Louisville church plant sponsors job fair, aims to meet community needs

By Drew Nichter News Director Louisville—Since its launch in April 2009, The LifeSong has sought to answer one fundamental question in its ministry: “How do we meet the needs?” “We’ve got to understand that people have basic needs, … and that basic need is Jesus Christ,” worship leader John Mackey said. The church plant in Louisville’s South End reached out Aug. 23 to those in its community searching for what many in Kentucky need: jobs. The LifeSong hosted a job fair at a local community center not far from Valley High School, where the church meets on Sunday mornings. Joined by the Louisville Office of Employment and Training, the Louisville Urban League and Job News Louisville, the fair attracted nearly 400 job seekers who had an opportunity to connect with almost 70 employers. “Unemployment continues to be a major problem in Louisville,” LifeSong Pastor James Gribbins wrote in a news release announcing the event. “Many companies have positions open for employment, but are having a hard time connecting with the right candidate for the position,” noted Gribbins, who also is marketing coordinator for Campbellsville University’s Louisville campus, another co-sponsor of the job fair.

MEETING NEEDS Victor Vincent, a volunteer with The LifeSong, a south Louisville church plant, prays with a job seeker before she heads into a job fair hosted by the church. The event connected nearly 70 Louisville employers with almost 400 job seekers, all of whom were prayed with beforehand.

The July unemployment rate for Jefferson County, announced last week, was 9.8 percent. While that is down from 10.4 percent last year, it remains higher than the national rate of 9.5 percent. In Kentucky, 9.9 percent of the population is out of work.

Mackey said hosting a job fair is at the heart of the church’s mission of meeting people’s basic needs. “They need to pay for their utilities. They need to pay for their housing,” he explained.

While the church ultimately wants to lead people to a relationship with Jesus Christ, Mackey said that only happens by caring for them first, something Jesus modeled in His own ministry.

“He attempted to meet a person’s physical needs before He ever revealed who He was,” Mackey pointed out. “And in meeting their physical needs, whatever it was, He gained the right with that individual to say, ‘This is who I am.’

“And that’s what speaks to people more than trying to say, ‘You’ve got to have Jesus.’ You’ve just really got to meet them … right where they are.”

Meeting each job seeker who arrived at the fair was a representative from The LifeSong, who prayed with each individual before he or she went into the community center. Even though it likely was an unusual experience for some to be prayed for at a job fair, no one refused the intercession, Mackey said.

Mackey said a job fair is simply one medium with which LifeSong is trying to share Christ with others, even if it may seem a little unconventional.

“We’re going to stretch it,” he said, “but the actual meaning of the message is never going to be compromised.”

Western Recorder issue date: August 31, 2010.