use of the materials. It is available through The Foundation, produced by WELS Congregational Services. If you’re just about to start using the materials, help is available. (Resources for Year C, 2024-2025 are also available, but with much less guidance for gradual introduction.)

Have you started using CW 21 materials and found it has felt like tough sledding? No worries; there’s much to work through, and it can be challenging to familiarize yourself and make use of all that is there. We are still fielding questions from users who are asking about the location of this or how to do that. If there’s some level of unclarity for you as a worship planner, those who worship in your congregation may be “feeling the pain” as well. There’s nothing wrong with taking your foot off the gas and going back to worship materials that are more familiar and well known. And now might be a very appropriate time to reach out with the questions you’ve had—now that you’ve become somewhat familiar with the scope of what’s available. Slowing down and increasing the amount of repetition might be very helpful (and possibly much appreciated by worshipers). We’d be happy to speak with you about that.

Has it been going well and you feel like you’re well on your way to making good use of the broad spectrum of what’s available? We’re glad to hear it. Now it may be a matter of fine tuning, or continued gradual introduction of items the congregation hasn’t learned yet. There are two versions each of Morning and Evening Prayer, roughly a dozen different styles of psalmody, a whole raft of alleluia refrains for gospel acclamations, varied performance options for many different instrumentalists (organ and brass or liturgical ensemble), and a continuously growing set of materials in Musician’s Resource. Future years will continue both distillation that leads to the establishment of your congregation’s repertory (an article unto itself) and expansion of those possibilities that best fit your congregation’s circumstances and human resources. We would welcome the opportunity to go down that road with you.

For users at every stage of the game, future worship articles in Devote Yourself will continue the conversation about the beneficial use of CW 21 resources. One of the ways we’re interested in helping is by continuing the “hymnal introduction” conversation. We look forward to publishing as much information as we can via this newsletter, and we are always open to fielding your questions at [email protected].

This article in Devote Yourself was contributed by the team that previously created and distributed Worship the Lord. View past worship-related articles at worship.welsrc.net/downloads-worship/worship-the-lord.