In 2004, Gaines was elected president of the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference, and was the keynote speaker at the SBC annual meeting in Nashville.

He served with his predecessor at Bellevue and three-time SBC president, Adrian Rogers, on a committee charged with revising The Baptist Faith and Message.

On March 9, 2016, Dr. Johnny Hunt announced he would nominate Gaines to be President of the Southern Baptist Convention[3] at the upcoming SBC annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.

Born to parents Edgar and Dorothy Gaines, Steve and his only sibling, Ed, spent most of their youth in the small town of Dyersburg, Tennessee.

Donna Gaines is a Bible teacher and author who leads women's ministries at Bellevue and speaks at churches and conferences across the nation.

[5] After graduating from Union University in 1979, Gaines began studies for a Master of Divinity degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

In 1978 he became youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Milan, Tennessee, where he served for a little more than two years before beginning studies at Southwestern Seminary.

[5] While serving in Alabama, Steve was an annual guest speaker at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, at the invitation of Pastor Adrian Rogers.

On September 28, 2009, the State of Tennessee House of Representatives issued a proclamation recognizing Bellevue as an institution that has demonstrated "unflagging capacity for love, dedication of spirit, and faith in God" and for enriching the lives of people in their community.

[8] This was in recognition "His passion for evangelism (which) has galvanized his congregation to reach their city with the Gospel in unprecedented ways by meeting practical needs throughout Memphis."

On March 10, 2016, Pastor Johnny Hunt of FBC Woodstock (Georgia) announced his intentions to nominate Dr. Steve Gaines for president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"When Steve Gaines shared his prayer journey he and [his wife] Donna had travelled, I was touched by his clear call to allow himself to be nominated", said Pastor Hunt in a news release.

"With such a passionate desire for spiritual revival in our churches and nation, and knowing him to be a man of deep intense prayer, it brings joy to my heart to nominate Dr. Gaines" Pastor Hunt told the Baptist Press in his closing remarks.

[10] The staffer reportedly counseled child molestation victims during his employment at Bellevue and was permitted to continue having contact with children at the church after the allegation was revealed to Gaines.

The report noted that the victim (the former staffer's son) had personally come forward to Gaines along with a group of friends to reveal the abuse.

No criminal charges were ever brought regarding the allegations'[16][17] In May 2022, Guidepost Solutions released an independent report stating that Gaines allegedly admitted that he "had delayed reporting a staff minister’s prior sexual abuse of a child of “heartfelt concern and compassion for th[e] minister,” while acknowledging that he should have “brought it to the attention of our church leadership immediately.”[18]