I am so excited about Transformational Church, my new book co-authored with Thom Rainer. I talked about this earlier this week to the attendees of the Pastors' Conference. I wanted to share it with you as well.

Transformational Church is not another book about church. It is a book about God. Transformational Church calls for a new scorecard for the church. It is about hope for God's plan to use ordinary people set apart by a passionate love for Him and His mission to the world.

Transformational Church is not another book written by people who are "fed up" with church. Based on some of the most extensive research ever done on the church in America, we have seen our hope renewed. We heard amazing stories of new life in churches and hope restored to congregations who were desperate for God's presence.

In the book, we wrote: "The majority of churches are struggling to make a transformational impact on people and communities. But we found something exciting woven throughout the research results. There are gleams of light in the shadows. We hear a hopeful sound coming from some churches across North America. The Transformational Churches we found are the bearers of hope for our church leaders and all believers."

The stories in the book are focused on God's intervention in local communities through His work in these churches. Beginning with a biblical foundation and learning from the principles discovered through the research, we want you to embrace two incredibly biblical ideas.

Incredibly Biblical Idea #1: Transformation. This is what happens when God gets hold of the life of an everyday person. He transforms them with the gospel. Every thought and action begins to change. Values and attitudes change. And people notice. They change from living for self to dying to self. Soon, life focuses solely on the mission of Christ.

Incredibly Biblical Idea #2: The Local Church. I believe in the church because of her Lord. It is the gathering of transformed people to hear the gospel, worship, and then scatter to participate in God's mission. The church is God's chosen instrument to spread the gospel. It is His people engaged in His mission to carry His message into their culture and every culture. The local church is not an antiquated idea but a necessity in our day.

And when these two words are combined using God's perspective on and involvement in them both, then you have something even more compelling. And that is what happened when we discovered the principles included in Transformational Church.

Surveying thousands of churches in hundreds of communities from various sizes and denominations, we encountered a wide diversity among congregations. But, even in the diversity, a clear pattern emerged about the elements necessary for a church to deliver transformation.

We need a new scorecard--one that counts more than just bodies, budgets, and buildings. And we found that new scorecard, in Transformational Churches across America. Check it out, and see that there is cause for great hope.