Pastors Ginny and Phil Olson look forward to seeing how the former First Lutheran Church will be transformed into their retirement home. The church closed in November 2012 and its membership transferred to St. Peter Lutheran in Eldorado, where Ginny Olson is pastor. (Janell Bradley photo)
Pastors to feel right at 'chome' in retirement
Janell Bradley
Contributing Writer
For two pastors who have spent much of their lives ministering to others, the decision to rehab a church where they served into an eventual retirement home seems a perfect fit.
Pastors Phil and Ginny Olson presently live in a parsonage in Eldorado, where Ginny is pastor of St. Peter Lutheran Church. Pastor Phil has been serving as interim pastor of Calmar Lutheran and Springfield since April 2012.
The couple’s adult children include a son and four daughters, and they have six grandchildren. With just one of their children living within an hour of them, the pastors knew they wanted their retirement home to offer plenty of space for overnight guests.
“We bought a house in Lanesboro a few years ago and never lived in it,” admitted Phil.
In the last couple of years, the Olsons continued to look at houses and acreages, but nothing particularly struck a chord with them.
Then the First Lutheran congregation made the tough decision to close its church on Fayette County Road W42, south of Ossian. While the members voted to join the St. Peter Lutheran congregation in Eldorado, the fate of the church structure itself was in limbo for a number of months.