Some friends and I sat down with a local pastor last weekend who allowed us to ask him questions about church leadership.  He had some great thoughts and I wanted to share a few of them with you. The pastor is Larry Osborne and his church is North Coast outside of San Diego. Here is some of what he said:

• You can't have community without healthy relationships.
• Leaders don't just set goals, they set direction.
• Our small groups are not judged by the community they build, not the depth of their Bible study.
• Discipleship is not necessarily leadership.
• Everything people tell you is a tool, not a rule.
• Today we live in tribes and are not a part of some homogeneous culture.
• Who are you and on what can you build?
• Kids react to "hyper" anything.
• Ask yourself: did I do my best under the circumstances?
• Any church venue can work with the right leadership.
• Use a lot of experiment language... people don't resist "trials."
• Create culture... make disciples in a healthy church environment.
• Leadership is an art and it shows up differently in everyone's life.

And finally, the line which has stuck with me the most:

• You have nothing to prove and no one to impress.