Lutheran Book of Worship: successes and failures—a review for pastors and musicians

Currents in Theology and Mission, Oct, 2003 by Carlos R. Messerli

All worship books contain some features considered to be improvements over previous books. While in most cases they preserve many elements of earlier, similar publications, they all contain some new or revised elements of liturgy or hymnody that make them different from their predecessors. The Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW)(1) continues this tradition. Philip Pfatteicher discusses its older and its innovative features in detail in his Commentary on the LBW. (2) The present article gives a brief summary of fourteen of the revised or innovative features of LBW with a few words about their character and the likely reasons (and degree of) their acceptance.

The success or failure of these innovative features can be related to many factors, some of which were beyond the control of congregational leaders. However, experience has shown that adoption of an element of worship is most often related directly to the liturgical or musical inclinations of the parish pastor and church musician responsible for leading congregational worship. Those who spearheaded the elaborate and lengthy introductory process of the church-wide introduction of the book more than twenty-five years ago can bear witness to the fact that if local leaders embraced the liturgical or musical elements of the book in that process and helped their congregations by exercising knowledge, patience, creativity, and vigor, the people responded favorably. If the leaders did not prefer historic liturgical practice (or certain elements of it) or a strong historic and contemporary hymn repertoire (or certain new hymns), or if they did not understand and accept the nature of the features being introduced, the acceptance of LBW structure and innovations floundered. Even congregational size and resources of talent were of relatively little importance in comparison to pastoral and musical leadership in predicting the success of the book.

LBW was built upon the foundation of its predecessor books, The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) (3) and Worship Supplement (WS) (4) of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod and Service Book and Hymnal (SBH) (5) chiefly of the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America. In general, these books contained a strong hymnic tradition and the perpetuation of Lutheran liturgical practice, especially as the latter was interpreted by the publishers of the Common Service of 1888. The LBW also reflects the efforts of other Protestant bodies and the scholarly and practical work of Roman Catholics to introduce new or reformulated elements of worship.

While formal statistics on current practice or past use of the book by congregations of the largest body authorizing the use of LBW (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) are unavailable from church headquarters, informal observation of worship practice by knowledgeable observers and evaluations by authors of books and articles appearing on the subject over the past twenty-five years have been helpful in forming the following opinions.

1. Holy Communion and Holy Baptism. Fundamentally, the LBW (6) provides encouragement for the weekly celebration of Holy Communion and a greater parish emphasis on Holy Baptism, both of which profoundly affect the nature and leadership of worship by pastors and musicians. The service of Holy Communion especially provides many additional resources and opportunities for rich Lutheran worship not available regularly before. The emphasis on baptismal practice and theology through regular congregational participation in the rite strengthens the sacramental basis of Lutheran liturgical worship.

It seems clear that, while not all congregations fully availed themselves of the resources, the influence of sacramental worship has pervaded the church, thereby reflecting one of the major successes of LBW.

2. Introduction of an Old Testament reading and the three-year cycle of readings. The Eucharist of the early church provided for three readings of Holy Scripture. As time passed the Old Testament reading was eliminated and only two biblical readings remained, Epistle and Gospel. Subsequent Lutheran practice followed this later scheme. However, the rubrics of both SBH and TLH (the latter to be found in the Agenda) (7) allowed for the possibility of a third reading, an option that was usually ignored in practice.

In recognition of the earlier work of Roman Catholic scholars, the authors of the LBW lectionary adopted a three-year cycle of weekly readings that included one from the Old Testament in addition to the New Testament Epistle and Gospel. The three-year cycle and the addition of the OT reading in LBW, now widely accepted, have helped to increase the biblical literacy of the people and provided afar greater wealth of material for preaching. They have also expanded the potential musical resources for the musician. These two new features are generally considered to be a success.

3. Singing the Psalms. The Psalms have always been a part of Christian worship, especially in the Daily Office. While present in early eucharistic orders, complete Psalms were gradually reduced in length to the text snippets found in the proper Introit, Gradual, or Offertory of the Mass. The historic Introit and Gradual texts were preserved in TLH and SBH. Biblical study, devotional concerns, and interest inauthentic rites suggested a return to ancient practice in LBW, and thus a full psalm or a major portion thereof is now assigned to each Sunday and festival of the church year. This inclusion provides an insight into a prophetic text in relation to the liturgy of a given day and also forms a liturgical bridge between the first two lessons.