The Good Shepherd Institute — Nov. 6-8 at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind. — commemorated the 10th anniversary of Lutheran Service Book (LSB).
“Along with the catechism and the Bible, LSB is one of the treasures that forms our Christian piety,” the Rev. Dr. Paul Grime said at the institute. “Word and song together burrow deeply into our hearts.”
Grime, dean of the chapel and professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at the Fort Wayne seminary, was executive director for the LCMS Commission on Worship at the time that LSB was published.
“For many, LSB has become a unifying book across our Synod,” added Peter Reske, senior editor of Music/Worship at Concordia Publishing House. “It has been so well received. And if you haven’t explored the hymnal yet, now is a great opportunity. Your old favorite hymn may not be in there, but your new favorite hymn is.”
Published in August 2006, LSB is used by 85 percent of all LCMS congregations, with 1.1 million individual copies sold.
Posted November 28, 2016
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When will the hymn and liturgical reference books be published? I hope soon.
Thank you for your comment. The Companion for the Hymns is tentatively scheduled for release in early 2018. The Companion for the Services will come after that, though an exact date has not been set. For more information, please contact Concordia Publishing House at 1-800-325-3040.
I think Pastor Grime is being optimistic in his statement “but your new favourite hymn is”…I find the LSB ‘wanting’ in its lack of conservative, current (even 10 years ago) hymnody (songs that are current favourites amoung LCMS young adults and youth)…
The committee was pretty sparse in its inclusion of what our 18 – 35 year olds listen to
and thus we are not necessarily relating to this age bracket as we once did. We applaud the effort but much more needs to be done in the form of updates to the LSB as far as contemporary hymnody is concerned. The message hasn’t changed “a changeless Christ for a changing World” but the way we musically meld that message into our hearts constantly is… ie. the hymns of each generation… the good ones last and are still with us! Tune wise that is! The Word never changes!
If you purchase the Lutheran Service Builder you will have access to more of the modern songs. The problem with much of that style of music is that it will not endure. The style is a current fad, they will be “out of style” in another ten years. A hard bound hymnal needs to be as current in 30 years as it is today, so including a number of modern style songs that will be out of fashion in ten years is counter productive. The hope is that most of the hymns included are “evergreen,” songs a melodies that will stand the test of time. If we had a larger customer base maybe we could make an annual paperback book of songs and new style liturgies like the Roman Catholic Church does. Other wise, the Lutheran Service Builder is a much better way of keeping current on conservative modern worship songs. I do agree that we need a better way of promoting and publishing modern songs and hymns that may have the ability to become the future “classics.” But that is not a hard bound hymnal.
As a LCMS Army Reserve Chaplain currently deployed, and soon to be the only “Liturgical Protestant” at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, the two-volume Chord Edition for the LSB Hymns is invaluable. There are some hymns that will always be difficult to chord, but overall this resource allows me to bring some traditional music to this faith community. This two-volume edition is wisely put together and includes alternate simple chords to be used with a Capo (guitar players will understand this).
It would be great if someone would “Chord out” the liturgy portions of the LSB as well and make it available.
Blessings . . .
CH (LTC) James Freitag
Command Chaplain
Sir,
CPH has this in digital copy. Is this what you are looking for?
https://www.cph.org/p-28920-lutheran-service-book-guitar-accompaniment-for-the-liturgy-downloadable.aspx