Elling Eielsen (September 19, 1804 – January 10, 1883) was a Norwegian-American minister and Lutheran Church leader.[1] He was the first Norwegian Lutheran minister in the United States.[2]
Background
Eielsen was born and raised on the farm of Sundve (Sundve på Vossestrand) in Voss, Norway. The son of Eiel Ingebrigtsen Sundve and Anna Ellingsdatter Sundsvaal, he was brought up in the Lutheran religious tradition of Hans Nielsen Hauge. After his own religious awakening at the age of 25, he moved to Bergen, where he apprenticed as a carpenter and blacksmith and also enlisted in the army. He acted as a spiritual leader among his fellow soldiers, and in 1832, he accepted his first mission as a lay preacher. He traveled for several years extensively throughout Norway and also preached in Denmark where he was arrested and briefly imprisoned.
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Eielsen was a leader in the Haugeanpietistic Lutheran church reform movement which encouraged evangelism and vigorous lay leadership. His piety and reliance on lay leadership long remained a dominating influence for much of upper-Midwest Lutheranism.[9]