What We Like About Transformation

There are churches people attend, and then there are churches people have opinions about. Transformation Church is firmly in the second category. Mention Pastor Michael Todd in a room full of church leaders and you are unlikely to get a neutral response. Somebody loves the creativity. Somebody thinks it is too much. Someone has watched an entire sermon series on YouTube without ever setting foot in Tulsa. Someone else saw a 45-second clip online and has already formed a complete theological position about the ministry from it. That is church in the digital age.

Transformation Church, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has never seemed especially interested in being universally understood. Its leaders describe the mission as 're-presenting God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ,' with an emphasis on presenting the gospel in a relevant and progressive way. Michael and Natalie Todd have served as lead pastors since February 2015, after founding pastor Bishop Gary McIntosh entrusted the congregation to them following 15 years of ministry.

That word re-presenting explains quite a bit. Transformation does not seem to believe the gospel needs improvement. It does believe the way churches present it can create unnecessary distance between the message and the people they hope will hear it.

You can debate individual creative decisions, and many people have. But it is harder to debate the larger result: Transformation Church has become exceptionally good at getting a generation of people to pay attention to church who were supposedly no longer interested. That is one of several things we like about Transformation.

They Refused to Believe a Generation Was Gone

For years, churches have discussed Millennials and Gen Z with the tone normally reserved for a missing-person investigation. Where did they go? Why don't they come to church? Why won't they sit through what previous generations sat through? Why are they skeptical of institutions? Why are they watching church online instead of attending? Those are legitimate questions. The problem comes when curiosity turns into resignation. Somewhere along the way, some churches quietly decided an entire generation simply did not want God.

Transformation Church appears to have started with a different assumption. Maybe some people had not rejected Jesus. Maybe they had rejected the version of church they had been shown. That distinction matters. Transformation's stated mission specifically includes both the 'lost and found,' suggesting the church sees itself as serving not only people with no Christian background, but also people who may already know church language while still needing transformation. Its public ministry now includes digital discipleship, youth and children's ministries, prayer gatherings, large conferences and a substantial online content ecosystem.

Transformation did not reach younger audiences by acting embarrassed about Christianity. It did something more interesting. It communicated Christianity using the visual language, pacing, platforms and storytelling instincts of the generation it hoped to reach.

There is a lesson there for churches of every style. Relevance does not require skinny jeans, sneakers, smoke machines or a pastor who knows what is trending on TikTok. Relevance begins by respecting the people you are trying to reach enough to understand how they communicate. A traditional Baptist church can do that. A Pentecostal storefront can do that. A rural congregation can do that. A liturgical church can do that.

The question is not whether your church should look like Transformation. It probably should not. The better question is whether your church has learned to communicate with people who did not grow up inside its particular culture.

Creativity at Transformation Is Not Decoration

One of the easiest criticisms to make about creative churches is that they are turning worship into entertainment. Sometimes that criticism is deserved. Churches can confuse spectacle with substance. A beautiful production can create a strong emotional experience without forming anyone spiritually. Excellence can become excess. Pastors can begin measuring impact by clips, applause and views. But dismissing all creativity as entertainment misses something important about Transformation Church. They appear to treat creativity as a language. Their Easter presentation Ransom, for example, has been described by the church as a modern retelling of the biblical story of redemption. The church calls the production a combination of theater and truth and has distributed it through online presentations in addition to live experiences. Whether every Christian prefers that approach is beside the point. The more useful leadership question is this: Why would a church invest that much thought, design, music, production and storytelling into presenting a message it believes people desperately need to hear? Because communication matters. Jesus used stories. The prophets used dramatic imagery. The tabernacle itself was filled with symbolism, craftsmanship, color and sensory detail. Christian history is full of architecture, stained glass, music, paintings, poetry, drama and written liturgy created to communicate theological truth. Creativity is not a modern invention. What has changed are the canvases. Transformation uses film, stage production, graphic design, music, social media, fashion, set design and digital storytelling. Those are simply contemporary communication environments. The church's online strategy has also been unusually effective. A 2024 analysis by Pro Church Tools highlighted Transformation's willingness to create social content specifically for mobile environments rather than simply cutting clips from professional-camera footage. Former Transformation content strategist Rohn Starling described an approach built around authenticity, consistency and understanding how content actually behaves on social platforms. That sounds obvious until you look at how many churches still treat social media as the place where Sunday announcements go to die. Transformation understands that YouTube is not television, Instagram is not the church bulletin, and a smartphone screen is not a miniature sanctuary. Different mediums require different communication choices. That does not mean changing the message. It means understanding the room.

They Give Like They Mean It

This may be the part of the Transformation story that deserves considerably more attention. The creativity gets clips. The preaching gets debates. The outfits get comments. The generosity sometimes gets a headline and then disappears from the larger conversation. But Transformation Church has made giving a visible part of its culture. On its own Tulsa campus page, the church describes generosity with a simple principle: they give 'just to give, and not to get.' That language has shown up in some remarkable actions. In December 2020, Transformation Church gave away approximately $3.2 million in a single service. According to reporting at the time, more than $1.55 million went to other churches, approximately $1 million went to organizations, six vehicles were given to individuals who needed them, and another $200,000 was directed toward helping people eliminate personal debt. Recipients reportedly were not told beforehand that they would receive the gifts. That is worth sitting with. A church gave more than $1.5 million to other churches. Churches regularly talk about Kingdom over competition. Transformation put a dollar amount on it. It is relatively easy to celebrate another congregation when that church operates across town, serves a different demographic or has a smaller platform. It becomes more revealing when generosity means transferring resources out of your own institution and into someone else's ministry. That is a very different expression of 'we're all on the same team.' The broader generosity has included medical-debt relief as well. In 2020, Transformation Church partnered with RIP Medical Debt, contributing $40,000 that was used to eliminate more than $4 million in medical debt. Whatever your preferred worship style, that is difficult to reduce to smoke and lights.

Generosity Changes What People Think Church Is For

A skeptical person may never understand why a church needs a massive auditorium. They may question salaries, production budgets, buildings or equipment. But when churches visibly use their resources to relieve suffering, support other ministries and meet tangible needs, they offer the public a different picture of what institutional Christianity can accomplish. This matters because younger generations have grown up seeing plenty of stories about ministries taking. Taking offerings. Taking advantage. Taking loyalty for granted. Taking power. Taking people's trust and sometimes mishandling it. Visible generosity creates another narrative. It says a church can gather resources and then release them. It says growth does not always have to terminate in a bigger building. It says another pastor's success does not threaten your church. It says money raised in the name of Jesus can actually leave the institution and touch someone who cannot pay the church back. Transformation's giving page frames generosity in terms of changed lives, restored families and transformed communities. That public theology of generosity matters because it connects giving to mission rather than merely institutional maintenance. No church should give simply to create a viral moment. Generosity becomes unhealthy when people in need are turned into props for content. But public generosity can also teach. It can inspire members to become generous personally, challenge other churches to collaborate, and remind donors what resources can accomplish when stewardship moves beyond survival. The important question is not whether every act of giving happens privately. Motives matter, and so does impact.

They Understand That Church Can Be Serious Without Always Feeling Serious

Transformation Church can be funny. It can be visually loud. Pastor Mike Todd can preach a serious theological idea and then say something that sounds like it came directly out of a group chat. For people raised in highly formal church cultures, that can be disorienting. For other people, it is precisely what makes the room feel accessible. There is sometimes an assumption that reverence must always look somber. Yet some of the healthiest church communities know how to hold holiness and joy at the same time. Transformation's style communicates that people do not have to become culturally unfamiliar versions of themselves before they can participate in church. That is particularly significant for younger adults who may enter with little traditional church vocabulary. They do not necessarily know when to stand. They may not know why everyone else knows the words. They may not understand denominational shorthand. They may not know what a 'right hand of fellowship' is and, depending on the church, may be slightly alarmed when someone announces it. Accessibility matters. A congregation does not have to remove theological depth to explain itself clearly. It can simply stop assuming everyone already knows how church works.

They Built a Church That Lives Beyond Sunday Morning

Transformation's influence cannot be understood solely through the physical congregation in Tulsa. Its digital footprint is part of the ministry itself. By 2026, third-party church-influence tracking described Transformation as having grown from a congregation of roughly 300 people in a former grocery-store setting into a ministry with a significant global online audience. Numbers like that should always be approached carefully. Followers are not disciples. Views are not baptisms. A person watching three minutes of a sermon reel is not automatically part of a spiritual community. Transformation's digital significance is still worth recognizing because the church has not treated online ministry simply as a camera pointed at an auditorium. It has created content native to digital platforms, distributed full teaching series, developed online engagement and built messages that continue circulating long after the Sunday service ends. That matters for the generation many churches have written off. Their lives are digital and physical at the same time. They work online, date online, shop online, learn online, build friendships online, watch sports online, attend meetings online, discover music online and research churches online. A church that dismisses digital ministry because 'real church happens in person' may be defending a theological principle while missing a missionary opportunity. The wiser response is both. Invite people into embodied Christian community while also meeting them in digital spaces where actual human beings are spending significant parts of their lives. Transformation seems to understand that distinction.

They Are Not Afraid to Try Something That Might Not Work

Creativity creates another problem. Sometimes creative ideas flop. A series does not connect. A production becomes controversial. An illustration lands differently than intended. A social campaign goes nowhere. A risk receives criticism. Churches that innovate publicly will occasionally fail publicly. Transformation has certainly experienced criticism, including significant controversy around some creative choices. That history should not simply be ignored in an article about what the church does well. But there is another side to the risk. Churches can become so afraid of criticism that they stop attempting anything unfamiliar. Every new idea gets killed in committee. Every experiment must have a precedent. Every presentation has to resemble last year. Every change requires unanimous emotional comfort. Eventually, protecting the institution from criticism becomes more important than reaching people outside it. Transformation appears more willing than most churches to accept the risk that comes with experimentation. That does not mean every experiment deserves defense. It means churches should develop the maturity to distinguish between an idea that needs correction and a culture that should stop creating. Those are not the same thing.

They Know Their Assignment

One of the most important things Transformation Church demonstrates is the power of knowing who you are. Transformation is not trying to become a traditional Baptist church. It is not trying to become a quiet neighborhood parish. It is not attempting to appeal equally to every Christian demographic. That clarity gives the ministry permission to make decisions consistent with its mission. This is where church comparison becomes dangerous. A pastor sees Transformation's reach and thinks, 'We need a bigger LED wall.' No. A church sees Michael Todd's social reach and thinks, 'Pastor needs to start making reels.' Maybe, but probably not as your first move. Another ministry sees the production value and decides creativity is the secret. It isn't. The transferable lesson is not the stage. It is clarity. Know the people you are called to reach. Understand how they communicate. Build a culture that makes sense for that assignment. Invest in the channels they actually use. Give younger leaders meaningful responsibility. Create things with excellence. Be willing to experiment. Stay grounded enough to correct yourself when an experiment misses. Then resist the urge to become someone else's church. Transformation succeeds at being Transformation. Your church needs to succeed at being faithful to its own assignment. This is a natural place for an internal link to the What Wheeler Avenue Can Teach the Modern Church article, phrased naturally, since both articles are about churches with a distinct sense of identity and legacy.

And Yes, We Like the Generosity Most

There is a lot to admire about Transformation. We like the creativity and the willingness to experiment. We like that a church with massive digital influence does not treat online ministry as an afterthought. We like that younger adults can watch a sermon without feeling that Christianity requires them to enter a cultural time machine first. We like a pastor willing to communicate in his natural voice. We like a congregation willing to spend real money making Christian storytelling visually compelling. We like that the ministry appears to understand that communication itself is part of stewardship. But the generosity may say the most. Giving millions to other churches says something. Buying cars for people who need transportation says something. Helping people escape medical debt says something. Supporting organizations outside the walls of your own institution says something. A church can tell the world it believes in generosity. Transformation has repeatedly shown receipts. And in an era when many people are suspicious about churches and money, perhaps one of the most radical things a growing congregation can do is become known not only for what it builds, but also for what it gives away.

What Transformation Should Make Other Churches Ask

Maybe your church will never produce a cinematic Easter presentation. Maybe your pastor will never go viral. Maybe nobody on the communications team knows how to make a Reel, and the person running Facebook is Sister Johnson because she is the only one who remembered the password. Fine. Transformation Church does not need to become a template. It can become a question. Are we communicating with the people we say we want to reach? Are we still expecting younger generations to respond to Jesus, or have we quietly given up on them? Does our creativity serve the message, or have we stopped creating because tradition feels safer? When our church grows, does our generosity grow with it? Do we celebrate what God is doing through other congregations enough to invest in them? Could our community point to tangible ways its life is better because our church exists? Those questions travel much farther than Tulsa. Transformation Church is not perfect, and studying a church should never become celebrity worship. Healthy churches learn from strengths without pretending weaknesses do not exist. Still, some strengths deserve acknowledgment. Transformation has shown that churches can be unapologetically Christian and culturally fluent. It has demonstrated that creativity can be taken seriously as a ministry discipline. It has used digital media to carry preaching far outside Oklahoma, and it has continued to attract people from generations many churches had begun discussing more as a problem than a mission field. Perhaps most compellingly, it has repeatedly demonstrated that the resources accumulated by a large church do not have to stay inside that church. For all the conversations Transformation Church creates, that may be the one worth having most. A church should be known by more than what it gathers. Sometimes the clearest evidence of transformation is what it is willing to give away.

For a related look at reaching younger adults without chasing aesthetics, read Stop Trying to Make Church Cool .

For more on the culture beneath a church's public strengths, read Your Church Already Has a Culture .