MOULTRIE — The Rev. Jerry Mahan has been practicing 40 years for his new job.

“I’m going to preach,” he told his congregation at First Baptist Church on a recent Sunday. “I know you don’t believe anyone would pay me to preach.”

The congregation laughed. Mahan has been preaching to them for eight years.

Mahan has been pastoring churches since he was a student at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, when he pastored small, rural churches. He pastored in Hanover, Ind., while attending the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. In Georgia, he’s pastored First Baptist Churches in Cedartown, Fort Valley and Hazelhurst as well as Moultrie.

“While I have loved what I have done,” he said, “after 40 years I look forward to a little change in what I’m doing.”

In one way — the preaching — the new job won’t be much of a change at all. In others, it will be quite a new experience.

Mahan is going to work for Mercer University as the special assistant to the president for church relations. What that means is, he’ll be building relationships between Mercer and the Baptist churches across Georgia. One way he’ll be doing that is by filling the pulpit when a pastor goes on vacation. Another is by helping recommend pastors to fill a church’s vacancy.

And the bridges he’ll build won’t all lead to Southern Baptist churches, either.

Mercer University was founded about 170 years ago by the Georgia Baptist Convention, but in 2006 the convention voted to sever ties with the school. Before the split, the special assistant to the president for church relations was responsible for building relationships between Mercer and the Georgia and Southern Baptist conventions. Now, though, the bridges are between Mercer and individual Baptist churches throughout the state.

“There will be a lot more diversity among the Baptists I relate to,” Mahan said.

Mahan said in addition to Southern Baptists, Georgia is also home to National Baptists, Progressive Baptists, the American Baptist Convention, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Conservative Baptist Convention. Among the differences between them is race, which also makes Mahan well-suited for the job.

Mahan, a member of the NAACP, said he has preached in numerous African-American churches, including swapping Sundays with the Rev. E.H. Hopkins of Mother Easter Baptist Church. While in Cedartown, he received an award from an African-American church there for promoting brotherhood between the races; among his activities was beginning an annual observance of Race Relations Sunday, according to The Cedartown Standard newspaper.

“We’re kind of building this job from the ground up, too,” Mahan said. “… We want to do everything we can to assist churches in accomplishing their mission and building the kingdom of God.”

Mahan’s ties to Mercer go back a long way.

“I’m not a graduate of Mercer,” he said, “but I’ve had a relationship with Mercer for about 20 years.”

He has served three terms on the Board of Trustees. He’s served on the Board of Visitors of Mercer’s McAfee School of Theology. He’s one of the original members of the Georgia Baptist Convention’s Advisory Board for Mercer.

In 1991, Mercer presented him with the Louie D. Newton Award for Service to the University.

Mahan and his wife, Claudette, will continue to live in Moultrie, but he will be on the road a lot. Mercer’s main campus is in Macon, but it has a campus in Atlanta as well. Mercer will provide him an apartment near each campus, he said. He expects to travel four days a week and be in Moultrie three days a week, plus one full week here every month.

Mahan’s last Sunday at First Baptist Church will be June 29; he’ll start his new job July 1.

“It was a privilege to pastor this congregation,” he said.