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

Job openings available beginning February 1, 2023.  Visit our Staff page for more information.

Since 1993, Love INC has networked with area Believers in churches across East Texas 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.

One man’s idea for an integrated church ministry in his community inspired Christians in other regions. Other communities duplicated the Love INC model—with its successes—as they sought to meet the needs of hurting individuals and families in their own areas. By the late 1980s, fifty Love INC affiliates were operating in fourteen states.

Currently 157 Love INC affiliates in 30 states represent a network of more than 8,600 churches, 9,200 community-based organizations and 100,000 volunteers meeting more than 1,680,000 needs last year.