October 23, 2024
ATLANTA – Pozie Redmond, one of Georgia Baptists' most beloved pastors, passed away on March 24, 2022. He had served the Lord as a pastor for over half a century; and on October 7, 1989, he started New Calvary Missionary Baptist Church with 24 members at the Alphonso Dawson Funeral Home in Atlanta.
Through Redmond’s evangelist zeal and leadership, the church membership experienced rapid growth prompting the pastor and his flock to seek a facility that would accommodate their expanding congregation. Within months they acquired a church located on Dill Avenue in Atlanta. New ministries were established in the church and over the next 13 years the church experienced exponential growth.
New Calvary continued to experience success under Redmond’s leadership and by the summer of 2002 the leadership was searching for a larger place for their worship services and extensive ministries. Several months later the church secured the property on Melrose drive owned by Sylvan Hills Baptist Church where Bill Rittenhouse, WWII hero and Baptist pastor, had served so successfully from 1955 to 1962. On May 11, 2003, New Calvary held its first service in its new house of worship.
Sylvan Hills had struggled in recent years, but Redmond was determined to see his congregation flourish in their new location. Under the visionary leadership of the dynamic and charismatic New Calvary pastor, the church met each challenge with courage and determination and celebrated each victory with thanksgiving and praise to God.
Pozie Redmond was a notable spiritual personality in Atlanta and among Georgia Baptists for years. He was honored with countless civic and religious awards, including the Guiding Light Award for devoted community volunteerism from the city of Atlanta, the Outstanding Service Award from the Morehouse School of Medicine, the Pastor of the Year Award from the Greater Atlanta Interdenominational Mass Choir, and the Religion Award from the Concerned Black Clergy.
As a Georgia Baptist, Redmond served as moderator of Southwest Atlanta Baptist Association and was strategically active in its continued growth. Pastor Redmond also served as the president of the African American Fellowship of the Georgia Baptist Convention.
Grady Caldwell, pastor of New Mercy Baptist Church in Griffin, has referred to Pastor Redmond as a friend and mentor. He stated, “Pozie Redmond was a pioneer in so many ways. He developed new ministries to reach people for Christ; and more than anyone else he introduced African American congregations to the Georgia Baptist Convention and helped open the door for many of them to become affiliated with the GBC.”
Redmond’s ministry and church became examples for other like- minded pastors and churches. Other pastors observed how New Calvary experienced exponential growth under Pastor Redmond’s leadership. From its founding the modest group of two dozen charter members increased during Redmond’s ministry to more than 2,000 members.
The church expanded its educational department and entered a partnership with New Orleans Seminary so that participants could earn credits toward its certificate programs in Biblical Ministry, Christian Education, Women’s Ministry, and Pastoral Ministry.
The church also has a Christian Women’s Job Corp with a focus on reaching and preparing women for success in the workforce.
Pastor Redmond was responsible for spearheading a Let’s Read program at the church designed to provide basic reading skills to participants by certified current and former educators.
In the Silver Anniversary Year, Pastor Redmond developed a program to preserve and nurture young African American men through a program patterned after the national My Brother’s Keeper initiative launched by President Obama. He was convinced that new ministries would have a positive impact inside the church and in the surrounding communities.
Redmond’s sense of humor was one of the things that many will remember about him. He once explained that a pastor friend preached a sermon on Mark 2 about the four men lowering a man stricken with the palsy through the roof of a house in Capernaum so that Jesus might heal him. They could not get through the door because the house was filled with people. Redmond said the pastor titled the sermon “Four of a kind beats a full house.”
Pozie Redmond was a devoted follower of Christ with a passion to reach the lost and serve others, but with a charming sense of humor. He will be missed, but when he entered through the pearly gates the measure of heaven’s joy must have appreciably increased.
Pastor Redmond is survived by his wife, Evelyn Carmichael Redmond. Their 57-year union was blessed with two daughters, Pamela Danielle (Jonathan) Bryant and April Redmond (Berwin) Echols and four grandchildren, Jonathan and Joniya McKenzie Bryant, and Aria Rose and Bailey Carlen Echols.
