Lutheran Worship

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Lutheran Worship (LW) is one of the official hymnals of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. Published in 1982 by Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis, Missouri, it is the LCMS' third English-language hymnal and was intended to replace The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) (1941). However, dissatisfaction with various revisions has led numerous congregations to continue using the previous hymnal, and according to a 1999 LCMS Commission on Worship survey The Lutheran Hymnal is still used by 36% of churches in the Synod as their primary hymnal. The publication of another new hymnal, Lutheran Service Book, in 2006 has restored many of the former hymnal's features in the hope that more widespread use can be achieved.

Lutheran Worship is, essentially, a revision of the green-covered Lutheran Book of Worship that is the common hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The LCMS began work on LBW in 1965 and invited other Lutheran denominations in North America to participate in the creation of the hymnal. Due to disagreements and compromise with some of the other denominations involved in the project, however, LBW was published in 1978 without the endorsement of the very church body which initiated its production. Following the rejection of LBW, the LCMS quickly set about revising the new hymnal to remove the objectionable content, and LW was published in 1982. Lutheran Worship includes the liturgy for Divine Service I (a revised and updated version of the old Common Servce), Divine Service II (two settings, very similar to liturgies included in LBW), Divine Service III (a brief outline of a service based on Martin Luther's German Mass), Matins, Vespers, and Compline. It also includes services for Holy Baptism and Confirmation. There is also Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Bidding Prayer, the Litany, the Lectionary, Luther's Small Catechism, Confession (Individual and Corporate), and a collection of Psalms. The bulk of the hymnal consists of 11 canticles and chants, 491 hymns, and 18 spiritual songs.

Despite the revisions undertaken by the LCMS, many members and congregations still rejected LW due to what many viewed as unnecessary and awkward modifications in language to well-known materials. Objections centerd around the modifications made to Divine Service I and a number of well-known hymns. Following the precedent set by LBW and the common trend around North American Christianity at the time, archaic language was widely updated, resulting in worshipers frequently stumbling over hymn verses and passages that had been familiar to them for many years. Examples of hymns that were significantly altered in the new hymnal include "My Faith Looks Up to Thee", "I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus", and "We Give Thee But Thine Own", all of which are well-known and familiar hymns among Lutherans but were heavily modified in LW ("My Faith Looks Up to Thee" is perhaps the most notorious example of all, as its first line was changed to "My Faith Looks Trustingly"). Additionally, many familiar hymns were set to new melodies that proved unpopular. Examples include "Ride On, Ride On in Majesty", "The Day of Resurrection", and "God Loved the World So That He Gave". In many ways, LW proved to be a major contributor to the controversies that tore at the LCMS in the later part of the twentieth century, as the synod suddenly found itself lacking unity even in the hymnal used in its congregations. By 1999, only 58% of the synod was using LW as its primary hymnal, with the majority of the remaining congregations retaining TLH and a handful of others using LBW or other hymnals.

Lutheran Worship is commonly referred to as the "Blue hymnal," in contrast with TLH, the "Red hymnal." A new hymnal published in 2006, Lutheran Service Book, is intended to replace both LW and TLH as the common hymnal of the LCMS. Concordia Publishing House has announced that all LW-related supplemental materials, including specialized accompaniment and large-print editions and the agenda, will go out of print when current supplies are depleted, although the pew edition will continue to be produced for the forseeable future. LW remains an official hymnal of the LCMS, and it is unlikely that it will ever be formally decommissioned.