Pastor Gaines has served as the pastor of three churches. Currently, he is Senior Pastor of Spirit Life Ministries International in Wilmington, Delaware.

He is a 1980 graduate of Cedarville College in Cedarville, Ohio where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Studies and Psychology.

Pastor Gaines' ministerial career has taken him to foreign lands, including short-term missionary works in the countries of the Ivory Coast, Liberia and Nigeria. He has also had more than ten year's of commercial experience as an entrepreneur, being the founder of Quality Control Industries (QCI).