Biography
An Open Door: Bellevue Baptist Church
While serving in Alabama, Steve preached at Bellevue Baptist Church approximately once a year over a nine year period at the invitation of Pastor Adrian Rogers. “I always had a great time at Bellevue,” he said. “I told Donna that Bellevue was the only place besides our church at Gardendale that I really felt at home when I was preaching. The staff and the church members were especially nice to us when we came to Memphis, and they always responded warmly to my sermons.”
When Dr. Rogers announced his retirement in the fall of 2004, Steve discovered that the pastor search committee was considering him as a candidate. Twice he removed his name from the list of prospects. “But the Lord kept working on me and on the search committee, too,” he said. “They asked me to meet for another interview, and I’m glad we did, because in that setting the committee members as well as Donna and I began to realize that God was bringing us together.”
Chuck Taylor, chairman of the search committee, told The Commercial Appeal, “After eight months of praying, searching, watching, and waiting, we were 100 percent united and 100 percent convinced he is God’s man for Bellevue.”
On July 10, 2005, the Bellevue family called 47-year-old Steve Gaines to become Bellevue’s seventh pastor. On that historic day the congregation overflowed the worship center in both morning services. “There may not be a human reason why we’re here, but I believe there’s a heavenly reason why we’re here,” the new pastor said from the pulpit. “Today’s not about Steve Gaines, and it’s not even about Bellevue Baptist Church. Today is about the kingdom of God and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
When Bellevue’s pastor search committee extended the invitation for Steve to be Bellevue’s new pastor that morning, he responded with one word: “Yes!” That morning Dr. Rogers welcomed Steve and Donna to Bellevue and rejoiced that Steve would be the first pastor he’d had since he was “a 19 year old boy.” Dr. Rogers also jokingly said to the committee, “I want to know what took you so long to find out what I knew all along!”
Before he preached his first sermon as pastor on September 11, Dr. Rogers demonstrated his love and support by washing Steve’s feet and placing a mantle across his shoulder during both morning worship services. A mere two months later, Steve stood in the same pulpit and preached the funeral for his dear friend. Grief over Dr. Rogers’ rather sudden passing was intense for a church family that had honored him at his retirement only eight months earlier. Bro. Steve, too, felt the loss deeply. “I personally had looked forward to having him near and available as we moved forward. But in God’s sovereign plan, that was not to be.”
Numerical growth in every area of the church’s life marked the Gaines’ first year at Bellevue, but the second year was one of the most difficult of their lives. “Dr. Rogers had warned me that the transition from his 32-year ministry to mine would not be ‘all honey with no bees,’” Bro. Steve said. “Once again my wise mentor was correct.”
A mentor from his seminary days, Rev. Don Miller, prayed fervently for the Gaines and for God to bring Bellevue through those stressful days of transition. “I am grateful for Steve’s trust in Scripture and in God,” he said. “My constant advice to him was, ‘Don’t give up! God put you there! The best is yet to come!’”
Indeed, God answered many prayers, and today Bellevue enjoys a loving, united fellowship. Bro. Steve, too, believes that the best days for the church are still to come, claiming Haggai 2:9: “The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former.”
With thanks to God, he said, “Bellevue continues triumphantly as ‘a city on a hill,’ shining the light of the eternal Gospel of Jesus Christ brightly throughout Memphis, Shelby County, the Mid-South, and the entire world. Indeed, God is alive and well at Bellevue Baptist Church!”
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