Bible open on her lap, Ann sits in the same pew of the church she’s attended for nearly 15 years. Distracted about her husband’s joblessness, she hardly hears the pastor talking about meeting others’ point of need, and suddenly that strikes a nerve.

 

“What about our point of need?” she inquires silently, reflecting on her husband, Fred, who’s been jobless and depressed for months.

 

She reaches for a prayer request card from the pew rack, but the echo of Fred’s voice in her head grabs her arm. He’d told her explicitly not to tell anyone of his plight.

 

Meanwhile, Fred, who is not a Christian, sits at home in his recliner, channel surfing. Every button on the remote temporarily blunts his emotions of anger, frustration, despair, shame.

 

Tom sits across the aisle from Ann. A long-time, active church member, he traces the outline of colored shapes on his pants leg cast from the stained-glass window as he ponders his lack of a job and wonders why all that the church has done is add his name to a prayer list.

 

“Jesus met people’s needs. Why doesn’t my church help me with mine?” he thinks.

Tom can’t understand why God's other children aren't ministering to him. In the midst of a vibrant church family, he feels like a spiritual orphan.

 

In the current economic downturn, churches across Texas have increasing numbers of members like Ann and Tom, who face the challenges of unemployment—alone.

 

But there are also increasing numbers of churches responding to the needs of “Anns” and “Toms” and even “Freds” by offering a variety of career helps in addition to adding names to prayer lists.

 

“Our ministry is still in the developmental stages,” said Derek Rowden, minister to single adults at North Richland Hills Baptist Church. “But we try to encourage and equip the men and women in our community who are experiencing career transitions.”

 

The church recently began its “Third Thursday at Three” ministry to unemployed people. Meeting at 3 p.m. every third Thursday of the month, Rowden recruits career coaches to speak at the meetings, who offer the gamut of career advice.

“We’ve found that people are looking for all kinds of help in their job searches,” he said. “And this gives an opportunity to minister to those not in our church fellowship.”

 

Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall has a 12-year track record of ministering to jobseekers, offering much of it online. A couple of clicks on the site’s home page takes surfers to one of the most complete, church-sponsored career search-and-advice sites to be found anywhere on the web.

 

The “Job Connection” site represents a ministry that is a networking, support and resource group assisting local residents in job searches. The fee-free service entails a five-pronged approach:

—weekly meetings for networking and informational purposes, including resume writing, interviewing techniques, etc.;

—e-mail-based user group offering job leads;

—a job resource room at the church offers job seekers daily Internet access with free coffee, copying and faxing privileges, and also offers free access to Crossroad Career’s subscription-based website (crossroadscareer.org) and direct web links to more than 300 Dallas-area corporations;

—a lecture series aimed at organizing and preparing job seekers; and

—resources from the church’s media library that include CDs and DVDs regarding career-based information and training.

 

Helpful links at Lake Pointe’s site include the Christian Career Center Website, Making Career Decisions Within God’s Will for Your Life, Exploring Careers to Discover Your Career Niche, The Career Check Up Inventory, The Dallas Morning News Job Center,  The Wall Street Journal's Job Search, National Job Fairs and links to other national job database sites.

 

One link titled “Scripture Meditations” lists about 100 Bible verses regarding the promises and provisions of God, as well as perspectives on work, personal integrity and devotion.

 

“We formed our support group with the main goal of helping folks who were in a job loss crisis,” said Brad Bischof, ministry coordinator for Lake Pointe. “We don’t quote Scripture or overtly expose job seekers to things religious. We do, however, recommend the “Career Explorer's Guide”—a free workbook by Crossroads Career Network, and we tell folks it’s biblically based and rich with appropriate scriptures that relate to their current challenges. Other than that, we simply try to show the love of Jesus and lead by example.”

 

Established in 1997, Lake Pointe’s job assistance ministry has helped thousands of people find not only jobs, but Jesus Christ and a church home.

 

“People visit Lake Pointe who haven't been to church in 20 years or more,” Bischof said. “They see it's not what they thought or assumed, decide to attend, and many have later joined Lake Pointe. We’ve also had job seekers accept Christ as a direct result of attending our ministry. The blessings are many.”

 

One such blessing regards a young man who said in one meeting that he was “challenged and special,” and as such was restricted to public transportation and needed a local job, Bischof related.

 

“A few weeks later, I saw the young man’s father [at church]. He grabbed my hand, began to weep and told me he’d been trying to get his son to come to church for more than 10 years, and the one time he did, he found a job” the next day. “Wow!” Bischof said. “By then we were both weeping and hugging each other. God is good!”

 

Including an evangelistic purpose

Lynn Guillory—who has worked for almost 40 years in secular employment as a human resources professional—uses a more direct evangelistic approach in the job-seekers ministry he founded because he “never wants to stand before the Lord and hear him say: ‘You helped people with their resumes, but did nothing regarding their eternal destinies,’” Guillory told the TEXAN.

 

Guillory first utilized his skills as ministry in 1992 when he helped start the Career Development and Job Support Ministry at Second Baptist Church in Houston. In 2000, he founded the faith-based, non-profit Career Transition Ministries Network.

The CTM team, which now has more than 50 years of combined ministry experience, ministers every week to job seekers at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. CTM also accepts invitations from churches desiring CTM’s help in establishing their own career assistance ministries via a Saturday workshop called “The Faith Journey Called Job Search.”

 

“Our workshops teach the latest how-to job search skills,” said Guillory, noting that all of their instruction is biblically based. “And we always include a clear presentation of the gospel in each workshop.”

 

As a non-profit organization staffed with volunteers who already have jobs, CTM doesn’t allow churches to charge job seekers for the workshops, but does accept honorariums for them, and uses the revenue to develop new ministry material.

 

Challenging churches to get involved

Guillory said the unemployment and under-employment rates in churches are identical to those of secular society. Yet, he says it is difficult to “understand why only one in every 20 churches has recognized this as a point of need for its members. Likewise, only one in every 20 churches has discovered that the unemployed/unchurched make up one of the most overlooked mission fields in the community.”

 

There is a need in every church in America today for a viable, effective, faith-based career assistance ministry to meet the needs of unemployed members and the unemployed/unchurched of its community, Guillory said.

 

“An effective career/employment transition ministry provides more than just job search information and instruction—it also provides spiritual support to individuals and spouses during their time of transition. And as an outreach ministry, it can be one of the most effective methods of reaching out to the lost of a community in a practical, positive manner. It can help them find not simply a new living, but a new life in Christ.”

 

That’s precisely why Guillory has a website aimed at church leaders and dedicated to helping them start such ministries in their churches.

 

“In the Christian life we have trials, such as unemployment,” he said. “However, God has promised that we can overcome these trials. As a bonus, the process of overcoming our difficulties often produces spiritual maturity and character.”

 

While Guillory is sold out to the spiritual side of such a ministry, he believes it would behoove increasing numbers of churches to start career assistance ministries since jobless church members are less likely to tithe. Churches interested in starting a job seeker ministry may contact Guillory at lynnguillory@gmail.com or at ctmnetwork.org.