Haldor Lillenas (19 November 1885 - August 18, 1959) was "one of the most important writers and publishers of the twentieth century gospel hymn" and is considered the "most influential songwriter and publisher of Wesleyan/Holiness in the century 20th". In addition, Lillenas is an ordained minister in the Nazarene Church, a prolific writer, evangelist, poet, music publisher and songwriter, who is thought to have composed more than 4,000 hymns, the most famous of which is Graceful Jesus < i> me. In 1931 Lillenas was the producer of Glorious Gospel Songs , the first hymn to the Church of Nazareth. In 1982 Lillenas was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Video Haldor Lillenas
Biographical detail
Initial life
Haldor Lillenas was born on November 19, 1885 on Stord Island, near Bergen, Norway, son of Ole Paulsen Lillenas (born May 1854 in Norway, died July 24, 1926 in Hennepin County, Minnesota), a farmer and shopkeeper , and his wife Anna Marie Lillenas (born March 1851 in Norway, died in 1906 in Minnesota), and brother Paul Olson (born March 27, 1879 in Norway, died May 18, 1934 in Hennepin County, Minnesota), Johanes O (born July 1882 Norway), Katrine G. (born July 1888 in North Dakota), and George M. (born March 11, 1896 in Astoria, Oregon).
Lillenas family farm consists of 15 acres (61,000 m 2 ) of rocky ground, which are sold to allow families to migrate to the United States. While Anna and her three children lived temporarily in a house in southern Bergen, Ole Lillenas migrated from Norway to the United States via Canada in 1886, where he bought a farm in Colton, South Dakota. After Ole finished building a tree house, Anna, and the three children were reunited with him in 1887. In 1889 the Lillenas family moved again to a ranch on the Columbia River near Astoria, Oregon. While living in Astoria, Lillenas studied English and started school. In 1900, the family moved to Roseville, Minnesota. While in Roseville, Lillenas began attending high school at the Lutheran school in Hawick, Minnesota. At the age of 17, Lillenas started a four-year correspondence course from International Correspondence Schools in chemistry and chemical analysis with a private tutor. Lillenas works as a farm laborer most of the year, but during the winter he concentrates on his studies. Around 1906 Anna Marie Lillenas died, and Ole decided to move the family to North Dakota, but Lillenas decided to move back to Astoria, Oregon, where she completed a correspondence course and got a job at a chemical plant.
Spiritual experience
Like many Scandinavians at the time, Lillenas grew up in a Lutheran family. The Lillenas family were very obedient in their religious life, and attended community worship services when held in their area. At the age of fifteen Lillenas became a confirmed member of the Lutheran Church in Hawick. However, Lillenas indicated in his autobiography that at that time, he had not experienced "the miracle of the new birth". As a child, Lillenas had been friends with an elderly lady who taught her English, and told her about Jesus. As a result, in 1906 Lillenas began attending meetings at the Peniel Mission, the sacred salvation mission, in Astoria, Oregon. where this woman is an active worker. According to Lillenas in an interview in 1948, it was not long after his mother's death, soon after moving to Astoria, a summer night "he stopped to listen to the corner service, where he heard for the first time the strain of 'Tell Mother would be in There he made his decision and devoted his life to Christian service. "According to McGraw," singing and testimony brought confidence to his heart, and later that year he was saved, and three weeks later his heart was cleansed. "Soon he" helped in missions, , watched happily for 'Jesus' wonderful grace,' and wrote songs with increasing skill and volume. "
In 1907 Lillenas moved to Portland, Oregon, where he worked with the Peniel Mission located at 247 NW Couch Street. All Peniel Mission workers have no mission, but local missions pay most of their expenses. Soon afterwards, Lillenas testified that he believed he was called to be a minister of the gospel, at which point he was appointed mission leader of Portland. During his years of leadership, "he saw so many souls won to Christ that he felt more certain than ever that he should dedicate his life to the work of the Lord." In 1908, Lillenas became a member of the First Church of Portland in Nazareth, then located at 428 Burnside Street, which was founded on July 4, 1906. As soon as Lillenas enrolled in a ministry-level course, which he began with correspondence. Soon after, Lillenas joined a vocal group linked to the Salvation Army called the "Bodyguard Brigade", which held street meetings and revival meetings in much of California.
Ministerial Preparation
As a result of some generous donations, and the efforts of Rev. A.O. Hendricks, pastor of the Portland Church at Nazarene, in 1909 Lillenas was able to continue his studies at Deets Pacific Bible College, a predecessor of Point Loma Nazarene University, located on the corner of San Pedro and East 28th Streets, Los Angeles, California. In addition, Lillenas was able to get a part-time job to finance his studies, but at the end of the year received service as a music director of a local church, and was active in songwriting and preaching. During this time, Lillenas studied voice at the Lyric School of Music in Los Angeles.
Marriage and family
Bertha Mae Wilson
While at Deets College Lillenas is in a college group that hosts evangelistic meetings almost every weekend. In this team was another student, Bertha Mae Wilson (born March 1, 1889 in Hanson, Kentucky; died March 13, 1945 in Tuscumbia, Missouri), the eldest daughter of Rev. William C. Wilson (1866-1915), then pastor of Pasadena First Church of Nazarene. , But later became general overseer of the Nazareth Church. Lillenas and Bertha Mae both preach, sing, and write songs, and are often practiced at his father's home. In his autobiography, Lilenas recalled: "We soon learned that our voices were well mixed and therefore we arranged for our lives to be combined as well." On October 4, 1910 Lillenas married Bertha Mae. Bertha Mae later became an ordained minister in the Church of Nazareth and composer. They have two children: Evangeline Mae (born November 27, 1911 in Santa Barbara, California) and Wendell Haldor (born April 14, 1915 in Illinois, died 1967 in Bethany, Oklahoma).
Lola Dell
After Bertha's death from cancer in March 1945, Lillenas married Lola Dell (born March 23, 1894 in Kansas, died October 1974 in Kansas) later that year.
Next year
In 1938, Lillenas and Bertha Mae bought rural land of 500 acres (2.0 km km 2 ) in Miller County, the hills of Missouri in The Ozarks, halfway between Tuscumbia and Iberia on Missouri Route 17, about 75 kilometers (47 miles) southwest of Jefferson City, where they built their home, which they call "Melody Lane". This was where Bertha Mae died of cancer in March 1945, and where Lillenas and his second wife, Lola, lived until they moved to Pasadena, California in 1955. When they lived in Melody Lane, Lillenas was an active member of the Iberian Church. from Nazarene, where there is now a stained glass window memorial in his honor.
After a visit to Israel in 1955, Lillenas sponsored a Palestinian Greek Orthodox family whom he met as an immigrant to the United States, which included twelve-year-old Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (born March 19, 1944), a convicted murderer of Robert F. Kennedy.. Upon their arrival in Pasadena, California in January 1957, the Sirhan family stayed with Lillenas for three months at his home, before moving to the house rented and provided by Lillenas for them. When Mary Sirhan's husband left him and his two sons, and returned to Jordan, Lillenas ensured that they could remain in the United States.
Death and burial
Lillenas died on August 18, 1959 in Aspen, Colorado.
Maps Haldor Lillenas
Careers
Pastor
Immediately after his conversion in 1906, Lillenas was convinced that he was called to minister. Lillenas was a pastor for the Nazareth Church for fifteen years since 1910. Soon after his marriage in October 1910, they moved to Sacramento, California where they took over the Peniel Mission. After a year, Lillenas became pastor of Lompoc, the California Church of Nazareth. Lillenas and Bertha Mae were both ordained elders of the Nazarene Church in the Southern California District in 1912 by Dr. Hiram F. Reynolds. At that time Bertha's father was the district inspector. During this pastor, Lillenas took a two-year course in composition and harmony with Welsh singer and composer Daniel Protheroe (born November 5, 1866, died February 25, 1934) and Adolph Rosenbecker from the Siegel-Myers University Music School in Chicago, Illinois (Also known as University Extension Conservatory). Because of his pastoral duties, it took three years to complete the course.
Lillenas then shepherded the churches in Pomona, California; Redlands, California; Auburn, Illinois (1916-1919); Peniel, Texas; and Indianapolis, Indiana (1923-1926). When Lillenas resigned from the First Church of Indianapolis to focus on his publisher, Bertha became a minister until they moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1930.
Song evangelist
For ten years Lillenas was a song evangelist, traveling with Bertha Mae to hold revival service. Among the churches in which he held the evangelistic service was Wesley's Methodist Church in New Jersey where the father of George Beverly Shea was a priest.
Hymnwriter
From a very young age, Lillenas began writing his own songs, but not until he was 19, that he was trying to publish them. In a 1948 interview, Lillenas indicated: "I lived in North Dakota at the time and I saw an advertisement from a publishing company that requested a new song to be published I do not know that a reputable publisher should never advertise for songs I spend $ 25 on published my songs and I received $ 3.65 in "royalty" from the venture.Some of my first songs were not very successful. "In the same interview he revealed that after much rejection, he finally managed to sell ten of his songs to a publisher for a price 50 cents each. One of these songs, He Set Me Free , became popular. Lillenas pointed out that soon after his conversion at the age of 21, he began to write more singing and singing expressing his confidence and joy. Lillenas is a prolific composer of hymns, and it is thought that "in his lifetime he wrote 4,000 hymns, and supplied songs to many evangelists." Lillenas composed songs for cantatas for Easter and Christmas, church service Special Day. Lillenas uses many pseudonyms to write his songs, including Virginia Rose Golden, Laverne Gray, Richard Hainsworth, Rev. H. N. Lines, Robert Whitmore and Ferne Winters. In 1938 Lillenas became a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
While some of his hymns, such as The Grace of Jesus and The Bible Stand, cross the denominational barriers and appear in hymns of Protestant churches, mostly used by Lillenas' own denominations and ecclesiastical cousins ​​in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The Nazarene historian Floyd Cunningham sees "the number of songs by Haldor Lillenas we sang, which is strange to us" as evidence of an increase in sectarianism in the Church of Nazareth in its second generation. Timothy Smith asserts that this generation believes that "to keep the Spirit in the church, it seems necessary to keep the tempo." Among the leading hymns written by Lillenas are:
In 1958 Lillenas wrote The Sun Never Sets, a song to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of the Nazarene Church, based on an excerpt from the early Nazarene founder Phineas Bresee, who often said: "We are in the sun rising from Nazareth movement and the sun never goes down in the morning. "
Amazing Jesus Gifts (1918)
The famous Lillenas song is probably The Amazing Bounty of Jesus , written during the pastor of the Nazareth Church in Auburn, Illinois. Lillenas explains the origin of this gospel song:
In 1917, Mrs. Lillenas and I built our first small house in the town of Olivet, Illinois. When it was finished, we had almost no money left to complete the little house. Since I had no piano at the time, and needed similar tools, I managed to find, in one of the neighboring houses, a small sneezing organ that I bought for $ 5.00. With the help of this tool, a number of my songs, written now popular, include 'The Grace of Jesus' Grace.'
The Beautiful Grace of Jesus was copyrighted in 1918, but not published until 1922 in the Tabernacle Choir Book . Lillenas paid $ 5.00 for this song.
Poet
Lillenas is a respected poet. One of his most famous poems is his 1928 poem,
Poverty.
Publisher
In 1924, while still serving as pastor of the First First Church in Nazarene, Lillenas founded the Lillenas Publishing Company. Stocks are offered initially for $ 100 each. The President is E.W. Petticord; Vice President is Kenneth H. Wells; The Secretary/Treasurer is Fra Morton, while Lillenas is his manager. On October 16, 1925, Lillenas Publishing Company opened the door to their office, located at 5921 East Washington Street (round the corner with Arlington Avenue). In 1926, Lillenas resigned as a pastor to allow him to devote his energy to a publishing company. Bertha Mae takes on pastoral responsibility. Before Lillenas Publishing Company was sold to Nazarene Publishing House in Kansas City, Missouri in 1930, over 700,000 songbooks and songs were published and sold. Sales include 1,535 copyrights. The sale agreement mandates that Lillenas will serve as manager of Lillenas Publishing Company for ten years and then reviewed. But Lillenas continued to be an editor until his retirement in 1950, at the age of 65. After his retirement, Lillenas served as an advisor to the Nazarene Publishing House's Music department until his death.
Author
Lillenas is the editor and compiler of over fifty books for church and Sunday School. The first book of Lillenas is Special Sacred Songs , published in 1919. Among other publications was the first official hymn to the Nazareth Church, Gospel Songs Gospel , published in 1931 , as soon as Lillenas Publishing Company becomes part of the Nazarene Publishing House. HYMNS glorious gospel includes about 700 hymns and gospel songs, of which 81 are of its own composition.
After retiring from the Nazarene Publishing House in 1950, Lillenas and his second wife, Lola, traveled extensively, including three trips to his native Norway. During this period Lillenas wrote three books: Modern Gospel Song Stories (1952); autobiography, Down Melody Lane: An Autobiography (1953); and Drive 11,000 miles Through Norway: A Guide for Tourists with the Sixty Suggested Travels (1955), a travel book based on three trips to Norway.
Awards and honor
In 1941 Olivet Nazarene College awarded Lillenas an honorary Doctor of Music degree in recognition of his contribution to the hymn of America.
In 1982 Lillenas was inaugurated as the Hall of Fame of the Gospel Music Association, in the same class as John T. Benson, Sr.; Thomas A. Dorsey; Charles H. Gabriel; Lowell Mason; B.B. McKinney; and John Newton.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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