Vibrant Leadership

Part 3 of a series on the book "Transformational Church"

The second transformational loop described by Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer is labeled Engage. It contains three elements, the first of which is Vibrant Leadership.


Transformational leaders let God shape their church. The TC is Christ being presented to the community. TCs are tenacious about the vision and are people focused.

Understanding Transformational Leadership

• TL understands that the church exists for the mission of God, and God gives leaders to help churches focus on the mission
• TL focuses on leveraging every life for the kingdom of God around the world
• TL is focused on the outside of the leader’s world
• TL is missional in perspective and action-oriented in decision

Shift in Thinking

• From one to many leaders
• From “me” to “we”
• From personal power to people empowerment
• From church to the kingdom of God

Whether from bricks and mortar, programs, or just the inward pull of self, the church can become distracted from the mission of the kingdom. It did not take long in the early church for the epicenter of God’s activity to move away from house to house and life to life. With the advent of church buildings, the temptation was to become building-focused, inward, self-absorbed congregations. People became spectators. Scattering throughout the community as the church was replaced with the sacred, passive gathering in one place. When church is reduced to that place on the corner where we go on Sunday, we reduce the church and kingdom to something smaller than God intended.

The Leadership Structure of Transformational Churches

• Traditional committees gave way to affinity-based teams
• Membership is encouraged to discover strengths, spiritual gifts, and talents
• Churches had less structure as opposed to more structure
• Structures reflect confidence in their pastor and positional leaders
• Congregational members did not vote on every issue
• Small advisory teams and accountability groups worked alongside the pastor and staff

Jesus, Leading Transformation

• Jesus invested in people
• Jesus saw long and far
• Jesus sent people away from Him on mission
• Jesus grieved for communities
• Jesus led a balanced life
• Jesus embraced other cultures
• Jesus gave up His will
• Jesus surrounded Himself with lost people
• Jesus’ harvest vision was leveraged by prayer
• Jesus felt the needs of the people

Transformational Leadership Environments

• Value a team approach to ministry
• Values a sharper mission focus
• Values new leadership priorities

Transitional Leaders advance through the following steps:

• I join Him on mission or the “encounter” level
• I lead others to join Him on mission or the “influence” level
• I lead others to lead others, to join Him on mission, or the “leading leaders” level
• I lead others to lead others to lead others to join Him on mission, or the “movement” level

The excerpts above are from the book "Transformational Churches" by Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer. TC is the result of a comprehensive study of thousands of churches where truly changing lives is the standard set for ministry.

Next: Embrace - Relational Intentionality