Mt Olive Lutheran Church

The name Mt Olive was chosen because of a similarity between the hilly country of Sebastopol and the hills surrounding the Biblical Mount of Olives.

Mt. Olive's congregation celebrated its 50th anniversary in August 2004. The 50th anniversary of the dedication of the church building was on August 6, 2006.

In the spring of 1952, a group of young people from St. Luke's in Santa Rosa and from Petaluma, with Pastor Fleischer of St. Luke's, canvassed the Sebastopol area with the hope of finding people interested in starting a church in Sebastopol. On April 6, 1952, Palm Sunday, the first worship service was held in the American Legion Hall. The new congregation soon moved to the Odd Fellows Hall.

The second founding pastor of Mt. Olive was Theodore Gohlke, who came out of retirement to aid the congregation in organizing a Sunday School and a Ladies' Aid, incorporating the church and adopting the name Mt. Olive Lutheran Church. An important church leader was Helen Harvell, president of the Ladies' Aid and superintendent and teacher of the Sunday School. During Pastor Gohlke's time, the congregation acquired property at Healdsburg Avenue at Murphy Avenue.

The church building was constructed in 1956, while Harry Miller was Pastor; the parish hall ("Harvell Hall") was built in 1962.

Mt. Olive is a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), a church body founded by German immigrants to the US. The LCMS is involved in many activities, including Lutheran World Relief and the largest Protestant parochial elementary school system in the US.

With each challenge we have encountered, we became stronger in our faith.