As we come to the end of 2025 and turn the page towards 2026, let's take a moment to remember what your denominational publisher has been up to in this past year!
In early 2025, we were honored to work in partnership with the ELCA to host the first church-wide National Day of Racial Healing. The day featured worship, workshops, prayer, and earnest curiosity and growth. Within this event, we were also thrilled to lift up the latest book from MouthHouse, See Me, Believe Me: A Guide to Deepen Allyship with Congregational Leaders of Color by Yolanda Denson-Byers (now a year later, this influential book has a new chapter featuring an interview with Presiding Bishop Yehiel Curry! Preorder begins Jan 5)! Thank you to everyone who participated and those who worked tirelessly to put on this important event. This event will return in a new format on Jan 21, 2026! Learn more here!
We had a busy summer with amazing turnout at our Summer Music Clinics. Held in South Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, our fantastic clinicians, Jennaya Robison and Jan Kraybill led several hundred musicians and church professionals in sessions, practices, and hymns fests. Thank you for your commitment to attending to and growing your music ministries! It was great to see all of you, and we can’t wait to join you again this year with the 70th anniversary of the music clinics!
Also in the height of the summer months, came a rare occurrence – the churchwide switch to the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition of our scriptures! This ushered us to the release of the Lutheran Study Bible, Second Edition (NRSVue) as well as Pew and Gift editions of these texts. With the first edition of LSB coming out in 2009, the excitement of this new resource was palpable in our delightfully church-nerdy office. More than 10,000 of these bibles are now out in the hands of spiritual learners. Thank you to all of the contributors, editors, typesetters, and to the ministry leaders, members, and gift-givers who continue to help get this bible into the world. More NRSVue resources will continue to become available as we continue in this switch. Keep your eye out for Lectionary for Worship NRSVue, Year B!
What a July! It also saw the launch of Together by Grace: Bible Conversations - a NEW series that invites participants to gather together, dwell in the stories of the Bible, and engage with the text and one another. Starting with the release of Matthew and Romans in July, we now have added Psalms and John, with four more in the works for this coming year. How fun to have a series that prioritizes community and the wrestling of deep questions in such flexible and accessible formats! Thanks to all involved in this project - past, present, and future!
In September, we finally got to share the new resources and goals of “Unbridled Presence”, a brand established through the generosity of the Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative from Lilly Endowment Inc. It supports a prayer-a-day app for caregivers of children in elementary to high school, two podcasts to support continued faithful learning outside of the church, and Sanctuary Scribes - interactive booklets for worship that keep kids engaged, not just entertained. With its bright colors and research-based resources, we are excited to see this brand thrive in the hands of ministry leaders who want ready-made and supportive resources for their participants! Thanks to all of the contributors, including the kids who illustrated the Sanctuary Scribes booklets!
September also brought our “Room by Room” campaign to a close. After 13 months of highlighting areas in your church and collating resources for each, we had covered them all! Sacristy, sanctuary, church office, youth room, outdoors, fellowship hall, etc. were all uplifted, celebrated, and treasured for the unique ways that they contribute to today’s church. Take a look at the completed graphics and lists, and maybe even feel seen in the accompanying musings!
In October, we launched the Mobile Responsive SundaysandSeasons.com with a homepage shortcut. Thank you to folks over the years who brought up this idea to make S&S more user friendly and accessible. Thank you also to our incredible web team and Sale and Service for helping navigate the feedback exchange as this change occurred. We are so pleased with the elevated user experience that this provides.
Five years ago, on November 30th, All Creation Sings was released into the midst of a global pandemic and political unrest. Its refreshed, timely, and inclusive hymns, liturgies, prayers, and communion settings renewed worship spaces internationally, offering comfort and presence in difficult times. 5 years later, nearly 90,000 copies of All Creation Sings continue to support, uplift, and walk alongside worshippers far and wide. We had a party in our Minneapolis office with contributors, editors, project managers, and many purple cupcakes to reminisce and celebrate how this resource is making a difference in the lives of church-goers. In this festive time, we also released a full ACS fundraising kit to put in the hands of organizations everything they might need in order to launch a fundraising campaign. Learn more about the creation of ACS in its birthday blog post.
In the seasons of Lent and Advent, we got to see the wide reach of our seasonal pocket devotionals “Life Renewed” and “Humble and Holy”. Accompanied by a free host of resources (including midweek services, kids’ activities, bulletin inserts, and more), they landed in the hands of readers wanting to take a daily pause in the midst of the busy seasons to read, ponder, connect, and pray. How delightful it is to intentionally make time to breathe, alone or in community. Again, a big “thank you” to the contributors and many others who make these products possible!
Love Outpoured: Devotions for Lent 2026 is available now! (While supplies last – we sold out of Humble and Holy this year! Get yours now!)
And countless other things...
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Through it all, the team at Augsburg Fortress has continued to reach out to new and familiar writers, craft new and recurring resources, answer questions and provide help to customers, conduct research, host and attend seminars, webinars, events and more, all to best support you in your ministry. We are grateful for all of our customers, staff, vendors, printers, warehouses, distributors, and everyone in between. Thank you for continuing to share your resource wishes and insights with us as we all continue together in this world of growth and grace.
May your New Year bring peace, love, community, friendship, growth, stability, and overwhelming grace to you and yours!
- Your team at Augsburg Fortress, supporting and cheering you on, always.