As pretty much every member of the Missouri Synod knows (unless you haven't been reading your mail or paying attention to the synod's news) we have a new hymnal, called the Lutheran Service Book. There's a ton of information available about it so I won't go into a lot of detail here - if you're interested in finding out more about it start at http://lsb.cph.org/. Suffice it to say that a lot of work went into the new hymnal, preserving (or restoring) the old hymns while introducing many new ones, making it easier to use and overall doing everything possible to make it a good worship resource both in the church and home.
At the July voter's meeting, the members of Life in Christ voted to begin using the new hymnal when it was available, and members were given the opportunity to buy copies to donate to the church or for their home use. Thanks to the generosity of our members, we were able to purchase all the copies needed without dipping into the church treasury! The hymnals are here and as of Reformation Sunday, October 29, we began using the new Lutheran Service Book. So far the response of our members has been very positive.
For me, some of the things I like are:
- Bible references have been included, both for the hymns and for the different sections of the liturgy.
- Some of the translations, tunes and accompaniments that were not so good in the Lutheran Worship have been restored or redone.
- A lot has been included so that the hymnal can be used as a devotional book in the home. For example, there's a nice section of prayers for personal use at the beginning of the hymnal.
- One of my favorite hymns (At the Lamb's High Feast We Sing) has been moved from the Easter section to The Lord's Supper - we can sing it all year round now!
Things I wish they'd done differently:
- They took a lot of the accompaniments out and just have the melody line for many hymns. I grew up with the hymns being played at home from TLH, and learned to play hymns myself from the pew edition we all had in our homes. It seems like they've taken some opportunities away from young musicians and families who want to use the hymnal in their homes by having many accompaniments only available in the rather expensive accompaniment edition.
- There are only 3 hymns for Trinity Sunday, and the Death and Burial section was removed. (Funeral hymns are now under Hope and Comfort.)
