Combining over 40 years of personal experience with a well-researched doctoral paper, Love’s eye-opening and honest new book Why People Love God But Hate Church dives into the truths about why church attendance is declining.
“A man with Minister Love’s breadth of experience merits attention. This is a book that will strike needed controversy in organized religion – a plea for heeding God’s Word.” Grady Harp, Amazon Hall of Fame Top 50 Reviewer, 5 Stars
“Church isn’t a sanctuary anymore,” says Love. “People are tired of all of the negativity and soap opera drama of church attendance. A lot of leaders are acting non-Christian-like, having affairs and doing inappropriate things. Members form cliques and don’t welcome newcomers. Women are leaving the church because a lot of the churches are male-dominant and misinterpret women’s significant value in God’s eyes.”
What it comes down to is that many of the churches are no longer connected to the spirit of God. “They’ve become more like social clubs, or community clubs,” says Love, “But nothing ever gets done spiritually. Nothing ever gets done in the community.”
Which is the second reason that Love says church attendance is dropping
“The church no longer goes out into the community. Instead it expects the community to come to them,” says Love. “Churches need to go out and feed the poor, clothe the naked, visit the sick, visit those in prison. Be an advocate for those without. If you’re rejecting this, you are rejecting Christ.”
When Love was young, the church was the central hub in the community. It was a place where people could come to be fed physically and spiritually. “Churches have lost that connection to the communities. They no longer see themselves as a primary partner of the community. It has become an island in the community, a building where you can be entertained and made to feel good—if you fit in. Christians turn people off because they don’t have any involvement in what people need.”
Love practices what he preaches. He is a Bible study and Sunday school teacher, he pastors victims of domestic violence shelters, mentally ill persons and substance abuse victims in mental hospital environments, and is active in community relations helping small businesses recover and stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. A portion of book sales will go to work in the ministry and support a safe shelter for women and children escaping abusive households. His book is a gem of personal experiences as well as sermons he has preached.
“This book opens the door back in to our churches, and invites church leaders as well as members to take a long, hard look at what God is really calling us to do, and that is to put Christ first and serve.” Pamela Gossiaux, International Bestselling Author
“Church leaders have abandoned the hands-on, search-people-out ministry and traded it for a pulpit ministry,” says Love. “Without the Word of God being taken from town to town and door to door, the United States will continue to see a decline in society’s moral values. It’s time to reverse this trend.”
Why People Love God But Hate Church, ISBN 978-1631296581 (Paperback) $9.95, 2020, Publishing, X pages, available at Amazon.
About Marnell Love: Dr. Marnell Wicks Love has been in church administration for more than forty years. Throughout that time, he has been an operational and financial consultant to churches and nonprofit organizations, a longtime Sunday school and Bible study teacher, and a minister. In 2017, Minister Love received his PhD in Ministerial Theology from Newburg Seminary.
Before he accepted the call from God, he held a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in accounting. Professionally, Minister Love worked for and retired from the Exelon Corporation as an upper level manager, managing more than $200 million in contracted services. He was the district director of information technology and later the associate vice chancellor (vice president) at the City Colleges of Chicago. And Minister Love was an adjunct assistant professor of management and accountancy for graduate and undergraduate divisions in the Brennan School of Business at Dominican University.
Minister Love is the founder of Love-to-Help Accounting and Financial Management, which focuses on helping small businesses and struggling churches in Chicago and surrounding areas, and today is helping small businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a pastor of a group of assisted-living seniors, a hospital and hospice chaplain, and a fire chaplain, treasurer, and emergency medical responder (EMR) for the Sardis Fire Department. He also serves as the financial officer and a board member at the Batesville Safe Shelter, a safe place for women who have been victims of domestic violence. He also ministers to people in his local hospital for mentally ill persons and those who are trying to overcome alcohol and drug addictions.
He and his wife, Alberta live in Sardis, Mississippi. They have two children and six grandchildren. Minister Love’s motto is “Never stop learning and serving.”
Media Contact: For a review copy of Why People Love God But Hate Church or to arrange an interview with Marnell Love, contact Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications Book Marketing at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on twitter @abookpublicist
