Demetria McKinney navigates the pulpit and love in 'Kirk Franklin's A Gospel Christmas'

Multifaceted movie maven Demetria McKinney generates sparks when she plays Olivia, the newly christened pastor of a small church charged. She is charged with configuring the congregation's annual town Christmas jamboree with only weeks to get it done -- and she'd better not fail.

Sparks fly in another way when the overwhelmed Olivia commissions a fellow parishioner, played by Dez Lamar Shepherd, to augment her efforts to corral this massive operation before the nonnegotiable deadline.

McKinney sits down with rolling out to discuss her propensity to star in Christmas films in recent years and the exciting challenge of playing a single, female pastor -- something that rarely existed in previous generations.