Joliet minister known for smiling, positive service

JOLIET – Are you having a marvelous Monday?

Hopefully, yes. Because the Rev. Jim Allen of Joliet would enthusiastically encourage others to do so when he handed them brightly colored cards.

These cards said, “Arrange your life to include a positive mental attitude. Have a good word to say. It will brighten each day. Speak your daily word to respond to, ‘How are you?’ ”

And then he’d follow up with insisting you have a terrific Tuesday, wonderful Wednesday, tremendous Thursday, fabulous Friday, stupendous Saturday and super Sunday.

Jim always kept a stack on hand to freely dispense to anyone he met. He often quipped, “You can’t afford the luxury of a negative thought,” said Nancy Allen, his wife.

Armed with a deep passion for God and his community, along with a never-ending supply of positive thinking, Jim ministered with exuberance and in abundance.

In fact, Jim’s résumé, listing his training, professional experience and community outreach, is five pages long. Nancy said Jim was a people person and an idea person who motivated others to execute good ideas.

“He gave hugs to everyone,” said Beth Thelo of Channahon, Jim’s daughter. “He was very accepting of everyone. ... As a father he was very encouraging, supportive and complimentary.”

That acceptance extended to people who society often overlooked. In 2003 at the age of 70, Jim started “Re-creative Ministries: A Ministry for the Disenfranchised – the isolated, the hurt, the bruised, the broken.”

At noon on the first Sunday of each month at the former Jefferson Square Mall in Joliet, Jim hosted an informal and interactive worship service for people struggling with guilt, shame and depression.

In a 2003 Herald-News article, Jim said his hope was that these people – through sharing their stories – could experience God’s unconditional love and forgiveness and be “re-created” for God’s service.

“We found that to be re-created is a never-ending task,” Jim said in the article. “It seems that God has us, and those that follow him, almost under construction for new hope and healing, support and strength, and peace and power.”

Through the years, Jim served on the board and in leadership roles at Joliet/Will County Project Pride (now Project Acclaim), The Salvation Army, the Greater Joliet Area YMCA, Catholic Charities, the American Red Cross, the Senior Services Center of Will County, the Community Services Council and the former Joliet Ecumenical Clergy Association, among many others.

Jim also was a chaplain for Joliet Area Community Hospice, the Center for Correctional Concerns at the Will County Adult Detention Facility and Silver Cross Hospital. In 1985, Jim started Project Pride to “pull people out of the doldrums,” Nancy said.

“At the time there was high unemployment, and we had seven murders in the city over the summer,” she said. “He was trying to get people to cooperate and be productive for their city.”

In 2014, Project Acclaim created the Rev. James E. Allen Award for Service to the Community in honor of a man who received numerous awards for his own service.

Recipients thus far include Bill Doolin, Harrah’s Casino (2014); Jan Nahorski, graffiti abatement officer for the city of Joliet (2015); Virgil Kemp, founder of Helpers of Mother Earth (2016); and Dick Schuster, president of Joliet Community Television (2016).

But Jim, pastor of the former Ottawa Street United Methodist Church, where the Joliet Area Historical Museum is now located, was no Pollyanna.

He understood people went through hard times and passed out information about Alzheimer’s, as well as the dying process, to those who needed it, Nancy said. Jim also cared about and visited the elderly, she added. Rarely did he visit anyone without bringing flowers. He also made flower baskets for church. “The bigger, the better,” Nancy said.

“We’d go to the card aisle and his eyes would go to the most expensive card at the top,” she said.

Jim was 84 when he died Sept. 13. Before he died, Jim gave Nancy instructions for the inscription on his tombstone: “He loved life, and he lived love.”

At Jim’s wake, Nancy had stacks of Jim’s positive “How Are You?” cards for guests to take. It’s a small way to keep the spirit of Jim’s ministry flowing.

“He wanted people to do their best, and he encouraged them with that,” Nancy said.

• To feature someone in “An Extraordinary Life,” contact Denise M. Baran-Unland at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.