The Cover
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
The Small Catechism: The Ten Commandments.
On Monday, March 18th, I had the pleasure of attending the unveiling and dedication of The Chinese Lutheran Service Book Pilot Edition. Deaconess Sandra Rheign, who is working diligently on the project, noted that worship is a confession of our Lord. She’s right. When we worship we ourselves become witnesses, proclaimers, and confessors of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. A hymnal, then, is a profoundly important aid to the congregation in that public witness to our Lord.
What an honor to be at the dedication of this new hymnal! As this is a pilot edition, there is still more work to be done. Many more Psalms and Hymns have yet to be completed. Even so, this is wonderful fruit of our work together with our Church partner The China Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Our family has already been greatly blessed by this project. At Salvation Church in Chaiyi, Taiwan (where we are attending until we make our final move into Medan), they have used this Hymnal. The familiar liturgy allows us to follow along with the service. With the aid of our own English Hymnals we can sing the hymns in our language alongside our Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ.
I am so excited to be working with Deaconess Rheign on a hymnal in Bahasa Indonesia. This will be a great tool for the Indonesian Christian Lutheran Church, which will aid their worship and confession of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord grant that pictures of the Bahasa Hymnal will be ready to share in 2020!