Description
by Daniel V. Biles
with Illustrations by Jeffery Neal Larson
The basics of Lutheran doctrine and worship for adults . . .
This book grew out of a need for a good way to teach new adult members—both new Christians and those who were just new to Lutheranism—about the Lutheran faith. Recognizing the close link between our worship and our doctrine, Pastor Dan Biles decided to use the weekly order for the Sunday liturgy as his outline.
The happy result was that new members could learn about the faith and about the service at the same time. Another great benefit was that each Sunday offered them an opportunity to purposefully review what they had learned. Learning Christian doctrine made the liturgy come alive, and participating in the liturgy made the faith their own. Furthermore, you didn’t have to be a new member to receive these benefits; longtime members (and their pastor) could likewise benefit by revisiting, especially together, the things in this book.
This book comes in two editions. One follows the order of Holy Communion in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978). All three of the musical settings of the liturgy in the LBW use the same texts, which are the ones included in this book. They are also the ones used in settings three and four of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), the most recent worship book of the ELCA.
The second follows the order of the Divine Service, with Holy Communion, in the Lutheran Service Book (2006). The first two settings of the liturgy in the LSB use the same texts, which are the ones included in this edition. The parts of the service and their order in the LSB are only slightly different from those in the communion liturgies in the earlier Lutheran Worship (1980) and the much earlier The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), so the LSB edition could readily be used by those who use either of those LC-MS worship books.
