Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal  Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal (CW) is the newest official hymnal of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). It was prepared by the WELS Commission on Worship and published by Northwestern Publishing House, the official publisher of the WELS. "Christian Worship" was intended to succeed "The Lutheran Hymnal" ("TLH") as the common hymnal of the WELS. In 2008, the "Christian Worship Supplement" ("CWS") was released, containing several new orders of service, psalms, and hymns. After using "The Lutheran Hymnal" for a little over a decade, the Missouri Synod invited the WELS to join them in producing a revised version in 1953; however, the Missouri Synod abandoned this project in 1965. The Missouri Synod instead later published "Lutheran Worship," after withdrawing from the intersynodical collaboration that produced the "Lutheran Book of Worship". During a synod convention in 1983, the WELS approved the creation of a new hymnal, leading to the formation of the WELS Commission on Worship and beginning of work on the new hymnal in 1984. The hymnal, containing 623 hymns, was published in 1993. In addition to the pew edition, several other editions of CW are available:  In addition to the accompaniment editions of the hymnal, NPH offers an edition of "Christian Worship" known as "HymnSoft". This computer program is structured in order to allow churches without pianists and organists to easily play hymns, psalms, and liturgy using a computer. Playback is in MIDI and can use the computer's own on-board midi synthesizer with internal or external speakers, or can be connected to a MIDI capable keyboard, piano, or organ. External MIDI files can be added using the Player Module, which can execute scripts for an entire service. The Planning Christian Worship materials also has its own module for Hymnsoft. As of March 2018, Hymnsoft version 3.2 is the current version of the software. It includes recordings of all music, hymns, and psalms in the Christian Worship hymnal, Christian Worship Supplement, and Christian Worship Occasional Services. After "Christian Worship" was published, the WELS decided that a hymnal should serve for 25-30 years, unlike the 52 years served by TLH.