I never got to see the finished product, but I've been curious to know how the "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" Lenten resource from CPH turned out, and how it worked out for any pastors and congregations who may have used it this year.
I thought the midweek sermons were good and useful to inspire thoughts in my mind and help me in the writing of my sermons. I used the Bible Studies at noon with those who could not come out at night and they were well-received. We also gave out the devotional books and they were also appreciated. I usually do not use these kinds of "packaged" materials, but found this one to be one of the better ones I have seen.
On the other hand, I found the Holy Week sermons not as helpful as the midweek sermons. But overall, I thought it well done and would recommend its use for others.
I'm one of Pastor Peasant's congregants. We received the devotional and loved it, heard the mid-week sermons and was able to attend all but one of the noon bible studies. I liked it all. It was particularly nice to have the bible study in the morning and then hear the sermon - gave us time to chew on it.
Of course, I'm a fan of Pr Cwirla and his writing and preaching so I might be biased. ;)
I thought it was one of the best "packaged" deals I've been exposed to, although most of my exposure is to more evangelical packages which are just awful.
Thank you for the comments. I'm pleased, and not surprised, that Pastor Cwirla's devotions and Pastor Weedon's sermons (if I am not mistaken on that point) were of edifying benefit to those who used the resource.
I guess I have also been curious, considering the extent of time and energy that went into preparing the "worship resources" that were part of "O Sacred Head Now Wounded," whether those were of any consequence. I honestly do not even know to what extent my work was incorporated or left intact; especially since I've not seen the finished product, nor have I ever gotten any feedback on my contribution.
I'm not looking for pats on the head. It's only that, when I invest myself in a project, it's a bit like "giving birth" to a child, and it's difficult to go through all that without knowing what's become of the "little one." I enjoyed working on the project, but it ended up being considerably more work than I had anticipated. I spent a full month of very long nights and seemingly endless hours on it, in the fall of 2007 (which was a bit odd, to be working on Lent at that point after Pentecost). Hence my curiosity.
To answer your question Rick, I appreciated the fact that OT and Epistle readings were also given and suggested. I might have selected some of the same, but some helped me out as ones I would not necessarily have thought of. I also used the suggested hymns and the additional Vespers collects. All worked well, I thought, and added to the coherence of the theme for that midweek. I thought it curious that so many pages were used to list out the orders for the Vespers and DS liturgies, when we just followed the hymnal. I did not use the worship resources for the Holy Week services - for these we stuck to our regular services, though I did incorporate the "wounded" theme throughout.
And though you were not asking for it, I am here and forthwith giving you a pat on the back! I appreciate your work - I know how time consuming this can be, and the deadlines that are set so far in advance for CPH.
Thank you, brother, for your helpful comments, and also for your kind words. Your specific indications of what you were able to use are exactly the sort of thing I was interested in knowing.
I'm surprised, too, that everything was laid out in the way you describe, since I obviously structured the orders of service to follow the book. Perhaps it ultimately proved simpler that way. My understanding was that the "propers" for the various days would be "plugged into" the Lutheran Service Builder software for those who loaded the resource; but such things are above my pay scale ;-)
Anyway, I'm glad to have contributed to something that appears to have served the preaching of the Gospel. That is ever and always the point.
I don't think anybody uses these things wholesale. But, that being said, I found the liturgical notes, service propers & hymn suggestions very helpful. I actually "used" the sermons, with less and less editing as weeks wore on. I think it helped me look at the texts in new ways, and continues to inform my preaching.
The big negative with the material was that so much of it was in PDF format, which meant that the end user had to cut-and-paste it into his word processor, run a series of Find/Replace commands to eliminate hard line breaks, etc. Also, the PDFs of the Bible studies were just pictures of the pages from the booklet. This meant that someone had to either cut and paste two pages worth of information onto two discreet pages, or else was a lot of paper each week. More RTF files would have really helped. Second best would have been to tweak the PDFs before publication.
The entire series was very well done. It only lacked the usual CPH "fit and finish."
Rick, I am another one formally giving you a pat through the internet. Couldn't use all the hymns suggested for the vespers itself, but would often find a replacement in the list at the back of each service. As Pastor Peasant said, the choices on additional Scripture readings were well done (though there were a few I didn't see the logic in.) Getting back to the hymns you selected, especially during Holy Week there were a couple times during the middle of singing I went, "Oh, wow - I see why Rick chose this hymn. It's almost like it was written to be used with this sermon." and I also used the additional collects, or else used a paragraph from the Divine Service prayer. Thank you - and my wife thanks you too, for helping me be a lot less stressed this Holy Week
Thanks for the further helpful comments, and for the kind words. I am pleased that the hymn suggestions and other "worship resources" were beneficial to the preaching of Christ. That was certainly the goal.
If the connections between some of the readings seemed a bit elusive, chalk that up to the weird synapses firing in my brain ;-)
btw, speaking of hymns - where are your hymn selections for Easter B season? I didn't realize how much you've spoiled me until tonight.
oh, and I was confused by a few of your Psalm choices also. but I totally understand about weird synaptic firings - mine do the same, and then it's a challenge to explain the connection to the people.
You're too kind, Brother James, but I'm glad to be able to spoil anyone ;-)
My hymn suggestions for Easter 2B are at the end of "Hymns for the First Octave of Easter Series B," which I've previously posted. I'm in the process of working through the remainder of Easter Tide, and I hope to post those suggestions at some point in the next few days.
It's good incentive to keep up with such things, knowing that there are people who benefit from my suggestions. Thanks.
ahh, but I don't need Easter 2B - It took me a few years, but I finally disciplined myself to be one week ahead by including in Sunday's bulletin the hymns for the upcoming Sunday so that my organists can have them and members can look them up during the week. Since the bulletins are made on Friday morning, Thursday night is when I generally do my picking. I start with LSB's selection guide, and then I usually use your blog to make the final one or two choices - often for communion. because of your work for the Lenten series, I actually got two weeks ahead entering Holy Week, so I didn't need to pick hymns last week Thursday after church. Btw, back in our TLH days, I would use this site, which I've been hoping I could help to update, but so far not much time to do such. http://www.pericope.org/pericope_notes/index.html
13 comments:
It appears that I shall have to continue wondering.
We only used the Lenten devotionals from the series. I found them to be very good. Written by Bill Cwirla.
I thought the midweek sermons were good and useful to inspire thoughts in my mind and help me in the writing of my sermons. I used the Bible Studies at noon with those who could not come out at night and they were well-received. We also gave out the devotional books and they were also appreciated. I usually do not use these kinds of "packaged" materials, but found this one to be one of the better ones I have seen.
On the other hand, I found the Holy Week sermons not as helpful as the midweek sermons. But overall, I thought it well done and would recommend its use for others.
I'm one of Pastor Peasant's congregants. We received the devotional and loved it, heard the mid-week sermons and was able to attend all but one of the noon bible studies. I liked it all. It was particularly nice to have the bible study in the morning and then hear the sermon - gave us time to chew on it.
Of course, I'm a fan of Pr Cwirla and his writing and preaching so I might be biased. ;)
I thought it was one of the best "packaged" deals I've been exposed to, although most of my exposure is to more evangelical packages which are just awful.
Thank you for the comments. I'm pleased, and not surprised, that Pastor Cwirla's devotions and Pastor Weedon's sermons (if I am not mistaken on that point) were of edifying benefit to those who used the resource.
I guess I have also been curious, considering the extent of time and energy that went into preparing the "worship resources" that were part of "O Sacred Head Now Wounded," whether those were of any consequence. I honestly do not even know to what extent my work was incorporated or left intact; especially since I've not seen the finished product, nor have I ever gotten any feedback on my contribution.
I'm not looking for pats on the head. It's only that, when I invest myself in a project, it's a bit like "giving birth" to a child, and it's difficult to go through all that without knowing what's become of the "little one." I enjoyed working on the project, but it ended up being considerably more work than I had anticipated. I spent a full month of very long nights and seemingly endless hours on it, in the fall of 2007 (which was a bit odd, to be working on Lent at that point after Pentecost). Hence my curiosity.
To answer your question Rick, I appreciated the fact that OT and Epistle readings were also given and suggested. I might have selected some of the same, but some helped me out as ones I would not necessarily have thought of. I also used the suggested hymns and the additional Vespers collects. All worked well, I thought, and added to the coherence of the theme for that midweek. I thought it curious that so many pages were used to list out the orders for the Vespers and DS liturgies, when we just followed the hymnal. I did not use the worship resources for the Holy Week services - for these we stuck to our regular services, though I did incorporate the "wounded" theme throughout.
And though you were not asking for it, I am here and forthwith giving you a pat on the back! I appreciate your work - I know how time consuming this can be, and the deadlines that are set so far in advance for CPH.
Thank you, brother, for your helpful comments, and also for your kind words. Your specific indications of what you were able to use are exactly the sort of thing I was interested in knowing.
I'm surprised, too, that everything was laid out in the way you describe, since I obviously structured the orders of service to follow the book. Perhaps it ultimately proved simpler that way. My understanding was that the "propers" for the various days would be "plugged into" the Lutheran Service Builder software for those who loaded the resource; but such things are above my pay scale ;-)
Anyway, I'm glad to have contributed to something that appears to have served the preaching of the Gospel. That is ever and always the point.
I don't think anybody uses these things wholesale. But, that being said, I found the liturgical notes, service propers & hymn suggestions very helpful. I actually "used" the sermons, with less and less editing as weeks wore on. I think it helped me look at the texts in new ways, and continues to inform my preaching.
The big negative with the material was that so much of it was in PDF format, which meant that the end user had to cut-and-paste it into his word processor, run a series of Find/Replace commands to eliminate hard line breaks, etc. Also, the PDFs of the Bible studies were just pictures of the pages from the booklet. This meant that someone had to either cut and paste two pages worth of information onto two discreet pages, or else was a lot of paper each week. More RTF files would have really helped. Second best would have been to tweak the PDFs before publication.
The entire series was very well done. It only lacked the usual CPH "fit and finish."
Rick,
I am another one formally giving you a pat through the internet. Couldn't use all the hymns suggested for the vespers itself, but would often find a replacement in the list at the back of each service. As Pastor Peasant said, the choices on additional Scripture readings were well done (though there were a few I didn't see the logic in.)
Getting back to the hymns you selected, especially during Holy Week there were a couple times during the middle of singing I went, "Oh, wow - I see why Rick chose this hymn. It's almost like it was written to be used with this sermon."
and I also used the additional collects, or else used a paragraph from the Divine Service prayer.
Thank you - and my wife thanks you too, for helping me be a lot less stressed this Holy Week
Thanks for the further helpful comments, and for the kind words. I am pleased that the hymn suggestions and other "worship resources" were beneficial to the preaching of Christ. That was certainly the goal.
If the connections between some of the readings seemed a bit elusive, chalk that up to the weird synapses firing in my brain ;-)
btw, speaking of hymns - where are your hymn selections for Easter B season? I didn't realize how much you've spoiled me until tonight.
oh, and I was confused by a few of your Psalm choices also. but I totally understand about weird synaptic firings - mine do the same, and then it's a challenge to explain the connection to the people.
You're too kind, Brother James, but I'm glad to be able to spoil anyone ;-)
My hymn suggestions for Easter 2B are at the end of "Hymns for the First Octave of Easter Series B," which I've previously posted. I'm in the process of working through the remainder of Easter Tide, and I hope to post those suggestions at some point in the next few days.
It's good incentive to keep up with such things, knowing that there are people who benefit from my suggestions. Thanks.
ahh, but I don't need Easter 2B - It took me a few years, but I finally disciplined myself to be one week ahead by including in Sunday's bulletin the hymns for the upcoming Sunday so that my organists can have them and members can look them up during the week. Since the bulletins are made on Friday morning, Thursday night is when I generally do my picking. I start with LSB's selection guide, and then I usually use your blog to make the final one or two choices - often for communion. because of your work for the Lenten series, I actually got two weeks ahead entering Holy Week, so I didn't need to pick hymns last week Thursday after church.
Btw, back in our TLH days, I would use this site, which I've been hoping I could help to update, but so far not much time to do such.
http://www.pericope.org/pericope_notes/index.html
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