We train leadership teams and coach pastors
to lead fruitful churches.
Our Ministry
WE BELIEVE our world is in crisis. Many are far from God. Society is in upheaval. These realities are undeniable. God’s Plan A? Local churches acting in the world as a redemptive force for Kingdom good. God has no Plan B.
“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit” (Jn 15:8). A fruitful church is one that prioritizes the mission (Mt 28:19-20). Where new people find Jesus. Where the Spirit is alive. Where the Father is glorified. Churches like this reach people for Christ, grow them in faith, increase their influence, and transform their communities.
THE SAD TRUTH: Most churches struggle. Attendance (once a month) has declined for decades, before stabilizing in 2021 at about 33% of the population (Pew). The number of Americans who are “Nones” (no religious connection) hit 28% in 2024, up 13% since 2007 (Pew). Churches aren’t effectively countering these trends. Only 10% of American churches are fruitful (Rick Richardson), and 20% are on a glidepath to death (Thom Rainer).
WE BELIEVE many leaders and many churches long to be more effective in reaching people for Christ. We can help.
OUR RESPONSE: We work with pastors and church leadership teams.
TRAINING: We teach biblical leadership principles to leadership teams in three separate events, using a two-day seminar format.
COACHING: We help pastors apply the principles in bi-weekly, one-on-one, coaching sessions via Zoom.
WE BELIEVE, if you practice these leadership principles, your church can become more fruitful.
YOU can be the KEY to unlocking your church’s spiritual potential.
If you want this for your church, WELCOME!
Our Why
Leaders, you and your family sacrifice to follow God’s call. You believe in your church, you long to see people finding Christ, and you want your church grow. You pray, read Scripture, and invest in your spiritual life. You know these are essential.
But maybe, like other leaders, you imagined your church being more effective than it is right now. Maybe you sense a need for better tools in your leadership tool kit. Maybe, like the 42% of pastors, you’ve thought about quitting (Barna). If so, you’re not alone.
If you keep doing … what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting … what you always got. If you want different results, you must lead differently. Leading differently is possible!
If this resonates for you, we invite you to learn and apply fundamentally new leadership behaviors. Then, by the Spirit’s power, we believe your church will see a different future.
We want to walk with you as you elevate your leadership
so you can fulfill the mission of God.
Curious for more on our WHY?
“This was a home run experience.”
*
“This was a home run experience.” *
Pastor Joey Kalan,
Crossroads Church,
Fergus Falls, MN
Our Leadership View
Are we just making the church more corporate?
RESPECTFULLY … NO!
The leadership principles we teach start with Scripture. Our teaching is then informed by research and validated by our experience.
Scripture says a leader’s spiritual life is essential. When leaders master their inner world—thoughts, emotions, and choices—they become unshakeable in their outer world. So we grow leaders spiritually.
But we do more. We mine Scripture for the mindsets and habits of spiritual leadership. Then we spend the most time on teaching those spiritual leadership principles and coaching pastors to apply them.
Why this approach? Because leadership is often a missing ingredient in churches.
We know of godly pastors who struggle to move their churches toward mission. They love God, his Word, and their people. They pray hard and work hard. But the results disappoint.
The challenge arises, in part, from the volatility and secularity of our world. A century ago, human knowledge doubled every 100 years. Today it doubles every 12 hours. We don’t live in the 1950s.
To lead in today’s world, pastors need more relevant perspectives and behaviors. We teach these principles so churches can bear fruit. We want pastors to become five talent leaders (Mt 25:14-30).
We’ve seen pastors elevate their leadership, and then watched as God brings increase. Our process maximizes pastors’ capacity to catalyze their churches for Kingdom growth.
We use biblically-grounded, research-validated, and experience-based leadership principles to put legs to our prayers.
Our Beliefs
We are biblical people, followers of Jesus Christ, ambassadors for historic Christianity.
We believe in the Triune Creator.
Our great and good God—Father, Son, and Spirit—created our beautiful world.
We believe in the Bible’s authority.
God communicates his love and truth supremely in the Bible, so we acknowledge its supreme authority.
We believe people are precious to God, yet mired in sin and its effects.
Born into sin, we confirm our guilt whenever we put Self in charge of our lives, and this separates us from God.
We believe in the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith.
God grants us salvation and forgives our sin, entirely by grace, if we turn from Self as king and trust in Jesus as King.
We believe in the Church.
Local churches are God’s Plan A for redeeming the world, and their God-given mission is to “make disciples.”
We believe in Kingdom cooperation.
To fulfill God’s mission, 360 Pastor partners with anyone who shares these central Christian teachings.
Our Key Partner: Eagle Brook Association
We offer the 360 Pastor experience through collaboration with our strategic partner, Eagle Brook Association (EBA). EBA is a ministry of Eagle Brook Church, Lino Lakes, MN.
EBA and 360 Pastor are distinct organizations. We partner because (1) we are aligned on the church’s mission, (2) we share a leadership philosophy, and (3) our strengths in teaching and coaching are naturally complementary.
The full EBA/360 Pastor experience lasts about two years. It includes three, two-day seminars every five-six months. We invite each church to bring up to eight people to a training seminar. Over the next five months, a senior pastor meets on Zoom, every other week, with a dedicated coach, to implement what they learned in the seminars.
We’re excited to offer this service together with EBA. It maximizes the strengths of both organizations for you, for your church, and for the Kingdom.
YOUR FIRST STEP: To access what 360 Pastor has to offer, sign up (with your team) to attend an EBA training. After that dynamic experience, EBA and 360 Pastor work with you to guide a seamless transition into the coaching experience.
Our Team
Eric Bryant
Eric serves as Campus Pastor of Gateway Church South Austin, which has been a campus planting campus. Before that, he served with Erwin McManus at Mosaic in Los Angeles for 12 years. In the mid-1990s, he was part of a church planting team in Seattle. He has a doctorate in ministry in Entrepreneurial Leadership from Bethel Seminary. He is the author of Not Like Me: Loving, Serving, and Influencing Our Divided World and Fruitful: Becoming Who God Created You To Be. He and Deborah live in Austin, TX.
Brad Mateer
Brad is a lifelong Christian leader who studied the Bible and leadership in college and graduate school, and then built a real estate business as a Christian layman. He and his family attend Eagle Brook Church. He serves as a member of the Board at Anselm House, the Christian Study Center at the University of Minnesota. He led them to acquire and develop a strategic ministry location at the heart of the university. He and his wife, Val, live in Blaine, MN.
David Clark
David brings a lifetime of experience as a professor, author, pastor, and university leader to his role as 360 Pastor’s founder. He has published extensively the areas of theology, ethics, and apologetics. His most notable book is To Know and Love God. David spent three decades serving in different roles at Bethel University in St Paul, MN, including a season as University Provost. He also invested eight years as a pastor. David leads 360 Pastor as a capstone to a lifetime of ministry service. He and Sandy live in Stillwater, MN.
Rick Stapleton
Rick is a faithful Minnesota sports fan who pastored three small-town churches, leading them to missional revitalization. In his last stop at CrossPoint Church in Hutchinson, MN, and in collaboration with its members, Rick led a cultural renewal that resulted in hundreds coming to new faith in Jesus Christ and growing them as Jesus’ disciples. Rick thoroughly enjoys coaching pastors to develop a holistic, biblical vision for personal, relational, and leadership growth for lasting impact. He lives with his wife, Marcie, in Eagan, MN.