CLINTON ISSUES PLEA TO CHURCHES TO FIND JOBS FOR WELFARE RECIPIENTS.

Byline: Alison Mitchell The New York Times

President Clinton on Friday called on churches to lead the way in hiring welfare recipients, saying ``we cannot create a government jobs program big enough to solve this whole thing.''

Clinton issued his challenge at the 116th annual session of the National Baptist Convention USA, the largest African-American church group in the nation, where thousands greeted him with repeated ovations and shouts of ``four more years.''

It was the second time Clinton had appeared as president before the group, which represents 33,000 churches and more than 8 million congregants across the country. A Baptist himself, Clinton deftly mixed biblical references and campaign themes until he had his audience chanting with him, much as it had with a preacher who had preceded him on stage.

``The Scripture commands us in Nehemiah to rise up and build and strengthen our hands for the good work,'' Clinton said. ``Today, I ask your help in building that bridge to the 21st century I have been talking about all across America.''

Clinton's appearance here began the second day of a two-day swing through Florida, a trip that has demonstrated the benefits of having a double-digit lead in the polls two months before the election. Florida has not voted for a Democratic presidential contender since Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976 and Democrats have generally written the state off after Labor Day.

But Clinton was not only working such core constituency groups in the state as African-American voters and retirees, he also was venturing into such traditionally Republican areas as Panama City, promoting his record on the economy, education and health care.

The Baptist Convention, however, was clearly Clinton territory. Its president, Henry J. Lyons, praised the president for his stands on education, health care and the economy. ``When you've got a man in the White House who has those kinds of sensitivities, you've got to stay right there and put him in,'' he said.

To thunderous applause, Lyons also called for a larger African-American vote turnout than in 1994 when the Republicans took control of Congress: ``Two years ago, we let something happen that never should have happened. We had the numbers on the books, but we did not go to the polls. We can never let that happen again.''

The president re-emphasized that message, asking his supporters not to be lulled into complacency by his high poll numbers. ``We know that the only poll that counts is the one they take on November the fifth,'' Clinton said. ``I ask you to remember that and help others remember it as well.''

Clinton has been under fire by some in the liberal wing of his party for his decision last month to sign a law that reverses six decades of social policy and eliminates the federal guarantee of cash assistance for the nation's poorest children.

The law gives states vast new power to run their own welfare programs with lump sums of federal money. It also sets a lifetime limit of five years of benefits to any family and requires most adult recipients to work within two years.

The president, who had campaigned in 1992 on a pledge to ``end welfare as we know it'' was unapologetic Friday about the law but said that ``to make that morally defensible and practically possible, there has to be work for those people to do.''

He noted that the law allows states to choose to use welfare funds as subsidies to businesses and organizations that employ those who had been on the welfare rolls.

``Just think about it,'' he said. ``If every church in America hired one person off welfare, if every church in America could get some work to do that, it would set an example that would require the business community to follow, that would require charitable and other nonprofit organizations to follow.