A Fitting Farewell Thanksgiving Service Will Be Rev. John Olson’S Last As Director Of Spokane Council Of Ecumenical Ministries

After 21 years of working to improve the community, the Rev. John Olson is getting ready to retire in May as executive director of the Spokane Council of Ecumenical Ministries.

To recognize his accomplishments over the years, Olson has been selected to be the featured speaker at the community Interfaith Thanksgiving Service on Thursday at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church. The service is sponsored by the ecumenical council.

Olson, 61, stumbled onto the council job accidentally, with perhaps a dash of divine intervention thrown in.

When he was 40 and pastoring a church in Sacramento, he took the usual midlife evaluation of his life. He decided he wanted a break from leading a congregation and maybe do some writing.

“Predictably, I wanted to do something different,” Olson said.

He and his wife, Marie, chose to sell their house and move to Spokane, where she was born. Neither had a job.

“We came up here sort of playing it by ear,” Olson said.

He learned about the opening at the council, then known as the Christian Coalition, and decided he liked the idea of serving the broader community.

In spite of the fact that the job has been only part time, he’s still been able to use his position to work extensively on community issues. His hand can be found in the work of most of the council’s projects, but he points with particular satisfaction to his work on racial issues. He spent 10 years as chairman of the Interstate Task Force on Race Relations. The task force helped create the Spokane Human Rights Commission in 1991, which led to its own dissolution.

“The other area that’s close to my heart is poverty,” Olson said.

He helped form the Greater Spokane Coalition Against Poverty in 1988. People from a variety of income levels now meet monthly to discuss poverty issues. The coalition also sponsors the annual conference, “A Roof Over My Head and a Paycheck in My Pocket,” which focuses on issues such as wages, child care and housing.

Olson’s care and concern for people has not gone unnoticed. When people are asked to describe him, those are usually the first attributes mentioned.

“He’s a very caring person,” said Ruth Johnson, a member of Grace Lutheran Church, where Olson has served as pastor the past 10 years.

Olson understands the needs of the socially deprived and shows a lot of compassion for them, said Bishop Robert Keller of the Eastern Washington/North Idaho Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

No matter what the issue, Keller said, Olson’s name is bound to pop up.

Olson is also known for fostering communication between groups working on similar issues.

“His strength is in facilitating ministries,” said Mary Stamp, editor of the Fig Tree, an ecumenical newspaper sponsored by the council. “John is creative, works behind the scenes - connecting, educating, advocating.”

At one time, there were 35 groups in Spokane working on affordable housing issues, Olson said. And instead of communicating with each other, they were competing for the same tax dollars.

Olson helped bring the groups together to form the Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium in 1990.

He also took the time to do that writing he thought about during his self-examination. He wrote a book, “Christian Assertiveness,” but it was never published. He now writes occasional editorials for the Fig Tree.

Even though his job title is executive director of the ecumenical council, Olson has always felt it was part of his job to be involved in the community.

“The church needs to be a major player,” he said. “I’ve always felt that the church needs to be a leader.”

A decade ago, Olson felt the time was right to lead a congregation again, and he took a position at Grace Lutheran Church. This job is also part-time, allowing him to continue working in the community.

“It is a church that I enjoy,” Olson said. “The people are good and authentic.”

It’s a struggling congregation of about 100 members, but has shown recent signs of growth. The church now has a choir and Sunday school again and has added a summer day-camp for low-income children. Membership is on the rise.

“The attitude down there is ‘God isn’t finished with me yet,”’ Olson said.

Ruth Johnson, a member of Grace Lutheran since 1948 and the church’s secretary since 1984, attributes the spurt of growth to Olson’s sermons.

“He’s an excellent preacher,” said Johnson.

Grace Lutheran also reaches out more to other churches in the area, thanks to Olson’s influence, she said.

SERVICE The Rev. John Olson will speak at the Interfaith Thanksgiving Day Service at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, 330 E. Boone.