January 8, 2004
By Nancye Willis

After Rick Kent of Atlanta lost his job as a well-paid sales director, he went to church. At Sugar Hill United Methodist Church, he found what he needed-not only emotional and spiritual support but also a free job search.

Kent knew about Sugar Hill's Crossroads Career Ministry for the unemployed firsthand. He had spoken to members of the support group a year and half earlier.

"I gave a testimonial, when I was still employed, about making a career change in a positive way and how God has worked in our lives," he says.

"Obviously, when I had the need for a search, I knew this is one of the best venues and paths to look for help," he says. "It's worth its weight in gold because it gives you some optimism."

Sugar Hill Crossroads director Sherrie Nacke agrees. "In addition to contacts and names of people, it also offers friendships and spiritual support. This Crossroads has helped numerous people find numerous opportunities," she says.

"Sometimes it's not necessarily through the job leads that get communicated via e-mail," she says. "Sometimes they discover they have a unique talent or a unique skill or maybe some education that they realized they could apply to certification and go in a different area."

Nacke describes Crossroads as "a church-based, formalized way of searching in a church environment-a Christian environment-during a crossroads in career."

The U.S. Bureau of Statistics estimates that about 8.7 million U.S. citizens are at such a crossroads, starting the new year looking for work. Fear can be their worst enemy, Nacke says.

"They have fears of not even finding leads enough to follow up on; fear of uncertainty of their skills. Maybe they're uncertain as to where they fit in the marketplace. Maybe they don't want to uproot their family."

At the Crossroads group meetings, Nacke says, she sees those fears dissipate. "This is a tremendous outlet for them. It's safe. It's secure. They know familiar faces. They can ask questions of professionals or volunteers: 'Hey, what would you do in this instance?'"

The dedication of the volunteers impresses her. "You have to have a lot of passion to want to help somebody and help them through those feelings. We want to instill in these people the love that Christ has for us through us to these individuals," she says.

"Some people come severely beaten down in their ego because maybe they were making that executive pay and maybe now they're not. It's up to us to show them the love that Christ has for us," she adds.

Unfortunately, Nacke says, with unemployment in the United States hovering around 6 percent, "many churches miss this element of helping their congregations in perhaps what is one of the biggest problems right now in American homes."

Founded by two executives in the search and recruiting field, Crossroads Career Ministries first involved a group of Atlanta volunteer business people who wanted to help others in career transition. The early marketplace ministry grew to the point that it began meeting in a local church, and is now an ecumenical, volunteer-led network with chapters in nearly 30 states.

Information on the Sugar Hill Crossroads Career Ministry is available at www.sugarhillumc.org/career.htm, and at the site of its parent organization, the national Crossroads Career Network, www.crossroads-career.net/index.htm.

United Methodist News Service
Nancye Willis is editor for the Public Information Team at United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tenn. This story is based on material gathered for a UMTV report produced by Lyle Jackson.