JACKSON, Tenn. — March 20, 2026 — Ray Van Neste was a young professor at Union when he had lunch with Steve Gaines one day. Years before, when Van Neste was an undergraduate student at Union, Gaines had been his pastor at West Jackson Baptist Church and had officiated at Van Neste’s wedding with his wife Tammie.
The two had maintained a friendship and had enjoyed lunch together when Gaines was returning Van Neste to his office in Jennings Hall. Van Neste was about to get out of the car when Gaines stopped him.
“This doesn’t happen very often,” Gaines told him, “but I feel like the Lord’s prompting me to give you whatever money I have on me. I have no idea how much that is.”
So, Gaines reached into his wallet and pulled out the cash – something like a couple hundred dollars. As a father with four young kids at the time, the gift was certainly a blessing to Van Neste.
That weekend, Van Neste was preaching at a rural church some distance away from Jackson that required an overnight stay. The church didn’t cover all his expenses, so that money from Gaines was enough to pay Van Neste’s costs with a little left over.
“There was a genuineness to Steve,” said Van Neste, dean for Union’s School of Theology and Mission. “He was a man of care and a man of love.”
Gaines, a 1979 Union graduate and one of the university’s most prominent alumni, passed away March 20 at age 68 after a battle with cancer. He met his wife Donna (’80) at Union, and all four of the couple’s children are Union graduates – Grant Gaines (’05), Lindsey Wingo (’09), Alli Hill (’11) and Bethany Golding (’15).
Gaines was a Southern Baptist pastor who served most notably at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee. He was president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2016-2018 and was a Union trustee.
To those who knew him, Gaines was a man committed to the Bible and to evangelism – and he was a man who loved and served his alma mater.
“Steve Gaines means the world to me and to Union,” said Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver. “He was ever committed to advancing Union as a Christ-centered university.”
“What comes immediately to my mind, in thinking about Steve Gaines, is evangelism, prayer and Scripture,” Van Neste said. “He really had a strong prayer life and was regularly encouraging people to pray. He memorized large portions of Scripture. And he strongly pressed for being a gospel witness. I saw him live those out faithfully.”
After serving as pastor at West Jackson and at First Baptist Church in Gardendale, Alabama, Gaines was called as senior pastor of Bellevue in 2005. He announced a kidney cancer diagnosis in 2023 and transitioned out of the Bellevue pastorate in 2025.
A native of Dyersburg, Tennessee, Gaines initially attended the University of Tennessee at Martin on a football scholarship before transferring to Union his junior year of college. George Guthrie, a longtime Union professor who now teaches at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, played football with Gaines in high school and had a lifelong friendship with Gaines.
Guthrie described Gaines as a “rough character” in high school. But then things changed.
“While he was at UT Martin, his life was transformed by interaction with some very dynamic Christians on campus,” Guthrie said. “I mean, transformed.”
Guthrie and Gaines both came to Union largely through the influence of Bob Agee, who was serving as interim pastor of First Baptist Church in Dyersburg at the time. During their time at Union, Gaines and Guthrie sang, preached and ministered together on campus and at a variety of locations across West Tennessee. Guthrie had been a Christian for years, but for Gaines, his time at Union marked the beginning of his walk with the Lord.
“I think he would say that Union was a wonderful kind of nurturing place that gave him a foundation, both academically and spiritually, for what would happen for the rest of his life,” Guthrie said.
The two maintained their friendship in graduate school at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. And although Gaines pursued the pastorate and denominational leadership while Guthrie’s career has been spent in the academy, the bond they developed in high school and that grew during their Union years continued throughout Gaines’ life.
“I think we kind of both held on to the closeness of our relationship because we both continued to have a passion for Christ,” Guthrie said. “I think at the heart of who Steve was -- the heart of hearts -- was his deep, deep love for Jesus. That was the underpinning for everything that was driving him in ministry.”
Gaines was a “mighty evangelist” who worked and lived so heaven would be crowded, Oliver said.
“I never will forget his challenge to us at Union when he spoke at commencement one year and asked, ‘When was the last time you led someone to Christ?’” Oliver said. “He followed that with, ‘Even better, when was the last time you tried?’”
He also described Gaines as a man who was faithful in prayer and a constant encouragement. Oliver regularly received text messages from Gaines, who said he was praying for Oliver and for Union. Gaines loved his alma mater, and Bellevue recently established a scholarship at Union honoring him and Donna.
“His influence will ripple through Union for years and years,” Oliver said. “We rejoice in the good gift God gave us in Steve Gaines.”