We have the new LCMS hymnal and like it very much.
The liturgy (or lack thereof) in my LCMS congregation is far less traditional than the liturgy used 30 years ago in my old ELCA congregation.
Do I really have to swim the Tiber or could Rome send a ferry?
While I haven’t seen it, I have been annoyed at what is LEFT OUT of certain hymns and words that are changed.
And taking out ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ often ruins the entire sense of poetry in the hymns. Not that that is of extreme importance but if they’re worried so much about musicality and the ‘mood’ and ‘feel’ music provides (which seems to be the way the seeker sensitive philosophy points) then they should leave the hymns as they are and incorporate more modern songs to give people a ‘break’ from the old style poetry.
But frankly, what they try to do is find emotional songs that often say nothing and use those because of the emotional response they get.
I do know in our previous church (not LCMS either) there is a lot of social gospel injected into the hymns. Irritating.
And in our current church there are little ‘writings’ from various streams of Christian thought... including stuff from ‘free will’ advocates and also from reformed theology. It makes no coherent sense but appeals to a wider demographic. And that’s what it’s all about these days.
When the ELCA/LCA got new hymnals in the late 70’s early 80’s I must say I still like the liturgy and can still sing it by heart. BUT the ELCA is a wasteland.