{"id":1082,"date":"2009-02-07T04:34:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-07T04:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/getting-job-help-from-a-higher-power.html"},"modified":"2009-02-07T04:34:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-07T04:34:00","slug":"getting-job-help-from-a-higher-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/getting-job-help-from-a-higher-power.html","title":{"rendered":"Getting job help from a Higher Power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The grim economic news has led a growing number of churches to become engaged in a special kind of ministry: helping those out of work.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ajc.com\/services\/content\/printedition\/2009\/02\/07\/churchjobs0207.html\">the Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p> <a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SY1W4SoeWbI\/AAAAAAAAFEs\/ouasB-Srx0M\/s1600-h\/unemployment.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;width: 250px;height: 241px\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SY1W4SoeWbI\/AAAAAAAAFEs\/ouasB-Srx0M\/s320\/unemployment.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>The unemployed in metro Atlanta are turning to churches for help in record numbers.<\/p>\n<p>Many are not showing up Sunday mornings, but rather on weekdays for help with resumes, interview practice and networking.<\/p>\n<p>Churches such as Transfiguration Catholic Church in Marietta have had job-help ministries for years. Others, such as St. Mark United Methodist Church on Peachtree Street, have started a ministry recently in response to the growing need.<\/p>\n<p>Unemployment has risen to its highest level in 26 years. It\u2019s 8.1 percent in Georgia, which means more than 393,000 Georgians are looking for work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n<p>In the ministries, volunteer helpers have noticed the steadily climbing numbers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsually, we have eight to 12 or 16 people on a Monday night,\u201d said Mike Lang, who runs Transfiguration\u2019s ministry. \u201cThis past Monday night, we had 27.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The church holds weekend workshops that feature classes such as managing money during job-searching. Last October, so many were looking for help that the church held two workshops, he said. About 50 showed up for each.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a lot for us,\u201d Lang said.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Sherer, who runs St. Benedict Catholic\u2019s program in Duluth, said many newcomers are recently laid off mid- or upper-level managers who have hit middle age.<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers are seeing the effect on employers as well. Some church programs bring in industry leaders who have jobs available to talk to candidates.<\/p>\n<p>Andy Whitlock of Newnan First United Methodist Church said, \u201cWhereas in the past, we might have eight or 10 [employers] come out. Now, we are lucky to get two or three.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The type of help varies from church to church.<\/p>\n<p>Church leaders often know of one another\u2019s work and visit one another\u2019s classes to learn or to avoid repetition when creating their own programs.<\/p>\n<p>Some churches may have 10 job- seekers, and provide them with one-on-one help.<\/p>\n<p>Roswell United Methodist Church sometimes has more than 300 show up for its job ministry, one of the oldest in the Atlanta area.<\/p>\n<p>The volunteers who help are often former job-seekers, like Whitlock. He went to the Roswell Methodist group in 2003. He was so impressed and grateful after he got a job that he started a similar program in his own church in Newnan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the things that comes out of this is, pay it forward. Let us help you, then you turn around and help other people,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The grim economic news has led a growing number of churches to become engaged in a special kind of ministry: helping those out of work. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The unemployed in metro Atlanta are turning to churches for help in record numbers. Many are not showing up Sunday mornings, but rather on weekdays for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-the-people-in-the-pews"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Getting job help from a Higher Power - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/getting-job-help-from-a-higher-power.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting job help from a Higher Power - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The grim economic news has led a growing number of churches to become engaged in a special kind of ministry: helping those out of work. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The unemployed in metro Atlanta are turning to churches for help in record numbers. Many are not showing up Sunday mornings, but rather on weekdays for&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/getting-job-help-from-a-higher-power.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-07T04:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SY1W4SoeWbI\/AAAAAAAAFEs\/ouasB-Srx0M\/s320\/unemployment.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Getting job help from a Higher Power - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/getting-job-help-from-a-higher-power.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Getting job help from a Higher Power - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"The grim economic news has led a growing number of churches to become engaged in a special kind of ministry: helping those out of work. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The unemployed in metro Atlanta are turning to churches for help in record numbers. 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