Here's our complete podcast interview, with full story below:
“The steps of a righteous man are ordained by God.”
That’s true for Pastor Alvin Love, III who has been the Senior Pastor of Nashville Life for nearly 4 years. In honor of Pastor Appreciation Month, the number one prayer on his heart is that his spirit man stays healthy and strong.
Pastor Love says, “Ministry can be very difficult. There’s a lot of disappointments, there’s rejection, There’s heartbreak. Even a tad bit of betrayal here and there. It all kind of comes with the territory, and I know the enemy’s plan is to break me and my inner man.”
In addition to ministry, Pastor Love enjoys songwriting and producing. And you’ll never guess who his mom is! “My mom is known by others as CeCe Winans. I know her as mom, but everybody else knows her as CeCe Winans,” says Pastor Love.
How God brought about his pastoral calling came very unexpectedly years ago, during a trip to Australia. After graduating from Belmont University in December of 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in music, Love who was 23-years-old at the time, traveled to Australia where he attended Melbourne Life Christian Church and was radically changed by God. “I got there and was very surprised to walk into what was a very lively, spirited, passionate church, full of people my age. Hands were raised, tears were flowing, and the atmosphere was so powerful, I knew then, that this was going to be a different trip than I had anticipated. Pastors befriended me and adopted me immediately. They knew I had come all the way to Australia by myself.
That day just happened to be day one of a discipleship class. And Love had been anonymously sponsored to participate in a 9-month discipleship course. He ended up staying for a year.
In 2012, after returning to the United States, Pastor Love, along with his parents, then Senior Pastors Alvin and CeCe Love, began Nashville Life Church in the living room of their home. They invited friends to join each week to encounter Jesus through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Love’s father, Alvin Love, II was the Senior Pastor for 9 years before his son was installed as the Senior Pastor on January 17th, 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic. Pastor Love recalls, “The election had just happened, and their church was moving into a new building. For most churches, it takes a while to adjust. We had 4 major events happening at the same time, but we endured it. It made us stronger, and it led to a fun season with a lot of growth.”
Now, a growing and diverse church, having outgrown the living room of their pastors’ home, Nashville Life and its members meet each week with the vision of, following Jesus and building leaders. Pastor Alvin leads with biblical teaching, transparent leadership, and a relentless love for the body of Christ. “I really do love the people that come through this church,” says Pastor Love.
Speaking of love, he met his future wife Jasmine at church in the beginning of 2021 during the pandemic. Pastor Love recalls, “It was the Sunday that I became pastor of the church. I was single and planned to stay focused on the church for at least a year before thinking about a relationship.”
He reached out to a friend, Pastor Tim Delaney from Time Square Church in Manhattan, NY. He, like Pastor Love, was single when he took the position of lead pastor, and he married a young lady from his church surrounded by lots of support and accountability, “And it worked out beautifully,” says Pastor Love. “He put me on probation and said I couldn’t text her or date her for about 9-months, and I could only see her in groups with other people. He told me not to do anything but to know her as a friend, because he reminded me, ‘You are her pastor, and she is in your church, and you are a pastor first.’ And I agreed.”
After 9-months, Pastor Love asked if he could finally date Jasmine. And after 4-months of dating, Pastor Delaney asked “So, are you going to propose?” Pastor Love says, they were married six months later in November of 2022, and had their first child, Honey Rosa Love in September of the next year!
Crystal: “What do you wish people knew about what you do as a pastor?”
Pastor Alvin Love: “As a pastor, I can tell you firsthand that my guess is that people would be surprised to know how much I carry them in my heart. The love is supernatural. When people enter Nashville Life and Nashville life becomes their home, there’s an immediate attachment. When things go well for them, it’s like it’s going well for me. When things are going poorly for them, it’s like it’s going poorly for me. I’ve always loved people even before I was fully yielded to Jesus. The weight and my investment in their well-being is truly sincere. I feel it when they come, and I feel it when they go. And I think people would be surprised to know that, especially in a large congregation.”
Crystal: “Do you ever question the motives behind people joining your church because of who your parents are?”
Pastor Love: “I was more concerned about that back in 2012 when we first started. And this is where I must give a lot of credit to my church in Australia, Melbourne Life. The 9-month discipleship class I took called DMS was the class that started our church. Pastor’s Bram and Dianne Manusama flew to Nashville and conducted a condensed version of the discipleship class they taught back home. And that was the seed bed of our church and had nothing to do with CeCe Winans. In fact, about 80% of our beginning congregation didn’t even know who a CeCe Winans was! She was just Alvin’s mom. The beginning group consisted of me and my sister’s friends. If people come for that reason, it doesn’t keep you here. It must be the Lord that keeps you here. I’m open to whatever gets you in the doors, awesome! But it’s the Lord and his calling that will cause you to stay.
Crystal: “Have you seen an undeniable God story in your years of serving?
Pastor Love: “Countless, countless. One is meeting my wife Jasmine and how that all worked out! But we’ve had supernatural healings, people who have been healed of cancer, fertility, people who couldn’t have children for years. Every doctor that they saw said it was impossible. And now they have 3, some 4 kids. I’ve seen people’s hearts change. One of our elders, my best friend from college to this day, of all the miracles that I’ve seen, his conversion is top three of the most supernatural things I’ve ever seen. I watched him go from one man to a completely different person in the process of a 45-minute prayer meeting. It was something like Saul to Paul! The stuff you read in the Bible. Completely changed from the ground up and sustained. Never turned back. I mean, he hasn’t cooled down and it’s been 13 years now.
These are things that we read about in the scriptures and I’m so grateful to God that he’s allowed me to see these things face to face. Now I see my life in scripture, and I see scripture in my life, and they have become seamless. And that’s the thing that keeps me going! We just baptized 30 people recently and hearing these stories never gets old and reminds me of why I’m doing this.”
Crystal: “How can people in your church pray for you and what is the number one prayer on your list for you?”
Pastor Love: “I think it’s Ephesians 3, where Paul prays that we would be strengthened in our inner man, and that’s the prayer of my heart. That my inner man would remain strong and get stronger. Because it’s one thing to get bruised on the outside, but it’s when your spirit is broken that you really have nothing left to give. For this to work, it must stay alive and well. So, if the church would pray for me Ephesians 3, that I would remain strong in my inner man, and that I would continue to be a man of the spirit, and to be led by the spirit, that would be the number one prayer for me."
Crystal: “What is something that your congregation doesn’t know about you that might surprise them?”
Pastor Alvin Love, III: “Many people didn’t know that I led praise and worship at Nashville Life, and when I started preaching, I let the team handle that. So, when we had a guest speaker for Mother’s Day, I got on stage to lead worship and the shock on the congregation’s faces was so funny, because so many of our members came after I became the lead pastor.”
Pastor Love still produces and writes when his mom (CeCe Winans) calls upon him. And his latest project will be CeCe Winans' Christmas Album “Joyful Joyful,” coming out October 25th this year.