Jan is a longtime member of Bellevue First United Methodist Church. Her activism was noted as far back as the 1960s when she began working to build low-income housing for single mothers. She joined Church Women United, beginning a lifetime of ecumenical, interracial Christian activism. Jan was one of the founding mothers of the Church of Mary Magdalene. Currently she is involved in Women in Black, a worldwide network of women witnessing against injustice, war, and other forms of violence.