Congregations who need to transform can experience how other congregations have transformed. The ones they need to seek are those who are a little larger, of a compatible denominational culture, with a congruent theology of leadership, in a similar type of context, and who have gone through a transformation process in recent years.
This is different than emulating a congregation who is much larger, from a denominational culture that is radically different, with a dissimilar theology of pastoral leadership, in a context that fueled numerical growth, and who were new congregations within the past 20 years or so.