Zealous faith can have a dangerous, dark side. While recent calls for radical Christians have challenged many to be more passionate about their faith, the down side can be a budding arrogance and self-righteousness that “accidentally” sneaks into our outlook.

In Accidental Pharisees, bestselling author Larry Osborne diagnoses nine of the most common traps that can ensnare Christians on the road to a deeper life of faith.  Rejecting attempts to turn the call to follow Christ into a new form of legalism, he shows you how to avoid the temptations of pride, exclusivity, legalism, and hypocrisy,

Larry reminds us that attempts to fan the flames of full-on discipleship and call people to Christlikeness should be rooted in love and humility. Christians stirred by calls to radical discipleship, but unsure how to respond, will be challenged and encouraged to develop a truly Christlike zeal for God.

Discussion questions are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

Church leaders are called to love and care for their flock, just as Peter did. Unpack the instruction for church leaders found in 1 Peter 5:1-4, where they are exhorted to shepherd the flock among them.

Some instruction is timeless. Regardless of the age in which we live, certain instruction carries no expiration on its relevance. The best practical advice comes from the Bible, and in particular, 1 Peter 5:1-4. It’s in this short passage where leaders are exhorted to shepherd the flock among them.

Unfortunately, most modern leaders have precious little experience tending sheep, and many of the implications that were well understood when Peter penned these words are lost on today’s listener. Pastor, author, and leadership consultant Larry Osborne finds the parallels to be numerous, well-worth reviewing and understanding anew.

In Lead Like a Shepherd, Osborne discovered that instruction on how to be a good leader is like the passage about Peter, with such lessons as:

• A shepherd leads them to water even when they fear it,
• A shepherd never allows one sick lamb to destroy the flock,
• And a shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.

Lead Like a Shepherd discusses how when leaders truly understand Peter’s words of exhortation to lead like a shepherd, then they will begin to see the path that leads them to leading like a shepherd.

Why closing the back door of your church is even more important than opening the front door wider.

In Sticky Church, author and pastor Larry Osborne offers a time-tested strategy for doing so: sermon-based small groups that dig deeper into the weekend message and tightly velcro members to the ministry. It’s a strategy that enabled Osborne’s congregation to grow from a handful of people to one of the larger churches in the nation–without any marketing or special programming. Sticky Church tells the inspiring story of North Coast Church’s phenomenal growth and offers practical tips for launching your own sermon-based small group ministry.

Topics include:

• Why stickiness is so important
• Why most of our discipleship models don’t work very well
• Why small groups always make a church more honest and transparent
• What makes groups grow deeper and sticker over time

Sticky Church is an ideal book for church leaders who want to start or retool their small group ministry–and velcro their congregation to the Bible and each other.

In Sticky Church, author and pastor Larry Osborne makes the case that closing the back door of your church is even more important than opening the front door wider. He offers a time-tested strategy for doing so: sermon-based small groups that dig deeper into the weekend message and tightly velcro members to the ministry. It’s a strategy that enabled Osborne’s congregation to grow from a handful of people to one of the larger churches in the nation?without any marketing or special programming. Sticky Church tells the inspiring story of North Coast Church’s phenomenal growth and offers practical tips for launching your own sermon-based small group ministry. Topics include: Why stickiness is so importantWhy most of our discipleship models don’t work very wellWhy small groups always make a church more honest and transparent. What makes groups grow deeper and sticker over timeSticky Church is an ideal book for church leaders who want to start or retool their small group ministry?and velcro their congregation to the Bible and each other.

Sticky Leaders begins with the topic that most books about innovation avoid altogether: failure.

Most books on leadership make it sound as if successful innovation is the end result of a carefully followed formula. But you can’t have innovation without change. The simple fact is that when it comes to any new venture, failure is the surest result of the inevitable change process.

Respected pastor and author, Larry Osborne, explains how understanding this dirty little secret behind innovation can bring both stability and creativity to organizations, especially those with teams of people that focus on innovation, creativity, new ideas, and problem-solving.

In Sticky Leaders, you’ll learn:

• How to encourage innovation’s most powerful igniters and accelerators
• How to avoid the most common killers of innovation
• How to recognize and break through ceilings of complexity and competency
• The six pitfalls of growth and what you can do to avoid them
• The three questions every leader needs to ask before launching any new endeavor
• The counterintuitive practices that successful change agents and serial innovators use to greatly increase their odds of success.

Using the wisdom and principles found in this book, you will be prepared to lead dynamically without causing uncertainty or insecurity in your organization or ministry.

Learn the secrets to building and maintaining a healthy, productive, and unified ministry team that sticks together for the long haul.

Serving as a church leader can be a tough calling. Whatever your role, odds are you’ve known your share of the frustration and disillusionment that comes with turf battles, conflicting vision, and marathon meetings. You may have asked yourself, “How did it get this way?”

With twenty years of front-line ministry experience, Larry Osborne understands congregations (as baffling as they can sometimes be) and he know how the best-intentioned teams can become disrupted and disunified. With this book, he aims to shore up the foundation of a healthy team–what does a unified and thriving church leadership look like and how can it be achieved?

Sticky Teams is divided into three main sections, dealing with key aspects of what it takes to develop long-term, efficient harmony:

• Landmines and Roadblocks exposes the organizational structures, policies, and traditions that can unintentionally sabotage even the best of teams. You’ll discover strategies for managing conflicts and getting around obstacles.
• Equipped for Ministry explores what it takes to get everyone on the same page and headed in the same direction. Chapters deal with practical tips for board, staff, and congregational alignment.
• Communication examines what it takes to keep everyone on the same page, with a special emphasis on some especially dicey areas and issues of ministry, such as conversations about money.

Whatever your situation; from start-up phase, to mid-sized, to megachurch, Osborne has been there. As the pastor of North Coast Church, he’s walked his board, staff, and congregation through the process of becoming more genuinely unified, and, because of that, better able to carry out God’s design for his church.

With warm encouragement and insight, he shares expertise that most pastors and leadership teams learn only from long experience: how to invest the time to create church harmony and how to lead so that unity is maintained long-term.