A prominent Memphis-area pastor and former Southern Baptist Convention president is receiving hospice care amid a long battle with kidney cancer.
Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova shared more information about the identity of former senior pastor Steve Gaines in a March 12 letter to the congregation.
Bellevue Baptist Church is historically one of the largest and most influential churches in the SBC, and Gaines led the church for nearly 20 years beginning in 2005. He also served as SBC president from 2016 to 2018, the highest elected position for the Nashville-based denomination.
Gaines informed Bellevue of his cancer diagnosis in November 2023 and announced his retirement from the church in September 2024. The Cordova church has since hired former Lifeway CEO Ben Mandrell as senior pastor.
Dr. Steve Gaines has been appointed president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“This is obviously a very difficult time for Steve and his family,” Mandrell said in the March 12 letter. “As a result, the family asks that they not have any visitors so they can spend more meaningful time caring for him in the days ahead.”
Under Gaines’ leadership, Bellevue Baptist has consistently ranked among the 100 largest churches in the United States, according to the Outreach 100 survey conducted by Lifeway.
Gaines’ predecessor was prominent SBC pastor Adrian Rogers, whose election as SBC president in 1979 marked the beginning of the Conservative revival movement that transformed the convention. The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the country.
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Another former church Gaines led, Gardendale First Baptist Church in Alabama, said in a March 11 social media post about Gaines and his wife, Donna, “Our lives will never be the same because of their anointed ministry!”
Gaines’ son Grant is the senior pastor of Bel Air Baptist Church in Murfreesboro.
Liam Adams covers religion news for The Tennessean for the USA TODAY Network. Contact him at ladams@tennessean.com or on social media @liamsadams.
This article originally appeared in the Nashville Tennessean: Steve Gaines, former Bellevue pastor and SBC president, at Hospice