The Rev. Ronald S. Bonner, Sr. serves as Redeemer’s Associate Pastor for Community Engagement following his call in 2018.
Pastor Ron has a call to creating and developing a Church where all are welcome. Prior to his current call, Pastor Ron served as the pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Atlanta for ten years. He also served as the Manager for Multicultural Resources for Augsburg Fortress Publishers in Minneapolis. He was ordained in The United Church of Christ through Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois, to his first called position as the Assistant to the President for Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity for the United Church of Christ at UCC headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.
Prior his graduation from seminary in 1995, Pastor Ron worked in Corporate America in various roles, including National Account Data Sales Executive, Equal Employment Opportunity Investigator for AT&T and Marketing Executive for IBM. He also served Trinity UCC, as a Deacon, Bible Study Teacher, and a member of his congregation’s Board of Long-Range Planning. There, he was involved in the decision making in the building of an 87,000 square feet worship center and building two senior citizen living facilities.
Pastor Bonner was awarded a D.Min from Candler School of Theology at Emory University in May of 2022.
He is the husband of Rev. Dr. Rosetta E. Ross, Professor of Religious Studies at Spelman College of Atlanta, the father of two sons, the grandfather of 5, and the great grandfather of one (Aspen). Pastor Ron is also the author of “No Bigotry Allowed: Losing the Spirit of Fear”, which was a resource for the 2016 Southeastern Leadership Convocation, “The Seat”, a short story looking at issues of radicalized law enforcement, and the editor of 3 religious devotionals.
Three of Pastor Ron’s foundational and favorite Scriptures are Psalm 46:10, Romans 1:16 and Matthew 6:33.
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