Rev. Jan Olav Flaaten began serving as the Council's Executive Director in September of 2002 after 30 years of parish ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He grew up in Minneapolis, attended St. Olaf College and Luther Seminary, and then became Associate Pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church in Phoenix where he met his wife, Lucy--they were married in 1976. Rev. Flaaten then left for Virginia to attend Union Theological Seminary for a degree in Biblical Studies after which he recieved a call to a parish in Sheboygan, Wisconsin where their two daughters, Anna and Greta, were born. In 1986 they moved back to Arizona where he became pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, Phoenix. During that time he served as the Ecumenical Representative of the Grand Canyon Synod, a Lutheran member of the North American Lutheran/Orthodox Dialogues, a delegate to the World Council of Churches Assembly in Zimbabwe, and as a coordinator of a state-wide ecumenical group called LARCO (Lutheran, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Orthodox). His goals for the council are to improve communication, expand ecumenical dialogue, provide education in ecumenism, and give voice to the Church's witness for justice. "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words." Romans 8:26 Lita Johnson began serving as the Administrative Assistant at the Council on October 1, 2002. She also serves as the State Vice Chair of the Arizona VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster). Born in Pennsylvania, she grew up in Phoenix, attended Northern Arizona University and graduated from Arizona State University in Mass Communications and Advertising. She is married to Curtis Johnson and has five children, Casey, Jennilee, Sarah, Andrew and Timothy. She is a Certified Youth Minister through Augsburg Youth and Family Institute and Wartburg Seminary and has also completed courses in Milestone Ministries, Child in Our Hands, Journey into Discipleship and other opportunities to further her Christian education. She is the Past Chair of Arizona Voluntary Agencies Active in Disaster.  Her goal at the Council is to maintain a welcoming, efficient office, to create an ecumenical youth ministry network, help coordinate the Christian community to assist in disaster and emergency work and to coordinate the state churches for community projects.   " Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. " Deuteronomy 4:5-8