Lutheran Service Builder: If You Are Not Using It, Here’s Why You Should Be
I know many of you have heard about Lutheran Service Builder, but for those who have not, it is the comprehensive digital version of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s hymnal: Lutheran Service Book. Some people still, very mistakenly, think, that the Builder is only really good for printing out the worship service in bulletins, but it is much, much … much … more than that. It is a total worship planning and preparation aid and help. It allows you to easily track the hymns your congregation has sung, it helps pastors see quickly all the readings for the Church Year coming up. It is a powerful tool for finding appropriate hymns and locating Scriptural references throughout all the hymns in Lutheran Service Book. Did you know the Builder offers complete access to and integration with the Synod’s weekly “Let us Pray” prayers for each week? There is an optional module for the Builder offering complete integration with the Concordia Organist, making it possible for you to produce a complete audio accompaniment for the entire worship service? And the list goes on…
It is the finest Lutheran worship planning resource out there. Unlike some other resources that offer the user access to word processing files hosted on a web site, the Builder makes using the hymnal’s resources quick, easy and powerful, in a stand-alone program.
Lutheran Service Builder has become an important tool for congregations of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest.
We offer several packages and programs of the Builder depending on congregational size and even a free fully functioning demo for you to try out. You can read all about the Builder’s pricing schedule and get more details and the demo by following this link.
It has proven particularly helpful for a whole host of events outside of and beyond the Sunday morning worship service in a congregation. I’ve heard from people telling me how they use it for their schools, for gatherings of smaller groups in their congregations, for funerals, for weddings, for baptisms, for shut-in calls, for nursing home visits. It allows you to put together appropriate worship resources for any event or any occasion.
Recently I’ve had a few contacts from people asking for a “large print” edition of Lutheran Service Book, and I’ve been able to remind them that: (a) a large print edition of Lutheran Service Builder is unwieldy since it is printed across several volumes, by Lutheran Blind Mission and (b) Lutheran Service Builder allows you to produce a special “sight saving” edition of your complete worship service in any size type you want. It makes it perfect for congregations looking for a way to help those who require very large print to read the liturgy and the texts of the hymns.
I could go on and on about the benefits and blessings of Lutheran Service Builder, but here let me simply offer a word of encouragement to you:
If your congregation has not been using Lutheran Service Builder, or does not have, please reconsider. We have thousands of congregations using it now and those who use it now say they can’t live without it.
Here are some accolades about Lutheran Service Buidler:
“I’m not as tech-savvy as many, and the thought of Lutheran Service Builder was a bit intimidating. I put off getting it for a while. But when reason overcame fear, I was delighted to find the product intuitive and easy-to-use right from the get-go. Preparing the ordinary Sunday bulletin is a snap now, but where Builder excels is in preparation of special bulletins. For us, that means our Catechism Service and midweek Vespers during Advent and Lent. It is as easy as point-and-click and the whole treasury of Lutheran Service Book unfolds in its richness. Can’t think how that hymn goes? No Problem. A click, and Builder lets you hear it. Need an occasional service or rite added in? It’s just a click away also. And those those moments when I’m being particularly dense, help is always just an email of phone call away. The Builder team stands behind their product in a way that simply erases frustrations. If you’ve been on the fence about purchasing the product, I can’t encourage you enough to give it a try. You will not be disappointed.”–Pr. William Weedon, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hamel, IL
“Lutheran Service Builder has become an essential and dependable weekly resource for our staff. It does most of the research for us—yet allows us to customize as we wish. LSB was easy to learn and easy to apply for our ministry. It is saving us valuable time with each bulletin. By using LSB, we need less human effort producing—and less time spent proofreading for errors.
LSB has become a one-stop-shop database for us, as it offers great detail from the most recent hymnal, plus the appropriate weekly Bible readings. And in addition, LSB monitors copyright management for us so we don’t have to worry! Another important bonus is the LSB technical support. They have been easy to reach, quick to respond, and dependable for follow-up. We will continue using this tool! It’s the best!”–John Payne, Music Director, Saint Michael Lutheran Church, Fort Myers, FL
“Not only is my congregation extremely pleased with Lutheran Service Book, but the addition of Lutheran Service Builder has truly been a blessing! For special events, special services, devotions, Bible studies, and countless other needs, Lutheran Service Builder has come through with flying colors to deeply enhance our study and worship. I find it easy to use, and it produces a wonderfully professional-looking product. I have to do very little to make a self-contained bulletin very easy to read and follow. What used to be a hassle or impossible has been made easy. I appreciate the work that has gone into providing such a useful product for pastors and the Church at large!”–Pr. Michael Kumm, Trinity Lutheran Church, Millstadt, IL
“Lutheran Service Builder is a major help for a “sight-reading deficient” pastor like myself. It is a huge blessing to be able to hear the music for the hymns without calling one of our organists. If I recall a phrase from a hymn that matches up with the sermon I’m going to preach, I can locate the hymn in a matter of seconds. I have also been consistently impressed with the support offered by Concordia Publishing House for the product. The program receives updates for hymn suggestions, festival days, and more automatically.”–Pr. Richard Anderegg, Faith Ev. Lutheran Church, St. Roberts, MO
Paul,
You know I’ve raised this issue before: the pricing brackets are way too broad, especially at the bottom end. This post claims that the Service Builder has become “an important tool for congregations of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest”. I don’t know what you mean here by “the smallest”, but I suspect mine is not far from it (20 confirmed members, average attendance 15 confirmed adults). That a congregation of 20, teetering on the brink of viability, should be paying the same for the Service Builder as a congregation with an average attendance of 199 seems a tad harsh. Simply put, it’s unaffordable.
I have received a courteous and reasoned response from CPH on this issue, but the simple fact is that the pricing is not fair on small congregations (say, <50).
I'm sure it's a wonderful and extremely useful product, but CPH really want every congregation to have one, it will need to make it affordable to every congregation. In the meantime, out of sheer necessity, we will just stick with the books, Concordia Organist CDs and DIY bulletins.
Hi Tapani, I know you have expressed this concern before, but all I can say at this point is simply that we have considered this point, but finally we really can’t lower our prices any further on this resource. Even a very small congregation could find its way clear to raising $500 to purchase the resource and pay the $175 for the annual subscription. Even only with 15 adults attending every Sunday, that would represent a contribution of donation of $25. I do not mean to sound harsh or rude, but I think the claim that $500 for even a very small congregation is too much is not really a legitimate claim. I think in these matters it comes to down to a matter of priorities in the congregation, even a very small congregation.
But, I will run your comments again through our business planning process.
Let me ask you this, Tapani, what would you consider a fair price to be for a congregation that has fewer than 50 people in worship on a Sunday morning?
Paul,
Trust me, every penny counts! You are right, it is a matter of priorities, and when resources are so limited, a whizz product like the Service Builder is simply not important enough, however useful it may be. We have invested in the entire LSB library (bar the $80 One-Year Lectionary, which I would buy if it wasn’t $80), and that keeps us going quite nicely. And on the plus side, the congregation use and know the pew hymnals very well.
But my point is really about equity. The burden of the cost for a very small congregation is vastly disproportionate to the larger congregations in the same price bracket. I’m sure your business colleagues will laugh me off court, but $300/$100 pricing may re-open the discussion. Even then, I doubt my congregation will be able to invest in this (though others might): we are looking at reducing our bulletin from 8 to 4 pages to save on photocopying.
But thanks nevertheless for listening.
Hi Tapani, I can understand how you feel about this, but unfortunately, because we receive zero by way of grants or subsidies, we are entirely self-supporting, therefore, we can not, and do not, set prices to try to “share the burden equally” … I’m afraid that we have to charge, what we charge, in order to keep our operation moving along. I will however raise the question about price points for extremely small congregations, with very low average Sunday morning attendance.
Thanks, Paul. Given that there is already a price differential between different congregations (and therefore, the burden is shared more equally than with a flat fee), it’s a question of fine-tuning the existing product.
Now, if CPH publishes a supplement with the missing hymns and alternative tunes for congregations that don’t use the Builder but have invested in the Pew Edition, the Hymn Accompaniment edition, etc., I’ll be a really happy bunny! Seems somehow strange to have made a number of hymns available on a subscription-only basis.
Tapani, I’m sorry if I was not clear in my last most. There is a minimum price point we can not drop below or else we will not be receiving the revenue we need to support our investment in this rather huge project. I know you do not agree with the set price points, but I trust you will respect our right, and need, to determine what price points we must set to continue to sustain our operations.
Paul,
My apologies. I just found your name at the very top on the blog. I would swear that it wasn’t there on the first link I clicked.
jds