A partnership of churches helping others since 1982
Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA)/Love INC of Fresno serves the community by connecting caring Christian churches, ministries, and individuals, to their neighbors in need.
The ESA/Love INC Ministries
Love INC Help Line
Connects people in need with a helping church in their neighborhood. Click here for more information.
Loving Our Neighbors
A vision to help the whole Church take the whole Gospel to the whole community. Read more.
Engaging the Church
A listing of opportunities to serve with local ministry groups and para-church organizations. Learn more here.
Prayer Gatherings
We help facilitate prayer through pastor prayer summits, National Day of Prayer events, and citywide gatherings.
Citybuilders Roundtable
A monthly networking meeting of para-church leaders to facilitate collaboration between ministries in our city.
Executive Director Overview
Alan Doswald offers a six hour training on the basics for new ministry Directors.
New Pastor Orientation
We meet with new local pastors to introduce them to our city, to ESA, and to what the Lord is doing in our city.
Connections
ESA staff develops and participates in local coalitions and task forces, for the purpose of connecting churches, to make a difference. There are currently 12 of these connections.
Love INC Scam Alerts
When ESA learns of scams targeting churches, we send email and fax alerts to local churches and pastors to alert them of the fraud.
Our Mission
We mobilize Christian churches and individuals to transform lives and communities, in the name of Christ.
Our Vision
We hope to see Christian churches throughout Fresno County united in purpose and committed to living out their faith as members of the Body of Christ, by lovingly serving their neighbors in need.
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this… Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
~ Mark 12:29-31 (NIV)
Our Purpose: Love in Action
With 400+ “branch offices”, and more than 100,000 people, the church is the largest company in our city. It is the only organization equipped with everything it needs to make a positive, lasting change in our community.
ESA/Love INC is a ministry hub—We help facilitate cooperation between local churches and ministries, and helping agencies, to connect them to needy people in our community.
A Problem Solved
Churches have always helped people in need. Some help with food, some with clothing, some with recovery programs, home repairs, etc. But before ESA/Love INC was founded, no one knew which churches helped with what, making much of this help inaccessible to those who need it most.
The Lord raised up ESA to help churches work together and organize their resources, so they’re more available and better able to bless those in need.
The Love INC Help Line
Every two years, ESA/Love INC volunteers call every church in the Fresno area to find out what ministries they have to help people in need. We keep a database of these ministries, so when people fall on hard times, we know where to send them for help.The Love INC Help Line works like a clearinghouse. People call asking for help (many are referred by churches) and we lovingly screen those requests to make sure they’re legitimate; then connect them with the closest church or ministry resource.
Our model of operations makes it possible to identify, validate, and connect people with genuine needs to those who are best suited to help.
We envision a community of people who know that churches are full of caring and helpful neighbors they can turn to in times of need.
The ESA/Love INC Story
How We Got Started
The ministry of ESA began in 1982, with a mission to mobilize Christian churches to serve the poor. In the early 1980’s, most churches were not directly involved in helping the poor. At best, they were paying para-church ministries to do this work. Back then, it was an exception to see a church directly involved with the poor.
Where We Are Now
Thanks to God, things have changed! Now it’s “normal” and expected that Christian churches be involved with people in need. Evangelical churches are now by far the most involved churches in our community, combining evangelism and social action. It is our passionate belief that Christians should reach out to people in need, like Jesus did. We are His followers and must follow Him in service to others.
Volunteer with ESA/Love INC
Do you have free time during the day? Would you like to do something to serve others? We are in need of volunteers to serve 3 hours per week answering phones for the Love INC Help Hotline. We also need volunteer receptionists to serve 3 hours per week in our ESA business office. Training and supervision are provided.
Get in Touch. Get Involved.
Are you interested in volunteering with ESA/Love INC, or do you want to find out how to get your congregation involved with a Loving Our Neighbors program? We would love to hear from you!