Q: For those who aren’t familiar with your story, briefly tell us how you got into ministry and the unexpected way God put you on a path to becoming a pastor.
A: It was kind of a roundabout way. I was a music producer and a musician, and I’d worked a lot with churches. The church that I now lead asked me to produce the music for their conference with the late Myles Munroe. Afterwards, I started running sound and eventually began leading the music ministry here. Around that same time, my parents started a church meeting on Sunday nights. My Mom said, “God told me you’re supposed to do something with the youth.” And I was like, “You have four other sons. Somebody else is supposed to do something with the youth.” I had never preached a message, never prepped a sermon. Before I walked into the room for our first meeting, God told me four things: be real, tell on yourself, don’t judge, and love them first. That was my only instruction. The first time we met, seven people showed up and three of them were my brothers! In six months, it went from those seven people to 150 young people coming.
Q: In 2015, you were officially named Senior Pastor of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. What powerful declaration did you make the first moment you addressed the congregation.
A: That first Sunday, I told them that we would be a multigenerational church, a multiethnic church, a multiplying church, and a multi-campus church. We were none of those things at the time; but by God’s grace, we are those things now.
Q: This month, people across America are celebrating Black History. What does it mean to you to look out over the many faces in your church, including African Americans, and see such a multicultural expression of Christianity?
A: It’s a picture of Heaven on the earth like Revelation talks about: every tongue, every creed, being able to worship around God’s throne! It’s so crazy that politics and past offenses and the way we were raised—all this other stuff – keeps people apart. Martin Luther King Jr. said that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning. I’m grateful that we get to say, “No, it’s not.” On any given Sunday at Transformation Church, you will see everyone from an older, white businessman to a young Hispanic girl to an African-American single father serving on the same team. And it’s just like a beautiful picture of Heaven.
Q: How would you describe the mission and vision of Transformation Church as you reach out to the lost and hurting in your community?
A: There is only one thing that we do: we present God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ. And I truly believe that representing God is what we have been called to do in three different ways: Represent God, which is show God differently. Represent God, which is give God differently, and represent God, which is promote God differently. We just try to wrap up Jesus in a brand new way and give it to people so that they can be transformed in Christ.
Q: In a recent sermon series called “Crazy Faith,” you shared your vision to embark on a building campaign that once looked impossible to most people. Describe the moment that gave birth to that dream in your heart and first step of faith you took.
A: In 2015, I was sitting in my daughter’s nursery when the Holy Spirit told me the Spirit Bank Event Center would become Transformation Church. At the time, that seemed crazy because we were only a church of 300, but I wrote down every detail the Lord spoke to my heart and held onto it in faith—knowing He was the only one who could make it happen.
Q: The story of you acquiring your new church building is full of twists and turns. What were some of the obstacles standing in the way of your vision, and how did you stay the course in the face of so many distractions?
A: When we first began pursuing the Spirit Bank Event Center, I was told they weren’t taking any offers on the building. I was like, “Wait, what? Lord, You told me this building was ours?” But what I learned from that and other moments when this vision appeared impossible was that God often uses obstacles as opportunities to reveal His glory. So, I held fast to what God said above anything anyone told me and this dream came to pass.
Q: How would you define “Crazy Faith?”
A: I think that God calls us to live with faith, and most of us live in fear. Society want facts, but God wants faith. And so, crazy faith is living at the point of knowing that everything is not going to make sense, but it will make a miracle. Listening and obeying, that’s the key to this. And I’m a living testimony of that.
Q: During your recent appearance on Marcus & Joni, Daystar Founder and President, Marcus Lamb, surprised you with $100,000 toward the cost of your building campaign. Describe how those funds are being used to impact eternity through the expansion of Transformation Church.
A: We got the building in August 2019. The goal was to pay off this building and be debt-free within seven months of getting it. And so, we’re believing God right now in crazy faith that we would be completely debt-free this month. And so that’s how the $100,000 has been used. Being debt-free gives us more resources to be able to impact families, to be able to offer more content for people who are hurting or in other countries that don’t hear the Gospel. So, we’re excited about that.
Q: Right now, there are people around the world facing situations that appear to be impossible. What would you say to encourage someone who feels led by God down a path that requires “crazy faith?”
A: Number one, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. I encourage you, even if you don’t have the faith for yourself, hear faith. Listen to faith. Get around people who speak faith. Start playing the Word, because that’s how faith grows. Faith is a muscle, and you’ve got to work it out. A lot of people don’t have faith, but they aren’t around anything that gives them faith. And number two is when God tells you to do something, no matter how impossible it sounds, write it down and repeat it. Because life and death are in the power of the tongue, and we know that a vision is not even considered a vision until you write it down and make it plain. So many people have visions in their head, visions in their heart, but they’ve never taken the faith step to write it down. It costs no money. And to tell one person you trust, “Hey, I really believe God’s calling me to do this.”
Q: Looking back over the last few years of your life and how God has expanded your influence, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned while serving the Lord in ministry?
A: The pace of grace. To stride. And to stride means to walk in long, decisive steps in an intentional direction. My nature is to strive, which is using all your effort and energy to make something happen. And God has taught me that He can do way more with less if I would just listen to Him. And that’s the crux of my ministry. I have a lot of invitations to go speak, and I take very few because we have a special needs son, and all my kids are six and under, and I’ve got a brand new church. But God’s allowing hundreds of thousands of people to watch the messages while I’m at home instead of me going to everybody’s conference and trying to get it out three thousand people at a time. And He’s like, “see, I’ll do more with less.” And so, I think that’s been the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to just find God’s pace. Wherever God’s at—that’s where I’m going to be.
Q: What does the future hold for Pastor Mike Todd and Transformation Church? Where is God leading you as the future unfolds?
A: Our next big thing is the Crazy Faith Tour! We are going to take that thing on the road and really allow Transformation Nation, all the people who watch around the world, to come experience it where they live. And then I’m releasing “Relationship Goals,” the book, and it’s going to be good.