Dr. Jack Gaines, Sr. is one of the founding Elders of Body of Christ Community Church, Suffolk, Virginia. He was an Associate Pastor and former Missions Director at Calvary Evangelical Baptist Church in Portsmouth, Virginia. He also served as the Assistant Senior Chaplain of the Southeastern Correctional Ministry and was a founding member on the Board.
Dr. Gaines is a Bible preaching, teaching minister of the Word with a heart for Missions. He has a genuine concern for the unreached people of the world and believes in the Great Commission: “Go ye therefore and teach all nations,” Matthew 28:19 (KJV). He is the director of a local mission organization, the Cooperative Missions Network of the African Dispersion (COMINAD). COMINAD emphasizes the biblical theology of missions using the Biblical Scripture “…and ye shall be witnesses unto me…in Jerusalem, and in all Judea…and unto the uttermost part of the earth,” Acts 1:8 (KJV), as a basis for its ministry. COMINAD’s efforts are geared toward mobilizing one of the most powerful resources in the world today—the African American Arm of the church.
Dr. Gaines was instrumental in spearheading the Reconciliation Conference held in Benin, West Africa. He has also delivered many stirring messages, as well as held workshops, done presentations, and sent others to the mission field of Africa, Ukraine, Liberia, America and “the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Most recently, he conducted workshops in Washington, DC at the Cedars Ambassadors Prayer Breakfast attended by U.S. Senators, Congressmen, and Ambassadors from around the world; was keynote speaker at Reconciliation Conference in Brussels, Belgium where church leaders were in attendance; was General Session Speaker at Colombia International University in Columbia South Carolina; and Presented at the WIN Asian Leaders Conference in Thailand, conducting three workshops.
Dr. Gaines is from Chesapeake, Virginia, is a graduate of Crestwood High School. His passion for baseball provided him the opportunity to play professional baseball for one year with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and eight years with the Boston Red Sox organization. He is a retired cargo-coordinator for Norfolk-Southern Railroad, after 35 years of dedicated service.
He attended Norfolk State University and Angelos Bible College. In the winter of 2006, he was presented an Honorary Doctoral Degree from the Global Evangelical College and Seminary in Montgomery, Alabama for his extensive and tremendously effective work in the area of biblical reconciliation. He also received an Honorary Doctoral Degree of Theology from Phoenix University of Theology in Phoenix, Arizona. The honors were bestowed upon him after years of study and travel to various countries in Africa in his tireless efforts to end conflicts among the people of that continent and the world.
Dr. Gaines and his wife, Mildred, are the proud parents of two sons (Jack Jr. and Jerrold), one daughter (Joy), one son-in-law (Daryl), and one granddaughter (Jayda).
