Pastor Steve Gaines 'Grateful to God for Miracles and Medicine' as Cancer Diagnosis Improves
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Updated Mar 04, 2024
Memphis pastor Steve Gaines says in a new video that much of his cancer has disappeared and that he is “grateful to God for miracles and medicine” and looks forward to being back in the pulpit.
Gaines, the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2016 to 2018, was diagnosed last fall with kidney cancer.
In a video released Friday, Gaines said his health has improved following treatment and prayer.
“The Lord has done a great thing in our lives, and we are glad,” he said. “The last PET scan that I had showed that there were no more polyps of cancer in my lungs -- the previous PET scan, there were multiple polyps there, but they've all gone. And we're grateful for that. Also, I [previously] had cancer in my rib on the left side -- it also has diminished, it's gone as well.”
The cancer in his kidney “has also gone down significantly,” he said.
“So I still have cancer, but it's really, really going away and I'm grateful to God for miracles and medicine,” he said.
Gaines, though, said his myasthenia gravis -- a chronic neuromuscular disease -- has “been reenacted.”
“I've had this for 24 years, and it's not lethal,” he said. “But because my immune system has gone up so much, which is a great thing, because of the immunotherapy and the targeted drugs -- that's good for my cancer, but it's rough on my myasthenia. So some of my muscles are weak, my neck is where it has primarily hit this time. But I just want you to keep praying for that. But that's more of a nuisance than anything else.”
Gaines returned to the pulpit Sunday and received a standing ovation. He sat in a chair as he preached.
“We love you, too,” a smiling Gaines told members.
Image credit: Bellevue Baptist. Used with permission.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
