Marvin Winans

Pastor Marvin Winans is a Grammy-winning gospel artist, producer, actor, and founding member of The Winans, whose music helped define contemporary gospel in the 1980s. He is also the founder and senior pastor of The Perfecting Church in Detroit, and continues to influence gospel music and ministry through his recordings, global outreach, and leadership.

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Pastor Marvin Winans rose to fame as a member of the Winans -- not just the well-known First Family of contemporary Black gospel, but the actual quartet of that name which laid the foundation for the family's veritable gospel empire beginning in the early 1980s. While Marvin never fully pursued a solo career, he has consistently contributed as a vocalist, songwriter, keyboardist, and producer to numerous Winans family projects and other gospel artists. His musical talents earned him a Grammy Award in 1985 for Best Male Soul Gospel Performance for "Bring Back the Days of Yea and Nay." Additionally, Winans founded his own church, The Perfecting Church, in Detroit during the early '90s. After preaching mostly in area hotels during the church's early years, Winans' following had grown to over 3,000 by the end of the decade. Though it has never become his primary goal, Winans has occasionally headed up his own musical projects as well. 1992's Introducing Perfected Praise was an acclaimed, cleverly arranged foray into mass-choir gospel, featuring Winans at the head of his newly assembled Perfected Praise Choir. It took until 2001 for Winans to issue a follow-up record, which was titled Friends and released on sister Angie Winans' Against the Flow label.

In 2007, he released Alone but Not Alone, which earned a Grammy nomination, and his 2012 live album, The Praise + Worship Experience, featured collaborations with gospel luminaries like Donnie McClurkin, Mary Mary, and Marvin Sapp. In 2013, Winans added acting to resume after landing a recurring role on Tyler Perry's House of Payne, and in 2025 he returned to the charts with the Billboard-topping Justin Bieber collaboration "Forgiveness." ~ Steve Huey