Bellevue Baptist Church has called Lifeway Christian Resources President and CEO Ben Mandrell as its new senior pastor. Mandrell has led Lifeway since 2019.
Ben and Lynley Mandrell, with their four children (and future son-in-law) / Photo via Bellevue Baptist Church
Mandrell’s first Sunday at Bellevue, in the Memphis area, will be on August 10, church staff told the Baptist Press.
“There’s a personal side to this calling that’s hard to ignore,” Mandrell said. “Though we never imagined God would bring us back, this move feels like a full-circle moment—one only He could orchestrate.”
Mandrell, 48, is married to Lynley, and they have four children. Before leading Lifeway, Mandrell served as a pastor in Jackson, Tennessee, and Denver, Colorado.
He holds degrees from Anderson University, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Union University.
“While grateful for the opportunity to lead in national spaces, he and Lynley have always felt most at home in the life of the local church. Today, they sense a joyful and Spirit-led call to serve the people of Bellevue—believing their most meaningful season of ministry may still be ahead,” the Bellevue website said about Mandrell’s return to the pulpit.
“I cannot tell you how thankful we are for this moment,” Mandrell said in a statement from the church. “This big hurricane of Bellevue love has just swallowed us up.”
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Bellevue is one of the largest congregations in the Southern Baptist Convention. Between in-person and online worship services, it has reported a weekly attendance of 7,382 people. It also had $26,276,186 in total undesignated receipts last year, according to Baptist Press.
In the past, Bellevue was led by well-known pastors R.G. Lee, Adrian Rogers, and most recently, Steven Gaines.
Gaines announced in September 2024 he would be leaving the Bellevue pulpit after 19 years and enter a season of serving churches as an itinerant preacher.
While Gaines was diagnosed with cancer that spread to his lungs in December 2023, he told the congregation that was not the reason for his departure.
“The Bible says, ‘There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1),” Gaines said. “Nineteen years ago, the Lord began a new season for us at Bellevue, and now we have heard His voice that it is time for a new season.”
Under Mandrell’s leadership, Lifeway Christian Resources, the Nashville-based non-profit entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, saw its revenue bounce back after a low in 2020.
Mandrell took the reins at Lifeway three months after its decision to close all 170 of its brick and mortar locations.
“Our entire family is deeply grateful for these years in Nashville with Lifeway,” Mandrell said. “This ministry is filled with salt-of-the-earth people, and it’s truly heartbreaking to think we won’t see their faces as often in the years to come. Even so, the Lord has made it crystal clear that it’s time for us to return to the pastorate and to join the Bellevue family.”
Lifeway’s Communications Director Carol Pipes told Baptist Press it plans to hold a specially-called board meeting that will be held on July 15 to discuss plans for a smooth leadership transition.
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