Church experiences quick growth
Ten years ago, the Love Church did not exist. In seven short years, the church has grown to one of the best churches that attracts the millennial generation. Now with over 500 members, the Love Church is reaching for even higher feats in the years to come.
According to senior Pastor Curtis Friday, the Love Church was born in his living room with his wife and five friends. He says they held two services there then moved to a hotel and has continued to grow since then.
They have been at their current location of 4198 Cherry St. for the past three years. Friday says they have plans of further growth in the future to include space for more members and other ministries.
“It has been a hard but good ride, and at first I thought we could do something different, but I never thought we would be at the level we are right now,” said Friday. “I was not prepared for it because I had the mindset of doing ministry but not the mindset of business.”
He attributes their tremendous growth to their methodology.
“One wise man told me people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” he said. “We do things for the community such as $5,000 gas card giveaways. We went to the grocery store and bought everyone groceries, and we do funerals for free.”
Friday says he knows for sure one funeral he performed for free was a catalyst for a lot of their growth. He says once he spoke to the young people at the funeral, many individuals flocked to the church.
Friday has somewhat of an unconventional path to the ministry. He says he was a troubled youth that had run-ins with law enforcement, which led him to prison. While there, he found his faith.
“I am very open about my story,” he said. “I was in the streets really bad, and so I got locked up. My attraction to the ministry was when I was locked up. There I started teaching Bible study and when I got out, I was connected to Holy Trinity Full Gospel Baptist Church and Rev. Richard C. Miller, and I just served wherever I could.”
“Preaching was the last thing I’ve done because when I was ordained to be a minister, it was a lot of us and you didn’t get the opportunity to preach,” he continued. “I may have had the chance to preach for 15 minutes or so on a Wednesday but he [Miller] taught me a lot, and that is how I learned to do ministry.
Once he got out of prison, Friday says he was determined to stick to the church. He says he would ride the bus to church until someone blessed him with a car. He met his wife at Holy Trinity and said they did not initially set out to start a church but after visiting other churches, they felt they needed to do something different.
“I’ll say it like this because I don’t like saying we are better, it’s just our assignment is so different,” Friday said about The Love Church. “Our assignment is social service because we are doing what God says and to touch the people nobody would touch.”
Friday says the things he went through and experienced as a youth helps him relate more to this generation. He feels when he shares the things he did in the past with young people they can use him as an example of what not to do.
Friday says the faith community has to use new methods to create avenues for people to come in. He faithfully uses social media to attract new members. Even his preaching style differs from other Baptist preachers, which is also a bonus.
