Finding Faith … and Work

With unemployment at record highs,
churches and Christian organizations are stepping in to help job seekers
both practically and spiritually.

Ministries such as Florida-based Christian HELP and Career
Solutions in Dallas began helping the unemployed find work long before
the recession hit in 2008. But since the unemployment rate shot up from
6.6 percent in October 2008 to 10.1 percent the following year to 9.5
percent today, the groups say the ministry needs—and opportunities—are
growing.

Career Solutions founder David Rawles,
author of Finding a Job God’s Way, says jobs
ministries can reach people at their lowest point. He knows of people
who have committed suicide after becoming unemployed and others who came
to faith after taking career classes at churches.

“Most people don’t realize just how deeply
affected people are, and the church is not doing near what it could do,”
says Rawles, a former human resources executive at GTE and Disney who
developed career coaching curriculum for churches.

So far this year, Christian HELP has seen a
47 percent increase in Orlando-area job seekers over 2009. In addition
to employment seminars, the ministry provides Bibles and food, as many
families are left at the brink of homelessness after job losses.

“The counselors are trained to ask, What
brought you here today?” says Christian HELP Executive Director Sandi
Vidal. “It’s really opened a door to ask what people’s needs are and
then to talk with them about what God wants for them and how that
impacts their search.”

Madison and
her husband were living in a hotel and had only a bag of rice left to
eat when
she walked into Christian HELP. After losing a $350,000-a-year job and
having a
heart attack that depleted her savings, the Washington, D.C., resident
had
moved to central Florida to take a position that ultimately fell
through.

She found a job within two days of meeting Vidal, thanks to one
connection that
led to another, but she laments that many churches were insensitive to
her
plight. One ministry told her it was her fault she was unemployed
because she
hadn’t been attending church services regularly. “We need as Christians
to take people
in and look at the whole problem,” Madison told Charisma.

An outreach of Holy Cathedral Church of
God in Christ led by Bishop C.H. McClelland, Word of Hope Ministries in
Milwaukee has offered job placement services since 1996. Unemployment
has long been high in its inner-city community, but the recession
brought a wave of new needs.

“We
understand that as the number grows we may have to develop other
strategies because there are more people coming,” says Vice President
Prentiss McClelland.

Charismatic
entrepreneur Tim Krauss estimates that less than 40 percent of churches
offer some form of employment ministry, but he hopes to change that
through his Job Connection. The online service enables churches to list
available jobs in their areas while weeding out scams.

It costs $195 to set up, with a monthly
service fee ranging from $95 for churches of 6,000 or less to $245 for
larger congregations. So far, more than a dozen ministries are on board,
including Willow Creek Community Church and Salem Baptist Church in
Chicago, and Second Baptist Church in Houston.

The Job Connection ministry at Resurrection Life Church in
Grandville, Mich., got roughly 2 million hits the first two weeks after
the website launched, says Geoff Brown, facilitator of the outreach. He
estimates that roughly one-in-five of Resurrection Life members are
unemployed, as Michigan has one of the highest unemployment rates in the
nation.

“At the very least
[the ministry has] provided a better hope,” says Brown, who became the
first to find a job through the ministry. “And I think that’s the
biggest thing I needed after nine months of unemployment—hope.”