Every leader needs mentors in their life. One of the men I have the privilege to have in my life is a great leader (and man) – Larry Osborne. Larry is the Lead Pastor of North Coast Church – an innovative and inspiring church of about 10,000 people located in San Diego, California.

He and his staff have served us as a church staff so well over the years. I got the opportunity to interview him recently about leadership, mission, and his personal life with Jesus.

1. What are some of the biggest challenges you are facing right now in your Pastoral/leadership ministry?
I think the greatest challenge I face pastoring in a large and growing ministry is distinguishing which opportunities and needs have our name on them. In a sea of great opportunities and challenges it’s always easy to lose focus. There are lots of good things and important needs we must say, “No,” to in order to focus on what God has called us to do. That’s always hard to do.

2. What are some of the secrets you’ve learned to being healthy in leadership?
Three stand out. (1) A genuine team approach to ministry that allows others to speak hard things into my life (and push back on my ideas). (2) Building and maintaining consistent margin in my life in order to provide the breathing room I need to respond to opportunities, crisis, or simply the leading of the Lord. (3) Never forgetting my wife and kids as my top ministry priority. Everything and everyone else is second.

3. What do daily and weekly devotions look like for you?
For my personality, too much structure weighs me down. So my devotions tend to ebb and flow with life. I do far better with blocks of flexible and spontaneous time. A structured or scheduled time in morning, evening, or any other time has never worked for me. Instead of drawing me closer to the Lord, it’s always sucked the life out of my walk with him.

4. What would be two pieces of leadership advice for pastors or marketplace leaders?
Pastors: You have nothing to prove and no one to impress. Do the best you can under the circumstances then take a nap.

Marketplace Leaders: Never forget you are in full-time ministry – serving on the front lines. Your calling is a high and might one.

5. What are you most passionate about right now? What are you hopeful about in regard to the church?
I’m passionate about mentoring and raising up the next generation of pastors and leaders. The church is in great hands. The Lord is raising up a bunch of great young leaders across the country.

6. What do you think the greatest challenges for the church in the next 5-10 years will be?
How can we stay faithful to scripture without being written off as bigots. Tolerance no longer means you have the right to be wrong. It now means everyone is right. That obviously doesn’t jive with scripture. Speaking truth into a “tolerance culture” is not going to get easier with time.

7. What would be one or two strategies for reaching and transforming our cities and impacting our country?
We’re big on community service as a credibility builder and door opener. I can’t imagine Jesus just preaching the gospel without also ministering to people. It’s what drew the crowds and gave his message credibility. We try to follow the Jesus model. Heal and preach.

For instance, we average over two service projects a day in our community. In addition, every two years we close down the church for the entire weekend and head out for a massive Weekend of Service. Our last one was in April. Twelve thousand of our folks completed 600 projects at 118 sites with a value of over $2,000,000 in goods and services.

That opens doors that would otherwise be slammed shut. Schools and city government leaders that used to want nothing to do with us now call us for help. That’s a big change.

8. Who has been the greatest influence/mentor in your life? What did they teach you?
My main mentor was a man named, Wally Norling. His fruit grew on other people’s trees. And that’s the most important lesson he taught me. It’s about the kingdom – not my castle.

Larry is the author of some amazing books – the most recent being a very relevant book right now called Thriving in Babylon which I would encourage you to grab on your Kindle or old school paper book style here.