Bellevue Baptist Church may hire Ben Mandrell, CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, to replace former Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines as its lead pastor.
The Tennessee megachurch’s pastor search committee unanimously recommended Mandrell to be the next senior pastor, reported The Baptist Press on Tuesday. Mandrell is slated to preach before the congregation on July 13, with a congregational vote expected later.
“The pastor search committee’s only goal during the past eight months was to seek the man God had already chosen to lead our church,” said Pastor Search Committee Chairman Chad Hall in a statement quoted by BP, the convention’s media arm. “Through much prayer and unity, we unanimously believe God clearly revealed Ben Mandrell as that man.”
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Mandrell said in comments published by BP that while he was “deeply grateful for these years in Nashville with Lifeway,” he believes that “the Lord has made it crystal clear that it’s time for us to return to the pastorate and to join the Bellevue family.”
“[My family and I] are humbled to have been entrusted with such a meaningful role in a significant Southern Baptist church, and we are genuinely excited to see what God has in store for both Lifeway and Bellevue,” Mandrell added.
The 48-year-old Mandrell has been in charge of Lifeway since 2019, overseeing the organization’s relocation to Brentwood, Tennessee, and its subsequent years of financial growth, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Before his time at Lifeway, the Illinois native pastored churches in Colorado and Tennessee. Married since 2001, Mandrell and his wife, Lynley, have four children.
He holds a divinity degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky and a doctorate from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.
In November 2023, the 65-year-old Gaines, who had served as SBC president from 2016-2018 and led Bellevue since 2005, announced that he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer.
“We got some great doctors; we’ve got the best doctor,” he said at the time. “I just want to tell you, firsthand, OK? Didn’t want you to hear it for somebody else. Wanted to tell you straight up.”
Last September, Gaines told his congregation that he was stepping down as senior pastor to focus on itinerant preaching. He clarified that this was not for health reasons, as his cancer treatments were working.
“My treatments are going well. I received a good PET scan report this last week, but regardless of what tests show, my faith is in the Lord and in His Word where he has told me from Psalm 118: 17, ‘I will not die,” Gaines said. “Now I’m going to die one of these days, but not from this.”
“We can never put into words how grateful we are for Bellevue Baptist Church. It’s been a great honor to serve as a pastor in four churches over the past 41 years, but many years ago, the Lord spoke to my heart that he would one day want me to serve as an itinerant preacher.”
