Dr. John Lovelace Cantelow III returned to Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in August 2011 as senior pastor of the church where he had grown up and been ordained into Christian ministry.
Pastor Cantelow, a dynamic preacher of the Gospel and biblical scholar, builds his ministry on Ephesians 4:11-12, I Corinthians 12, I Peter 2:9 and John 13:35.
He firmly believes that:
Ministers of the Word of God have the responsibility of equipping or empowering the saints to do the work of ministry for the strengthening of the church. (Ephesians 4:11-12)
Each member of the church has a gift or gifts that should be used to serve the body of Christ. (I Corinthians 12)
We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and all members of the church have access to the Lord. (I Peter 2:9)
Christians are identified as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ by the love they show for one another. (John 13:35).
With this biblical framework, Pastor Cantelow serves God by shepherding a congregation of believers and ministering to the total community.
Pastor Cantelow grew up in Titusville and completed his undergraduate studies in 1991 at the University of Alabama where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Religious Studies.
In 1994, he completed his Master of Divinity Degree at the Beeson Divinity School of Samford University. In May of 2016 he completed his Doctor of Ministry Degree at Beeson. 
In 1990, Pastor Cantelow began his work in the ministry at Sixth Avenue Baptist, serving as assistant to the pastor, under the leadership of Dr. John Thomas Porter. In 1994, he became an associate pastor at Sixth Avenue and continued serving in that capacity until 1999 when he was called to pastor the Greenwood Missionary Baptist Church in Tuskegee, Alabama.
Pastor Cantelow is married to Rhonda Hammonds Cantelow. The couple has three children – Carmen, Elijah and Sophia.