Haldor Lillenas

Haldor Lillenas was a Norwegian-born American minister, hymn writer, composer, song evangelist, editor, and publisher born on Stord Island near Bergen in 1885. His family immigrated to the United States while he was a child. Raised in a Lutheran setting, he later became involved in the Holiness movement and entered the Church of the Nazarene. He and his wife, Bertha Mae Wilson Lillenas, were both ordained Nazarene ministers and songwriters, and their pastoral and evangelistic work was often shared rather than conducted as separate careers.

While Haldor and Bertha Mae were serving the Nazarene congregation at Auburn, Illinois, they built a small home in nearby Olivet in 1917. Lillenas later recalled that money was so limited that he bought a used organ from a neighbor for five dollars; he named “Wonderful Grace of Jesus” among the songs composed with its help. He wrote both the text and the tune of the hymn, which was in print by 1918.

Lillenas later founded the Lillenas Publishing Company in 1924. Nazarene Publishing House purchased it in 1930, and he continued in music publishing and editorial work. His other songs include “The Bible Stands,” “Glorious Freedom,” “I Have Settled the Question,” and “Wonderful Peace.”