Bad economy good for soul?

I wonder what these people were doing when the economy was good? Are they looking for redemption, miracles, or are they looking for someone to believe in?

When we are hurting financially, there are two choices. A type of crossroads we all come to. We can keep fighting to find the same kind of job, doing the same kind of work, or we can look inside of ourselves at where our hearts are being tugged.

I heard a career advisor on the radio saying she advises her clients to find what they are passionate about. In the end, that's what's really important because no one wants to work just for a paycheck you cannot trust will be there next month, or at this rate, next week. I believe we are born with the passion we have inside of us for a reason. We cannot all be doctors or preachers. We need people in every walk of life. Maybe the people seeking answers and hope in the churches are trying to decide what they were put on this earth for.

Now it would really be wonderful if we did what we were supposed to do and God found a way for us to make a living at it, but that doesn't always happen. I know a lot of great, passionate writers that can't make a living off what they do. We read their posts everyday. There are a lot of great reporters out there that never managed to get a break and struggle with freelancing instead of working for a big time newspaper. Then again, the recent reports of layoffs from newspapers doesn't make their odds of landing a good job with them very good.

I really hope the people turning to the churches for answers find them and then maybe, just maybe we can turn this country around to the way things used to be and the only people in it for themselves were regarded as leaches and not admired.

Bad Times Draw Bigger Crowds to Churches
By PAUL VITELLO
The sudden crush of worshipers packing the small evangelical Shelter Rock Church in Manhasset, N.Y. — a Long Island hamlet of yacht clubs and hedge fund managers — forced the pastor to set up an overflow room with closed-circuit TV and 100 folding chairs, which have been filled for six Sundays straight.

In Seattle, the Mars Hill Church, one of the fastest-growing evangelical churches in the country, grew to 7,000 members this fall, up 1,000 in a year. At the Life Christian Church in West Orange, N.J., prayer requests have doubled — almost all of them aimed at getting or keeping jobs.

Like evangelical churches around the country, the three churches have enjoyed steady growth over the last decade. But since September, pastors nationwide say they have seen such a burst of new interest that they find themselves contending with powerful conflicting emotions — deep empathy and quiet excitement — as they re-encounter an old piece of religious lore:

Bad times are good for evangelical churches.

“It’s a wonderful time, a great evangelistic opportunity for us,” said the Rev. A. R. Bernard, founder and senior pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York’s largest evangelical congregation, where regulars are arriving earlier to get a seat. “When people are shaken to the core, it can open doors.”

click link above for more

Then add this to it

Stunning turnaroundfor St. John's Seminary
Enrollment at St. John's Seminary has doubled over the last two years, a stunning turnabout for an institution that seemed to be spiraling toward closure in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. (By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff)