We all want a healthy leadership team, but where do you start in building one? We asked Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church in Vista, California, a regular contributor to Leadership, and author of The Unity Factor (Owl's Nest, 2001), a book about creating healthy elder boards.

Q: What made you write a book about church boards?

A: My interest in a healthy church leadership team came out of experiences I had growing up. I watched my dad as a deacon in a church experience long and frustrating nights and look forward to the day that he got off the board. Something didn't seem right with that picture. Then, when I came to North Coast Church, a small church about a year-and-a-half old, I assumed that everybody was ready to charge the hill. Instead, I found real people with real hurts, and I made the mistake of not focusing on meeting their needs, but saying, "Come on, let's go meet the needs of the world out there." We only grew by one person the first three years. That was a difficult ...