Season of Change for Bellevue Baptist
Lead Pastor Steve Gaines announces transition plan for next senior pastor
Sunday, September 22, marked the 19th anniversary of Pastor Steve Gaines’ leadership at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee. It also marked a new transition for one of America’s largest Southern Baptist churches—finding a new pastor to lead the 30,000-member congregation.
Pastor Steve Gaines, alongside his wife, reads his letter announcing plans for his transition out of pastoral leadership at Bellevue Baptist Church Sept. 22 / Video screenshot
Gaines read a letter from the pulpit announcing his retirement. “My race as senior pastor of Bellevue is coming to an end, but my commitment to you is to keep running with all my strength and effectively hand the baton to the next senior pastor,” he said.
Gaines, 66, served Southern Baptist churches in Alabama and Texas before coming to the Memphis area of Tennessee to pastor Bellevue Baptist Church. Since its beginning in 1910, the church has had a solid leadership role in the Southern Baptist Convention. Gaines carried that torch well, serving as SBC president from 2016 to 2018. He is also former president of the Tennessee Baptist Pastors Conference.
Gaines assured the church that his stepping aside is not due to last year’s cancer diagnosis. Kidney cancer had spread to his lungs, but he said treatments are progressing and his last PET scan showed positive results.
Addressing the congregation with his wife Donna by his side, Gaines assured them he is not leaving or retiring, but simply changing direction.
“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.”
Gaines said he plans to travel more and minister at different churches as an itinerant preacher. Bellevue will remain his ministry’s home base. The couple also looks forward to spending more time with their four adult children and 18 grandchildren.
This is a decision Gaines has mulled over for years, and he says the time is now. Gaines has met with a transitional team and will continue to preach until the next senior pastor is chosen.
Despite being known as a man of prayer and service, Gaines has not been immune to controversy. In 2006, he waited six months before firing a pastor who admitted to sexual abuse within the church. Gaines was also recently named in a lawsuit citing cover-up by the SBC and has admitted that remaining silent was an error.
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