Save on EVERYTHING during our Thanksgiving sale!
Looking for Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, or a little something for yourself? Starting today, save 15% on all books and cards. Prices are valid through Saturday, November 29, which happens to be Small Business Saturday. Browse our selection of titles using the Books tab above.
Some highlights:
*Share the joy of Christ’s birth with your family and friends with our stunning Christmas cards. Each one pairs beautiful artwork with the words of Scripture or the timeless poetry of hymns. “Messiah” is pictured here.
*God With Us: Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Sermons by David H. Petersen is a collection of readings that are perfect for personal devotion. Pr. Petersen explains how Christ’s incarnation is the basis of all Christian preaching and the essence of every celebration of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, every proclamation of Absolution to repentant sinners.
*In He Restores My Soul, author Katie Schuermann and a host of literary friends ponder suffering in the Christian life, never indulging in contemporary self-help rhetoric, only pointing the reader to a firm trust in God’s promises found in His Word.
*Wherever you fall on the spectrum of Latin — a scholar, a teacher or student of classical education, or a novice — you will find Liber Hymnorum: The Latin Hymns of the Lutheran Church to be an absolute treasure.
*In O Perfect Life of Love, author Brian J. Hamer places the forty movements of the St. John Passion as a literary and
musical stencil over the forty weekdays of Lent to create a daily listening lectionary.
*Passion-Book by Friedrich Lochner, translated by Matthew Carver, uses a Gospel harmony for the Passion account, supplementing with hymn stanzas and prayers from his own collection of hymnals and prayer books, compiled into 66 Lenten devotions.
*What an Altar Guild Should Know gives details about church services, rubrics, altar care, sacred vessels, and other topics related to liturgical worship. However, anyone who is interested in liturgical worship will appreciate Lang’s keen theological insight into why reverence and beauty and the externals of worship matter.
*In The Word Remains, Wilhelm Löhe gives insight into the confessional Lutheran understanding of the church year, the Word of God, and matters related to the Christian life. Readings begin with Advent, the start of the Church Year.
A blessed Thanksgiving to you!
Liber Hymnorum is back in stock
Liber Hymnorum is back in stock! This is a collection of hymns taken exclusively from Lutheran hymnals and chant-books of the Reformation and post-Reformation era. It is two hymnals in one, the first half being English, the second Latin, exactly mirroring the first half in contents and numbering.
Find much more information here, including reviews and a sample of the interior.
Not just for the altar guild…
“The service which the altar guild can render is valuable as an aid to extol the beauty and greatness of God and to awaken the response of His people in all forms of beauty, care, and reverence. Beauty in the church is not a matter of indifference….Why do we want to make the house of God and our worship of God as reverent and beautiful as possible? Such a desire is of God and for God. He is present in our churches. Through His Word and sacraments, Christ comes to us as we are gathered together in His name.” (p. 11)
In What an Altar Guild Should Know, Paul H.D. Lang gives detailed information about church services and rubrics, liturgical terms, everything related to the altar, sacred vessels and linens, paraments, and other topics related to liturgical worship.
However, this is not just a How To manual for altar guild members and their pastors. Lang offers keen theological insight into why reverence and beauty and the externals of worship matter. Anyone interested in liturgical worship would benefit from
reading this book (especially in conjunction with Ceremony and Celebration) In addition, we have switched to a Wire O binding so that it can now lay flat.
Preparing a setting for the Gospel: “By making God’s house and the services of the church more beautiful, we provide the Gospel a setting in which it is more attractive to people and puts them in a more receptive frame of mind for worship….Of course, God’s Word and sacraments are not dependent on human embellishment for effectiveness. They are in themselves ‘the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth’ (Rom. 1:16). It is only fitting, however, that we should present them in surroundings that are as attractive as we can make them.” (p. 11-12)
Externals not essential, but important: “God has not given Christians of the New Testament era specific laws governing the outward forms of worship. Christianity is not essentially a matter of externals but of faith and life….Where the Word of God is rightly taught and the sacraments are rightly administered, there is the Christian church….Nonetheless, externals are invariably associated with Christian worship. Therefore they are important. Christian doctrine, faith, and life are never merely theoretical, barren, or lifeless. They express themselves in outward acts.” (p. 12-13)
Last chance: FINAL YEAR of Christmas card sales
“Reverence matters”: An endorsement from Dr. Geoffrey Boyle
Regarding The Conduct of the Service by Piepkorn and McClean:
“Everything we do in the liturgy teaches. But does what we do actually teach that it matters? Both Piepkorn and McClean call their contributions ‘manuals,’ convenient handbooks offered to clarify how we do what we do in the liturgy. The detail, care, and precision they offer assume that what we do matters. Reverence matters—not to earn salvation, but to extol Christ and His gifts. They call for a humble, prepared, and calm reverence and describe what that looks like at every point in the Divine Service. Relying on The Lutheran Hymnal and its accompanying The Lutheran Liturgy, they highlight the rubrics and offer suggestions based on the historic practice of the Lutheran Church. This continues to serve parish pastors, even as Lutheran Service Book fills our pews. At the Seminary, we work hard to train our future pastors to know why we do what we do because we believe that it matters. This book provides the much needed ‘how,’ tying all that we do in the liturgy to Christ and His care for His people.”
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Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Boyle
Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions, Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Rise Again, Ye Lion-Hearted
Comfort in Sorrow
The Word Remains is a collection of excerpts comes from Wilhelm Löhe’s extensive writing on mission, pastoral theology, history, and liturgy. Originally published in German in 2008, this English translation of a delightful book that gathers his profound wisdom into one small volume, offering devotional reading on the church year, the Word of God, and matters related to the Christian life: faith, prayer, fellowship, worship, creation, and hope.
Seed-Grains of Prayer: Prayer for our Pastors
“Everlasting, gracious, heavenly Father, for my pastor I pray; grant him to speak Thy word with joy, fearlessly against every error, false doctrine, and abuse; that he may declare and make plain to us the mysteries of the Gospel, and remove from our hearts all delusions. Keep him steadfast in the true doctrine and Christian life, that he may be unto us a leader unto everlasting life. Guard his body against sickness, that to our great benefit, he may for a long time go before us and preach Thy divine word without fear or hesitation, without hypocrisy, not of favor, hatred, jealousy, or for self-advantage, but proclaim the truth in all its purity and fullness, and denounce evils as becometh them, that I and many more may be won for Thy kingdom.
“Open my heart and ears that I may listen to Thy word with desire and love, with reverent mind, and hearty attention; to walk in accordance thereto in true faith, and bring fruit unto Thy divine glory. Save me from becoming tired of hearing and from slothfulness of soul; and instill in my mind a great hunger and earnest desire for the inestimable riches of Thy grace, which is tendered to us in the sermon. Grant me grace to know and esteem my pastor as a servant and steward of the divine mysteries, that I receive Thy word from him without offence, unto the bettering of my life, the abhorrence of sin; and not let correction pass me by unheeded, nor, that I offend, or despise him by whom the correction cometh. Preserve us all in the true faith and a Christian life, that we may daily grow and increase therein, remaining steadfast unto our end, and be eternally saved; through Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Wilhelm Loehe, Seed-Grains of Prayer, #330.
A Prayer for Blessing and Prosperity in One’s Calling
“My Lord, and my God, I realize that man’s work does not depend upon his own powers nor is it in any man’s province to ordain his walks and ways. So rule and govern me at all times, by Thy Holy Spirit, that I may keep mine eyes straight before me in my calling, and faithfully perform my duty. Guide me evermore in the right paths, that I turn neither to the right nor to the left there-from.
“Direct me always by Thy good pleasure, and let Thy Spirit lead me in the true paths, for Thou art my God. I realize also that Thou hast called me to labor in Thy vineyard, and how, even in my Baptism, I promised Thee that I would labor. To this end, I beseech Thee, grant me a healthy body, and strengthen me, O Lord, cheerfully to bear the heat and labor of my calling, always ready and faithful unto Thee. And since I know not the hour when my labors shall cease, teach me to be ready at all times unto a blessed departure, willingly to leave this world, and to fall asleep in peace and joy; that I may celebrate the eternal day of rest with Thee and all Thine elect. Amen.”
Wilhelm Loehe, Seed-Grains of Prayer, p. 67