Nazarene Publishing House (NPH), the publishing arm of the
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelicalism, evangelical Christian denomination that emerged in North America from the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism. It is headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas, Lenexa within Johnson Cou ...
, is the world's largest publisher of
Wesleyan
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...
-Holiness literature. NPH was located on
Troost Avenue
Troost Avenue is one of the major streets in Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is 10.7 miles long, from the north point at 4th Street to the south point at Bannister Road.
History
The street is named after the first ...
in
Kansas City, Missouri, from 1912 until its move in February 2016. At the peak of its printing capabilities, NPH printed more than 25 million pieces of literature each year, and processed more than 250,000 orders each year from more than 11,000 churches from many denominations. As the publishing industry began to change with the onset of digital distribution, NPH began to scale itself accordingly. In early 2016, NPH moved its administrative offices from the Troost facility to a location a short distance away, while maintaining ownership of the printing facility at its original location on Troost. They also obtained a new President Mark Brown.
In February 2018, The Nazarene Publishing House changed its DBA name to The Foundry Publishing, maintaining its use of NPH for non-North American entities.
History
The Third General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene held in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...
in 1911 recommended that the infant denomination's three publishing companies (then located in
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, and
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
) each founded by a different Nazarene parent body, consolidate into “one central publishing company” and merge their three papers into one strong paper. The newly created Pentecostal Nazarene Publishing House was sited at 2923 Troost Avenue,
Kansas City, Missouri, in 1912, with Clarence J. Kinne, a Nazarene ordained minister, as its first manager.
The ''Herald of Holiness'', the new weekly paper, edited by
B. F. Haynes Benjamin Franklin Haynes (1851–1923), usually known as B. F. Haynes, was a Methodist and later Church of the Nazarene, Nazarene minister and theologian from Tennessee. He was associated with the Holiness movement.
He was founding editor of the '' ...
, appeared for the first time in April 1912. ''The Other Sheep'' (later ''World Mission'') magazine began publication in 1913 under founding editor Charles Allen McConnell (born 19 June 1860 in
Valparaiso, Indiana
Valparaiso ( ), colloquially Valpo, is a city and the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 34,151 at the 2020 census.
History
The site of present-day Valparaiso was included in the purchase of land from the ...
; died c.1950), who was NPH manager from 1916 to 1918. Both magazines were published until 1999, when they were discontinued in favor of ''Holiness Today'', a new publication. In the meantime, Spanish, Portuguese, and French editions of Herald of Holiness appeared over the years.
Lillenas Publishing, which was founded in
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...
, in 1925 by Nazarene minister and composer
Haldor Lillenas (born 19 November 1885 at
Stord Island,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
; died 18 August 1959 at
Aspen, Colorado
Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Moun ...
). Lillenas was purchased by NPH in 1930.
Restructure In October, 2014, a preliminary decision was announced by the denomination's Board of General Superintendents to shut down NPH on December 1, 2014, citing “shifting cultural circumstances including changes in the church”. However, on November 7, 2014, the Board of General Superintendents announced that rather than closing, NPH would undergo a restructure.
Beginning in 2017, NPH began the rebranding process to become The Foundry Publishing.
Relationship with the Church of the Nazarene
NPH is a separate corporate entity from the Church of the Nazarene, although it is accountable to the church. NPH has a Board of Directors and is also accountable to one of the six
General Superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene who has oversight of NPH.
NPH imprints
NPH publishes a variety of books, music and materials.
Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City
The primary label under which books are published is Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City.
Lillenas
Lillenas Publishing Company is one of the largest
church music
Church music is Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn.
History
Early Christian music
The on ...
publishers in the world, providing dozens of new
musical arrangement
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...
s each year.
Lillenas owns more than 20,000 song
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
s.
Lillenas' primary focus is creating and providing "
worship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recogniti ...
resource for the medium and small church", and serves more than 50,000 churches around the world each year.
Lillenas is a
not-for-profit organization. Lillenas profits go to support mission efforts around the world including education, compassionate ministries, as well as other
humanitarian efforts.
WordAction
Sunday school curriculum was published under the label WordAction until the company changed its name in 2018. The first use of The Foundry Publishing for Sunday school curriculum was September 2018 with the release of new curriculum for adults. The WordAction Publishing Company was a
not-for-profit organization that provided
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
-based,
Wesleyan
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...
-
Holiness
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...
curriculum
In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
resources for all ages. Its resources were designed through the cooperative efforts of
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7million, comprising soldiers, officers and adherents col ...
,
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelicalism, evangelical Christian denomination that emerged in North America from the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism. It is headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas, Lenexa within Johnson Cou ...
,
Wesleyans
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
,
Evangelical Friends,
Free Methodists, and
Evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
United Methodist
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...
s. WordAction was a part of the Nazarene Publishing House/The Foundry Publishing and became the world's leading provider of holiness Sunday School lessons and curriculum for children, youth, and adult Sunday School, as well as a leading provider of small group resources and devotional material for family or personal daily devotional times.
Barefoot Ministries
Youth ministry resources were published under the label Barefoot Ministries.
Casa Nazarena de Publicaciones
Spanish materials are produced by Casa Nazarena de Publicaciones.
References
External links
*
Lillenas official site{{Authority control
Church of the Nazarene
Book publishing companies based in Missouri
Christian mass media companies
Christian publishing companies
Companies based in Kansas City, Missouri
Publishing companies established in 1912
1912 establishments in Missouri