Well, let's see if I can reply to you, then.  Chas ably quotes the myriad places in Scripture where we have a primacy of love as a response to God as well as to God's world.  Your statement, that the message is to repent, indeed describes the inevitable first step of the journey.  It strikes me as extremely odd that you see the Gospel as "Repent." I see it as "Repent ---> believe, and believe ---> love." It seems odd that our response to this amazing Gift should be a duty to praise God, rather than a deep desire to love God and act that out with God's people. Is the Good News that I realize I sin? Or once I do, that I learn to be selfless and love? And if that response is joyful, is that a "childish understanding of religion", or an acknowledgment that God really chooses to intersect with our little lives?

I see people leaving church to struggle with their faith.  I think you just see people leaving church.  They won't come back until they are attracted by what we do. Duty? Or Love?