Territorial Bloggings

Much has been written about the 8-years-in-the-making, newly arrived Lutheran Service Book (LSB). At the risk of putting it too briefly and/or glibly, LSB is the Synod’s attempt to put right that which was done so very poorly in 1982’s Lutheran Worship (which was a quick & hasty hack job in an attempt to salvage 1978’s Lutheran Book of Worship), integrating the good from LW, Hymnal Supplements ‘91 & ‘98, and the venerable 1941 The Lutheran Hymnal. I will set aside the whole argument of whether or not LSB was needed, as it’s a reality that’s already here. (FWIW, I think it was/is…)

This morning I attended a workshop in which the LSB was introduced & explained to folks from this little chunk of NW Indiana, and I must say that I’m quite favorably impressed. I hope to give a more in-depth commentary on the LSB at some point, but I wanted to get some quick observations written down while I had the chance. I think that LSB is very definitely an improvement on LW/LBW, and it is also a needed improvement upon TLH. It is by no means perfect, as there were definitely some compromises made during the course of its 8 year gestation. That said, I think it’s about as good a hymnal as could be reasonably expected from a Synod as fractured in doctrine and practice as today’s LCMS.

LSB holds great promise as an instrument of personal & family devotions & study. The inclusion of Luther’s Small Catechism and a wonderful Daily Lectionary, along with a very nice order of Daily Prayer for Individuals and Families. LSB is, IMO, good for proper catechesis.

In terms of Liturgical Orders of Service, I think that LSB gets the job done reasonably well. This is perhaps the area in which the Council on Worship faced the greatest challenge, given the stated goal of creating a service book that would/could be used by everyone in Synod. Frankly, I think that liturgical unity is a pipe dream in today’s LCMS. That said, I appreciate the sense of conservatism that guided the compilation of liturgical settings in LSB. While there are five settings of the Divine Service in LSB, they seem to be a fairly reasonable assembling of orders from TLH, LW, HS98, with Luther’s Deutsche Messe added for good measure (along with the Daily Offices).

They corpus of hymnody in LSB is the area in which more/most innovation was done, in that about 200 of the hymns are of a more recent vintage and/or were not in TLH or LW. I’ll leave comments on the musical merit of LSB to those more knowledgeable than I; however, it seems like it’s ok to me. I think that the repristination of many hymns that were mangled during the creation of LBW/LW, along with the addition of many other solid new hymns overall more than balances out the inclusion of some rather dubious “hymns” (e.g., one by Twila Paris, and Earth and All Stars). I find the intention of including more hymns from around the world to be admirable.

I’ll hold off on any further comment until after I’ve had the chance to more completely digest the materials I got today, as well as giving my copy of the LSB a closer examination. But, I think we’ve got a winner…

-ghp