Rhonda Abbott Blevins

Rhonda has spent more than thirty years in vocational ministry, serving in various roles: campus minister, denominational executive (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship), associate pastor, and lead pastor. Since 2017 she has served as Senior Pastor of Chapel by the Sea, an interdenominational congregation on Clearwater Beach, Florida, part of the International Council of Community Churches. Leading a church that gathers people from many traditions has taught her to lead with clarity and with a wide welcome at the same time.

She knows the lead pastor’s chair from the inside. That includes casting vision while tending souls, partnering with a governing board, preaching week after week, leading through crisis, and protecting your own well-being so you can keep showing up for everyone else. She brings that experience to the Lead Pastor Learning Community as a fellow practitioner, not someone observing from the sidelines.

Rhonda holds a Bachelor of Science in secondary education, a Master of Divinity, and Doctor of Ministry from Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology. Her doctoral research studied how gratitude affects the well-being of parishioners, and that question still shapes how she thinks about healthy pastors and healthy congregations.

She has studied the Enneagram for more than twenty-five years. She is a trained coach and a certified Enneagram trainer, and she leads Pinnacle’s Ascend Enneagram initiative, helping clergy and church leaders understand what drives them, how they handle stress, and how they can lead from their best selves. (She’s a 7w8, so expect energy, ideas, and a fair amount of laughter.)

Rhonda also has a second calling as a designer. She discovered graphic design in 1994, paid her way through seminary as a graphic artist, and has since built dozens of church websites. As Pinnacle’s web design coordinator, she helps congregations put their best digital foot forward.

An East Tennessee native, Rhonda now lives with her family in Palm Harbor, Florida.