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It had been a long time since Vivian Hobgood held a job. An African-American woman in her fifties, she had pretty much resigned herself to living on welfare. But a new, church-based program called the Jobs Partnership of Raleigh intervened.

Incorporated in North Carolina only last year, Jobs Partnership of Raleigh (JPR) links churches that can identify people who need jobs with caring businesses willing and able to provide employment. One important step in the process is a 12-week program in which prospective employees not only learn practical job-finding skills, but are taught biblical principles for the workplace.

"You might call it a 12-week Bible study," says Merl Mangum, secretary/treasurer and curriculum coordinator for jpr. Using Tony Evans's Keys to Personal and Professional Success as a text, participants "discover what the Bible says about how to function in the workplace, about honesty and integrity, communication, conflict resolution, and relating to authority," Mangum says.

Hobgood had only planned to drive a student there, not to enroll. But she listened to the introductory session and signed up immediately. At the last session, she became a Christian. With her certificate of completion and resume in hand, Hobgood soon landed a position as manager of an apartment complex.

A BURGEONING MOVEMENT: Jobs Partnership of Raleigh is far from alone as a Christian organization focusing on economic development. Coinciding with society's recent collective push for welfare reform, more churches are purposefully shouldering the burden of moving the chronically unemployed into the workforce. According to Elliott Wright, religion coordinator for the National Congress for Community Economic Development (NCCED), the number of organizations active in community economic development has doubled in the past decade "and is increasing every week." Wright says more than 2,500 groups are active nationally, with 750 of them having membership in the NCCED.

Economic-development initiatives have increasingly occupied the agenda of the Chicago-based Christian Community Development Association (CCDA). Launched in 1989 with about 30 organizations, CCDA has grown to represent nearly 500 church and parachurch groups. President Wayne Gordon attributes part of the growth to organizations discovering one another. "It's fairly common at our conferences for people to say, 'We thought we were the only ones doing what we've been doing,' " Gordon says.

But more significantly, Gordon says, "More Christians are turning their attention toward the poor. They are beginning to do some of the things that people like Tony Campolo, John Perkins, Ray Bakke, Ron Sider, and Tom Skinner have been talking about for years."

UPHILL BATTLE? As churches have tested the waters of economic development, however, many have encountered rough waters. While there are successful stories such as that of Vivian Hobgood, there also are many economic-development efforts that end in disappointment and frustration.

"Some have flourished quickly, others have flourished over the long haul, but many have died out," Wright says. "Economic development is very hard work."

Indeed, the task facing the church in the inner city appears daunting. It cannot be separated from the many social maladies evident in urban America, including crime, substandard education, out-of-wedlock births, and the illicit drug trade. "There are some smart, entrepreneurial spirits out there, and they're selling drugs," says Mary Nelson of Bethel New Life Church in Chicago. "Since drugs are illegal, there's lots of money to be made."

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February 3 1997, Vol. 41, No. 2