Pamela V. Brown

Write Path, an L.L.C.  

Photo by Ron Kosen / Photo-Spectrum

   Kauai Business Report September 2004

Keeping the Faith

Church Members Script Future after Departure of Pastor

By Pamela V. Brown

So it was with a mixture of disbelief and lots of concern about the future that the congregation of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church bade farewell in February to its beloved pastor, Jan Rudinoff, who retired and relocated temporarily to Nelson, B.C.

When Rudinoff first announced his plans, Charlie King, senior warden of the church and an owner of King Auto Center, thought "Oh my God. What are we going to do?"

Faced with scripting a future much different than they'd imagined - without the person they'd thought of as their foundation for so many years - the church leadership is moving through the transition pretty much as Rudinoff envisioned it.

Though church leaders shy away from saying they've approached the transition in a businesslike fashion, it certainly has been organized so that energy and emotions can be channeled productively for the good of the congregation.

Rudinoff enlisted the services of Virginia-based Alban Institute, a consulting firm that, among other things, helps religious groups through transitions. Church leaders have held a retreat and created mission and vision statements that have helped church members see who they are as a group, and who they wish to be.

"It's speaks to the success of your ministry if after you left, people are looking forward and not backward," Rudinoff said. "It doesn't mean they don't love me. If your ministry had value, people will have joy and optimism about what will be."

What church leaders are planning is an expansion of what Rudinoff helped the church become, as described in a paraphrase of its vision statement: A spiritual and diverse community that serves as a resource in the community to compassionately assist the hungry, homeless, youth and elderly of the island.

Enter Jim Bethell, himself a retired rector who served for more than 20 years in a corporate-size inner-city parish in Austin and for about 15 years in other locations, who answered the call to serve as interim pastor of St. Michael's.

Texas tall, with a warmth and easy sense of humor, Bethell will be on Kauai probably until late 2005, by which time all parties hope a permanent pastor will have been found. In addition to performing normal pastorate functions, Bethell's job is to lovingly but firmly keep the congregation and its leadership focused on creating the church's future, while retaining much that the organization is based upon.

"If you try to create the past, it won't work," he said. "I want to take everything that was good here and use that as a platform for moving forward. There's lots of good here and a wonderful history. Members of this church have a big compassionate heart for the underprivileged on the island, which I really attribute to Jan. Jan cared deeply for the poor and disadvantaged."

After giving 18 months notice that he would be leaving the church, Rudinoff made a point of staying out of Bethell's way, so parishioners couldn't revert to relying upon him for guidance and decisions. It wasn't until Bethell had been here four months that the two pastors met over dinner and hit it off.

"We had a blast," Bethell said. "I sought some advice from him but we mainly told good old clergy stories and had some good wine together."

Rocked Our World

Taking charge of their church's future has been a daunting process for church leaders who were emotionally attached to Rudinoff and who had grown accustomed to their pastor's centralized style of management. Marilyn Allen, owner of Performance Coaching and a member of the vestry (church leadership) said that when Bethell first arrived, "he rocked our world a little bit."

Church members had been accustomed to either Rudinoff or a few select people in the parish handling all the logistics and details of most projects. Allen recalls a recent discussion about a church craft fair, which one person had "done" for many years. She said Bethell announced that if 5 people didn't sign up to help by the end of the day, the craft fair would be cancelled.

"Where Jan did it all before, he (Bethell) is asking us to participate with him. And it works," Allen said.

The shift is beginning to feel good, Allen said. "When it's shared responsibility, we each do a little part to make it work. We all do our parts which we are drawn to or called to."

Bethell comes across as anything but a stern task master - laughing easily and swapping tales of his interesting and varied travels around the world. He seems like the perfect person for the interim job: tempering his mission to keep vestry members on task, with humor and understanding, and acknowledging how difficult this process is for congregants

The exit of a longtime and beloved spiritual leader is like a death in the family, Bethell said. "My job is to bring this congregation forward through the grief process of Jan's leaving and be prepared for the next leader."

He clearly recognizes how energized congregants have become envisioning the church's future, and that for them to achieve all of their goals, someone's got to enforce single-minded focus. "He does give us very valuable feedback that sometimes I have to sit back and reflect on," Allen said.

Bethell, who as interim pastor is not allowed to apply for the permanent position, has helped church leadership think about what a prospective new pastor might find attractive.

"He's said things that we hadn't thought about," King said. "Like that a new rector might like to see plans in place for the future rather than a congregation to which you just come in to preach to each Sunday."

Allen said she believes that's a function of the energy and motivation of this particular parish. During the recent vestry retreat, Allen said it became apparent that "people who are drawn to this congregation are those who have a sense for community service and contribution. That was an 'aha' for us. That had us really feel proud."

From his temporary home in British Columbia, Rudinoff is pleased to hear how well things are going, and is looking forward to when he and his wife Paula will return to Kauai in a year or so to rejoin their children and grandchildren who live here.

Believing that the needs of the church had grown beyond his abilities and wishing to retire - "If you stay anywhere that long, you have to reinvent yourself. I was 62. I didn't want to work like that into my late 60s" - Rudinoff knew it was the right time to leave earlier this year.

"I felt that if I had stayed on, it would have been to the detriment of the church. I had done what I was able to do," he said. "It's better to leave when things are good than when people say he should have left three years ago."

"I hold no regrets about the decision to leave at the time I did," Rudinoff said. "When you feel good about something good like St. Michael's, it's almost like a good death. You can celebrate it and give thanks for it." 

Contact Information:

Pamela V. Brown

(808) 651-3533 cell

(808) 821-1027 fax

pam@writepath.net

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