Ministry for the Unemployed
In Pop Goes the Church I wrote extensively about the importance of being missional church leaders. It's up to us to figure out the "felt needs" in people's lives–and do everything we can to meet those needs. If we don't, the community won't know we care and they won't be open to the message of Jesus.
I spoke of needs like marriage problems, handling your kids, money management and finding purpose in life. Well, today's reality brings up a whole new need.
You've heard that the unemployment rate in our area is among the highest in the nation…more than 18% in one county and 12% in another. We've been praying, planning and talking about how to help our community face these new issues.
Through the leadership of Mark Waltz and Kathy Guy, we are launching a program called Networking for Job Seekers. It's a gathering on May 5th with plans for an ongoing support network. We imagine this program will be a huge opportunity for Granger attendees to be helped, but even beyond that, I believe it will be a front-door event to ultimately reach more of our community for Christ.
Posted by Tim Stevens | 2 comments
Danny
That’s great Tim! We’ve been doing the same thing for a few years with great success – http://www.hcbc.com/templates/System/details.asp?id=28485&PID=658612
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1132723766120&saved
Eddie
Sounds like we are all starting to think along these lines. Last month we hosted 4 coffee drop-ins on Sunday mornings for various professions as a way to network. The four that fit our church to do were Construction Trades, Financial Professions, IT, and Medical/Dental Professions. In addition to those looking for jobs, most people came to make connections and we have received a ton of positive feedback–more than for most anything else we’ve done this year–must be a real felt need! We had several people bring their bosses who do not go to church and others bring family members who don’t but are looking for work/networking opportunities.
I would be interested to hear what others are doing as next steps beyond this. We are looking into an ongoing “job search” class, but are looking for more options to continue to minister in this area.