On the latter album's liner notes, Nelson wrote of the Morning Chapel Hour music: "A diligent effort has been made since the program began to present Gospel music in a way which leads the listener to an experience of reverence as well as listening pleasure. Recordings made by Nelson and the Morning Chapel Hour singers include: The Morning Chapel Hour: Wilbur Nelson and the Chapel Singers on the Word Records label, Great Day!, Memory Melodies, and O Come, O Come Immanuel: Songs of the Savior's Birth, a self-produced album of Christmas music performed by the Morning Chapel Hour singers accompanied by orchestra and directed by Nelson. The auditorium was named "Nelson Hall" in his honor. He also built a 2000-seat chapel/auditorium for Isabelle Christian School for Girls in Pusan, Korea. In the early 1950s, for example, the Morning Chapel Hour broadcast sponsored the building of the Evangel Children's Home in Hong Kong, a Christian orphanage for refugee children from mainland China. Īs the program's popularity grew, Nelson extended its international outreach. He made guest singing and speaking appearances at churches and special events around the country, such as the Western Pennsylvania Bible Conference in June 1974. The program's motto was, "Songs and Thoughts that Lift the Heart". On each broadcast, a choir sang gospel hymns, often as backup with Nelson singing lead, preceding a short devotional message given by Nelson to encourage and comfort listeners. In later years, it was also carried by the Bible Broadcasting Network during the 1970s–1990s. The broadcast was eventually syndicated to radio stations around the United States and internationally. While pastoring the Grace Church of Huntington Park, Nelson founded the Grace Evangelistic Association to produce a daily half-hour radio program, The Morning Chapel Hour, beginning in 1944 on KGER in Long Beach, California. In the 1960s–1970s, Nelson was minister at Metropolitan Bible Church in Paramount, California, in addition to continuing to make singing appearances as a soloist. Known as the "singing evangelist", Nelson both sang and preached at his church, as well as when making frequent guest appearances at other churches. įor two years, Nelson led the Youth for Christ movement in Long Beach, California, one of the largest at the time on the West Coast, and organized and conducted their mass rallies at the Hollywood Bowl. Nightly meetings were held in the 500-seat tent, which he called "The Canvas Chapel". The goal, he said, was to overcome the "summer slump in church attendance". While pastoring Grace Church, he also held open-air summer tent meetings drawing thousands, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1949, publishing a photo of Nelson, shirtsleeves rolled up, driving tent stakes into the ground. Nelson was founder and pastor of Grace Church of Huntington Park, California, in the 1940s–1950s, which advertised itself as the "Singing Church". Among his many singing roles, Nelson sang at Billy Graham's crusade in Los Angeles in 1949, while pastoring Grace Church in Huntington Park, California. Pianist Rudy Atwood, who frequently accompanied Nelson on the program, praised him as "one of the truly great singers of our day", writing, "Whether he sings the old hymns, or the contemporary gospel songs, his magnificent voice and dedicated life is a blessing to people everywhere". Singing career Ī talented tenor, Nelson sang in a quartet at the Country Church of Hollywood in the 1930s, later singing on the popular Old Fashioned Revival Hour radio broadcast in the early 1940s. He attended the old Country Church of Hollywood in the 1930s, where he married his wife, Ethyl, in 1936. ![]() He attended Pilgrim Bible College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, before moving to California. Nelson was born in Brighton, Colorado, on September 25, 1910.
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