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HOW DOES LOVE INC SERVE THE POOR?
Love INC--Hancock County does not, in any direct way, serve the poor. Love INC’s whole purpose for being is to Help Churches Help the Poor. We identify the legitimate poor. We help identify Christian volunteers willing to help the poor. We bring them together that both the servant and the served may be edified by the kindness, the goodness, the care and love of Christ. In this way we help the churches make Christ visible outside the walls of our community’s church buildings.
THE TALENT BANK—IS THE LOVE INC TALENT INVENTORY USED ALSO TO SERVE OUR OWN CHURCH MEMBERS AND ATTENDEES?
Yes, both as to serving and being served. We are eager to serve our brothers and sisters in need, but sometimes we find it is we who have the need to be served. Note: The Church Ministries list should be a separate form so to avoid any confusion. Church ministries are seeking pro-active committee members. The love INC volunteer service pool is a waiting resource. Volunteers respond to referred need situations on a case by case basis, as needed--no committees, no agendas, no meetings. Most often the needs they are asked to serve have a beginning and an end—if otherwise, it is very specifically noted and appropriately discussed with the volunteer.
CAN A CHURCH SUBSCRIBE TO LOVE INC SCREENING SERVICES ONLY?
Yes. Our local churches are besieged by requests for money or money equivalents, utilities, rents, foods, clothes—each church responds differently and few, if any, have the staff, skills or time to check the legitimacy of the stories they’re told. Although Love INC’s primary focus is on "Helping Church’s Help the poor in face to face ministry, every church would benefit tremendously if they simply used Love INC screening services in every situation where they are asked to pay someone’s bills or hand out goods without first checking for truth. The Love INC screening process is saving participating churches many thousands of dollars that might otherwise be paid in "bogus need" situations. (see in this packet "Why a Central Clearing House is Needed")
MAY ANY PERSON WANTING TO SERVE THE POOR WORK THROUGH LOVE INC?
No. The INC in our name is an acronym for In the Name of Christ—we serve in the name of Christ. That is the rectitude of our intention—to serve Christ by helping churches serve the least of His brothers/sisters in His name. Any person who does not believe in Christ as Savior and Lord would not be comfortable in the Love INC environment or with its intentions.
WHO MAY BE SERVED BY CHURCH VOLUNTEERS THROUGH THE LOVE INC SYSTEM?
Any referred person or family who registers need situations found, (through the screening process), to be legitimate. Love INC takes referrals only from churches and agencies. We do not take calls from the street for several reasons. 1) We have found it necessary to work only with people who, before they reach Love INC, have told their stories to someone else. Often the stories they tell Love INC do not match the information we get from the referral source. 2) Taking calls from the street swamps our system and jams our telephones. 3) 100% of direct calls are for money or money equivalents. Love INC has neither.
IS LOVE INC AFFILIATED WITH ANY PARTICULAR CHRISTIAN DENOMINATION?
No. Love INC is independent and not associated with any denomination. We serve Christ by serving His one body. We help to show (the unbelieving world about us) the oneness Christ prays for by helping churches serve the poor under one banner—"In the Name of Christ we serve His poor". We believe there should be no scriptural justification for any Christian Church to withhold their compassion and care for the legitimate poor in our community
IS LOVE INC FUNDED BY CITY, STATE OR FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS?
No. Love INC has chosen the hard way to go. History shows clearly that Christian dependence on government funds soon works against concerted Christian action in public places. We are dependent solely upon individuals, Christian churches and Christian businessmen for our operational expenses. We will continue to seek capital improvement funds through foundations and other private institutional sources. We depend upon you for our operational expense needs. That means, in the volunteer business—keeping the doors open and the services out-going month after month. It hasn’t been easy.
IF VOLUNTEERS NEED MATERIALS IN THEIR WORK, WHO PAYS FOR THEM?
Love INC finds the volunteers, but we also take the responsibility of finding the money to purchase any materials required. The answer, however, involves the situation. Sometimes, the volunteer (by choice) does pay for materials, but Love INC does not ask those who volunteer their time, talent and labor to also stand the cost of materials that may be involved. Certainly if they choose to pay, that is their privilege and blessing. Sometimes their own church benevolence committee is the source of those funds. Other times, their church will front the total cost in order to get the project and the volunteer going. However, they may seek reimbursement of all or some stated part of the costs through Love INC. Love INC contacts several of the other churches participating in the Love INC network for parts of the total. Churches have been more responsive to requests for outlays of this type than they have for the payment of rents or utilities bills of people they have never seen or talked to.
HOW DOES AN INTERESTED CHURCH PROCEED? WHAT ARE THE STEPS?
Register your interest with Love INC—full participation—partial participation—financial contributions only. There are multiple options. E-mail gives you the opportunity to ask questions that may not be answered to your satisfaction in these pages. The very small annual support contribution we ask is pennies per year per parishioner. Any church contributions over and above what we ask for support will be used to help pay the costs of materials/service--lumber for a ramp or the rental of a truck, for example, where we have been unsuccessful in direct solicitation for church help. A church may or may not subscribe to Love INC’s periodic e-mail newsletter. There are still other options, but whatever your interest, you are invited to visit the Love INC office. The office visit is the best way we know to evidence the claims we make for who we are and what we do.
HOW MAY INTERESTED CHRISTIANS BE INVOLVED IF THEIR CHURCH IS NOT A FULL PARTICIPANT IN THE LOVE INC NETWORK.
They may register as an individual and/or a small Christian group may register. Their involvement may be for financial support only or for physical volunteer participation only, or both. Love INC will telephone, for their consideration, thoroughly screened need situations, but only those that match those need situations they have beforehand agreed to consider.
FOR OUTREACH PURPOSES, WHAT DOES LOVE INC CONSIDER TO BE THE CHURCH NEIGHBORHOOD?
The poorest of the poor live downtown—urban street. The Christian resources, human and financial, mostly live in suburbia—not a good match. In order to give all participating churches a fair share of the care needed in those places where the poor live, Love INC usually considers the church's neighborhood to be that whole quadrant of the city in which the church itself is located.
DOESN'T LOVE INC ADD A LOT TO THE WORK LOAD OF THE CHURCH OFFICE?
No—Love INC activities within a church are carried out by one, sometimes two people trained by Love INC whom we call Church Ministry Cooridinators (CMC). In most instances that person is tending her or his Love INC duties out of the home. Once the Talent Bank is established, the whole Love INC operation could go on totally independent from the church's office staff. Regardless, it is critical for optimum success, that the CMC be a part of the church's outreach ministry, and attends their monthly meetings—critical too that the church considers the LOVE INC program their own, even though it is para-church. It is Christ and the volunteer's church that he/she represents to the poor whom they serve. They are not representing Love INC. The Love INC Clearinghouse is a local mission serving the church's needs. The outreach services are performed by the church's volunteers. They are serving Christ in their service to the poor. In this regard Love INC serves as a facilitator, charged to make it a successful, harmonious experience for all involved.
DOESN'T THE LOVE INC SERVICE OUTREACH DUPLICATE OR OVERLAP EXISTING BENEVOLENCE PROGRAMS IN THE CHURCH?
No. Any existing outreach programs continue to function exactly as always. Love INC simply expands outreach to 50 plus areas of service giving the local agencies a way to refer into the churches for volunteer help in the many areas of need they cannot address. Actually, Love INC can be simply incorporated into and made a part of that present ministry which manages and oversees the activities of all outreach. If necessary the name can be changed.
DOESN'T THE LOVE INC SERVICE OUTREACH DUPLICATE OR OVERLAP EXISTING BENEVOLENCE PROGRAMS IN THE AGENCIES?
No. This is a matter of Love INC policy. Whether a referral has come to Love INC from a church or from an agency source, the initial resource search will be in the agency system. If the service requested can be handled by a funded agency, it will be referred to the agency. Referrals to churches are only those which the agencies cannot or will not address.
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