The Rev. Dr. Jake Hall, senior pastor at Macon’s Highland Hills Baptist Church since 2013, has been named director of initiatives in faith and culture at Mercer’s Eula Mae and John Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership, Center Director the Rev. Dr. Daniel Vestal announced today.

Prior to his call to Highland Hills, Dr. Hall served for more than seven years as senior pastor of Heritage Baptist Fellowship in Canton, Georgia, and adjunct professor of religion at Reinhardt College. He was ordained by and served as a pastoral resident at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, before moving to Canton.

Dr. Hall will spearhead initiatives in faith, culture and the arts at the Baugh Center. Using his background in pastoral ethnography, he will explore and curate communities of practice that intersect with the sacred that exists outside the church. This kind of inquiry explores the mystery of God’s presence that is at loose in the world and the liturgies of post-Christendom that embody that presence.

Host of “Gospel Gothic,” a weekly radio show where Matthew, Mark, Luke and Johnny Cash mingle and make meaning, Dr. Hall brings a history of pastoral leadership, community engagement and theological innovation to this new role. His work building space for conversation between faith and science was awarded a grant in 2012 by the Scientists in Congregations program, a project funded by a $2 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

An adjunct professor at Mercer’s James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology, Dr. Hall earned his bachelor’s degree from Samford University, his Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School and his Doctor of Ministry degree from McAfee.

He is a graduate of, and board member for, the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Macon program and mentors community leaders in areas of systemic poverty, race and class dynamics. Hall in 2017 received NewTown Macon’s Emerging Leader Award. He is a current board member for the Duke Divinity School Baptist House of Study, is on the board of Good Faith Media and is chair of the Pathways to Ministry alumni board. He is a former board member for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia and the McAfee School of Theology Board of Visitors.