Teresa Hairston was down to $300 and hope in 1989.

The divorced mother of three was living in New York City, working two jobs and trying to coax along a side business.

(ENLARGE)

Teresa Hairston

Today, that business, Gospel Today magazine, has 200,000 readers, is headquartered in Atlanta and Hairston is helping spread the hope.

She is an organizer of the three-day Gospel Heritage Praise & Worship Conference beginning Thursday at Body of Christ Church International's 83-acre College Park campus. It features spiritual seminars along with a musical showcase and a networking conference for those trying to break into the black gospel music industry.

The conference, held in Washington last year, drew more than 10,000 people. Hairston hopes to draw 8,000 to Atlanta.

Such conferences are important showcases for up-and-comers, said Jojo Pada of New York, a recording industry consultant and former gospel music recording executive. It allows the fresh faces to connect with the people who run the industry.

Trying to break into a business and discovering networking is something Hairston knows. She walked away from a teaching job to try her hand at publishing a small newspaper and a four-page newsletter about gospel music before taking a marketing job with a New York recording company. She learned much, but was still working two jobs to make ends meet.

She was down to $300 when she decided to turn her newsletter into a glossy, color magazine. She took the lessons learned from friends and coworkers and applied them.

She published and took 7,000 magazines to a national gospel music conference, but came home with 6,500 of them.

"I lost my shirt and left all my other clothes there too," Hairston said.

But enough people noticed so that paid advertisers began buying spots in her magazine and it grew.

She moved it to Nashville, the hub of the gospel music industry, before bringing it to Atlanta in 2002. Gospel Today has expanded into a lifestyle magazine, featuring interviews with celebrities such as actor Denzel Washington as well as spiritual leaders such as Bishop Paul S. Morton Jr. of Atlanta and New Orleans.

Hairston stayed true to her first love, gospel music, by creating a nonprofit, the Gospel Heritage Foundation, which helps sponsor the music showcase.

This year, she is using the event to focus attention on HIV/AIDS in the black community. Abbott Laboratories will be there, and free testing will be offered to attendees and others in the community.

The black gospel music industry is the second largest segment of the religious music business, according to the Gospel Music Association. It has produced million-selling albums such as Smokie Norful's "I Need You Now," in 2002.

Pada recalls seeing Norful perform at a conference like the upcoming Atlanta event before his CD came out. That is one reason producers and others like to come to such events. They can see how an artist relates to the audience.

"We were blown away," she said of Norful.

Friday night at the conference will feature an appearance by Patti LaBelle, the soul standout who has reclaimed her gospel roots.

Hairston hopes the showcase will help keep gospel music going. Like the secular side of the recording industry, sales are falling.

She said, "No matter who you are and what you believe, there is something about the experience of gospel music that inspires you to be a better you."

"That is what I am about, trying to inspire people to be better people."