(RNS) — Steve Gaines, a Tennessee megachurch pastor who served as Southern Baptist Convention president from 2016 to 2018, died Friday (March 20), his former congregation announced. He was 68.

“It’s with a heavy heart that we share with you the passing of our beloved Pastor Emeritus, Dr. Steve Gaines,” Bellevue Baptist Church said in a post on its Facebook page. After a two-year long battle with cancer, Bro. Steve stepped into eternity earlier this afternoon, and he is now fully healed in the presence of the Lord.” 

Gaines led Memphis-area church, one of the SBC’s largest congregations, for 19 years. He stepped down as the congregation’s pastor in 2024, 10 months after being diagnosed with kidney cancer.

Gaines was born December 31, 1957 in Corinth, Mississippi, and grew up in Dyersburg, Tennessee, according to Baptist Press, an official SBC publication. He earned degrees at Union University and  Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and pastored churches in Tennessee and Texas while in school.

He was elected president of the SBC in 2016, during a period of relative calm in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.  After two rounds voting by the messengers, as the Baptists call the delegates to their annual meeting, neither Gaines nor North Carolina megachurch pastor J.D. Greear, had the 2,413 votes needed to win the presidency. Both men offered to bow out, but Greer, who trailed by 104 votes, eventually dropped from the ballot and Gaines became SBC president. (Greear was elected two years later.)

“Steve Gaines was a brother in arms to me if ever there was such a thing. He was a colleague, a captain, an older brother, a friend, a mentor,” Greear posted on X, after news of Gaines’ death became public Friday. “He had a relentless, unflagging, inspiring fixation on evangelism. It stood at the center of everything he did, every venture he undertook, every fight he engaged in.”

At the time of Gaines’ election, the most pressing issue facing the SBC was its ongoing decline. “I want to encourage you to be a soul-winner. I want to encourage you to be evangelistic,” Gaines, told Southern Baptists in 2017, after he was reelected for a second term.

In an interview before the 2016 election, Gaines said he was worried about the tone of the nation’s political debate, especially what he called “hateful statements” about the two major party candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, according to Baptist Press, the SBC’s official publication.

“Many voices, even among Southern Baptists, have been less than wise, and sometimes downright ill-mannered,” Gaines told Baptist Press at the time. “Christians must at times be prophetic. But we never have a license to be pejorative or denigrating.”

He also called on his fellow Christians to honor their political foes after the 2016 election was over. “May we be responsible and mature in our comments on social media posts, blogs and articles. The world is watching us,” he wrote after the election. “May they see Jesus in us.”

In 2017, Gaines oversaw a denominational annual meeting in Phoenix that was rocked by fierce debate over a resolution condemning the alt-right movement and white supremacy.  That resolution was initially sidelined by a denominational committee, leading to anger at the convention and on social media, and making national headlines. The resolution was later resurrected and passed. 

Gaines was one of several SBC leaders mentioned in the 2022 Guidepost Solutions investigation into how Southern Baptist leaders had responded to sexual abuse allegations. He told investigators from Guidepost Solutions, that he failed to report abuse allegations in a 2006 case for months. That situation involved a staff member who had allegedly abused a member of their family.

“When I was informed, I believed that it was being properly taken care of and did not know my obligation to report it to authorities. I now know I did not handle the situation properly,” Gaines told a Memphis television station after the Guidepost report was released.   

In November 2024, Gaines told his church that he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer. The following September, he announced that he would be stepping down as pastor. At the time, he told the church his prognosis was good.

“My treatments are going well, and I even received a good report last week on my latest PET scan,” he said. “But regardless of what tests show, I firmly believe the word the Lord has given me that ‘I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the Lord.’ (Psalm 118:17),”  he told the church in his resignation letter, citing a passage from the Bible’s Book of Psalms.

 Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC’s Executive Committee, called Gaines a “a remarkable example of family leadership, pastoral effectiveness, preaching power and evangelistic zeal.”

“He inspired me and encouraged me to be a better husband, father, friend and leader,” Iorg told RNS in an emailed statement. “We thank God for his leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention, pray for his family as they grieve and celebrate the peace he now enjoys in heaven.”

A funeral for Gaines will be held at Bellevue Baptist on Sunday March 22, at 6 p.m., according to the church’s website.

“Please join us as we life the entire Gaines family up in prayer during this difficult,” the church announcement read.