Hello and welcome to my site. You have come to this page because you want to find out who Matt Sturdevant is. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband, a father of two, Executive Pastor, Professional Certified Coach, speaker, aspiring writer, blogger and podcaster who is passionate about helping leaders in ministry increase their personal leadership capacity as well as organize & develop their ministries for maximum impact. In other words, I want to help leaders become ALL God wants them to be so they can accomplish ALL that he wants to accomplish through their lives.
My Experience
Since graduating from Biola University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing, I have worn and continue to wear a variety of “hats” which has given me wide and varied experiences to draw from. I began my business career in Fort Worth, TX doing business to business technology sales. At just 24 and nearly the youngest member of the team I was promoted to sales manager in less than 10 months. It was through that experience as a young manager that I first learned the value of working hard, being teachable and the importance of culture in a work environment to achieve the desired outcomes. I also discovered my love for identifying organizational problems and building systems to effectively solve them. After several months, I had the opportunity to team up with a veteran entrepreneur to help him create and start a national marketing company. Over the next few years I was involved in all the various aspects of starting and running a business as we grew in size and expanded our client base.
In fall of 2005, I began to sense a change on the horizon and in February of 2006 I made a transition from business to full-time vocational ministry on church staff. Since that time I’ve been part of leading, organizing and carrying out ministry in the local church. The path I have walked in ministry to date has been one of starting new and/or organizing existing areas of ministry. I’ve developed and grown areas such as groups, men’s ministry, missions and then handed them off to staff members to run and further develop them. Since 2010, I’ve been an Executive Pastor (basically the Chief Operating Officer in business) and worked primarily on leadership, training, organization development and strategy. I’ve also had the privilege to travel a quite a bit nationally and internationally; speaking and working with ministry teams on training, leadership and organizational issues. Additionally I’ve had several opportunities over the years to encourage, coach and consult for pastors and ministry leaders as they face challenges and lead their organizations.
In June of 2018, I earned my Master of Divinity from Northwest Baptist Seminar.
My Story
I grew up in Southern California in a Christian home with a mom and dad who loved the Lord and taught me about Christ from as early as I can remember. I’m the oldest of 3 kids in my family; I have a younger brother and sister. I grew up going to church and became a follow of Jesus Christ at the age of 5. As I look back at my life and my story, there are several key events and experiences that have grown me to be the person I am right now, doing the things I’m currently doing in life and ministry.
To read my extended story, click here.
My Family
I met my best friend and the love of my life while attending Biola Universtiy in Southern California. She was a Texas girl and I was a SoCal Guy. We dated for almost 4 years before getting married in January 2002. I had the unique opportunity to work on church staff with my wife for almost 10 years before we welcomed out daughter, Kensi to our family in January of 2016. In August of 2017, we added a son, Kai. I absolutely love being the dad to them and am learning so much every day.
Fun Facts about Me
I’ve visited 25 of 50 states
I’ve trekked in the jungles of Guatemala
When I was a child, I was picked out of the audience to feed and pet a Killer Whale.
I’ve hiked to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park
I love to travel internationally and have been to…
- Albania
- Canada
- Germany (5 times)
- Guatemala (twice)
- India
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Thailand (twice)
To relax and for exercise, I enjoy cycling (road and mountain biking) While in high school and college, on multiple occasions I cycled from Costa Mesa, CA to San Diego, CA and from Santa Barbara, CA to Costa Mesa, CA.
I love photography and with the birth of my daughter, have started taking A LOT more photos