We are Love In the Name of Christ, a ministry of the churches of Angelina County that helps our partner churches expand their reach in the community, linking needs to caring and capable help.

HISTORY:  Since 1993, Love INC has networked with area believers in churches across Angelina County to fill needs as simple as a phone call to life-sustaining missions of mercy. 

Love INC’s founder, Dr. Virgil Gulker, was a social worker and outreach director in Holland, Michigan, in the late 1970s. Deeply committed to helping people who found themselves in need and lacking resources or a support network, he was certain God had called Christian churches to the same mission.

As he talked to church members and pastors, Dr. Gulker came to understand that Christians did indeed want to help people who had needs, but they did not know how to do so. Many times people did not even recognize that they were gifted in ways that could have a positive, life-changing impact on someone else’s life.

It was clear to Dr. Gulker that if churches were to better serve their communities, they needed leadership, organization, training, encouragement, and prayer. He developed the Love INC model to fill these critical roles. Love INC taught churches to assess their capabilities. It also unified local congregations so that, working together, they could more effectively help their neighbors.

Our pathway to accomplish the mission of “mobilizing the church to transform lives and communities in the name of Christ” is by implementing the concepts and practices of Redemptive Compassion.

Redemptive Compassion states, “The giving of things can impact a life, but seldom transforms the individual. While things can change circumstances or situations, my personal experience has shown it takes a long-term relationship to truly see transformation in a person. If we want to substantially impact the lives of those we serve, isn’t it as important to give of ourselves as the things they ask for? According to the dictionary, a transforming relationship is ‘a connection or bond between two or more individuals that has the capacity to alter or change a person.’ God is relational and He instructs us to enter into a relationship with Him and our fellow man, but for what purpose? Why are relationships foundationally important in Christianity? Could it be that agape love, defined as a love that is wholly selfless and spiritual, can only be expressed through a relationship? Without a relationship is it possible to meet needs but leave the person untouched? Compassion is not just meeting a physical need, but being physically present in someone’s time of need. Showing compassion means we are willing to feel and share their pain. Could it be that we show pity when we only focus on the need and express compassion when we also focus on the person?

We are in the process of developing a mentoring program called Journey to Change that will build relationships that encourage and equip our neighbors to change the way they think and thereby transform their behaviors and actions.