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Parable Church: How the Teachings of Jesus Shape the Culture of Our Faith
Unpacks unique insights from Jesus' parables that can help us understand and experience the full, transformative life in community we are divinely intended to live.
Christ never actually told us how to "do church." Yes, he had a lot to say about the church, but what he did say was mostly unrelated to stylistic issues or contextual trends. He never spoke about its leadership hierarchies or the pros and cons of denominational fellowships or the types of music. And yet, much of our time and energy as leaders and shepherds is consumed by chasing after tips, tricks, and secrets to "grow" churches.
While we've tended to focus on church growth through strategies, programs, and metric-based insights, Christ always focused on the heart and the values of the Father, the values that actually change lives and increase the spiritual health of his people.
By digging deeply into three important
The Parable of the Two Sons
The Parable of the Sower
The Parable of the Talents
Parable Church weaves together personal narratives, unique cultural observations, and compellingly fresh biblical insights to paint a picture of something unimaginably greater than what most people think of when they think of Jesus' Church.
Although Jesus never gave us directions for church, he did, through his parables, reveal what we should experience in our communities together--he revealed the culture of his kingdom.
Christ never actually told us how to "do church." Yes, he had a lot to say about the church, but what he did say was mostly unrelated to stylistic issues or contextual trends. He never spoke about its leadership hierarchies or the pros and cons of denominational fellowships or the types of music. And yet, much of our time and energy as leaders and shepherds is consumed by chasing after tips, tricks, and secrets to "grow" churches.
While we've tended to focus on church growth through strategies, programs, and metric-based insights, Christ always focused on the heart and the values of the Father, the values that actually change lives and increase the spiritual health of his people.
By digging deeply into three important
The Parable of the Two Sons
The Parable of the Sower
The Parable of the Talents
Parable Church weaves together personal narratives, unique cultural observations, and compellingly fresh biblical insights to paint a picture of something unimaginably greater than what most people think of when they think of Jesus' Church.
Although Jesus never gave us directions for church, he did, through his parables, reveal what we should experience in our communities together--he revealed the culture of his kingdom.
215 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 30, 2021
7 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 22, 2025
Kinda funny when you hear someone preach for a number of years, can't help but read the book in their voice. I found this excellent and insightful in many ways. When my family and I first started coming to Lifepoint I had some misgivings about joining such a large church. Given that it's evident the biblical-based philosophies presented in this book are still very much present at LPC, I've had a lot of those discomforts resolved in a good way. I highly recommend this book not just as a "church attendance" book (which it's really not) but just a great blueprint on how to live your Christian life in general.
September 6, 2021
Excellent book. The theme of the book is on welcoming people to the church and growing discipleship as a way to grow the church, but the emphasis is on faithfulness and the growth of individuals, not on growth of church membership. The author takes 3 parables ( the parable of the two sons, the parable of the sower, and the parable of the talents) and describes them and their messages in great detain and understanding.
October 1, 2021
More hidden treasure!
Pastor Mike and John Driver have written a wonderful exposition on discovering the “seeds” of truth that live right in front of us. How often have I or we read through the parables and have missed the obvious due to our misdirected focus on comparing ourselves with characters in the story and characters and accomplishments around us.
In a few other words, “grounding” and “soil turning” pages!
A must read for the “contemporary” Christian.
Pastor Mike and John Driver have written a wonderful exposition on discovering the “seeds” of truth that live right in front of us. How often have I or we read through the parables and have missed the obvious due to our misdirected focus on comparing ourselves with characters in the story and characters and accomplishments around us.
In a few other words, “grounding” and “soil turning” pages!
A must read for the “contemporary” Christian.
June 28, 2024
A good idea that doesn’t really go anywhere. Burnette attempts to take three parables to paint a picture of how churches should work. Some good thoughts about welcoming the lost from the prodigal son, but the sower and the talents just end up with extensive discussion about suburban church problems. Also extremely wordy and slow-moving, like a sermon series that would have been better as just one lesson.
April 24, 2021
Pastor Mike has a way of challenging you and loving you at the same time! Great book! Great perspective!
December 31, 2023
EXCELLENT BOOK! Written by a local Pastor in Clarksville, TN. Such an eye opener on the church body. A great read for those in ministry or looking into starting a church/small group.
March 30, 2021
In 2018,
Outreach
magazine named LifePoint Church (AG) in Clarksville, Tennessee, the fastest-growing church in America. Church leaders around the nation began calling Pastor Mike Burnette for advice.
“What three or four things did you do to experience such fast growth?” they asked.
Burnette prayed and searched Scripture and eventually concluded, “Jesus never told us how to ‘do church.’”
You read that right.
Jesus did not answer many of the questions that agitate church leaders. Pastors want answers about proper Sunday morning attire, budget priorities, effective outreach programs, corporate governance and organizational structure, and so on. According to Burnette, the New Testament epistles sometimes touch on these matters, but their answers are “contextual and descriptive, not necessarily prescriptive.” How-to-do-church questions were not on Jesus’ radar, however.
Instead, Burnette argues in his new book, Parable Church, Jesus talked about “how to be his church.” The central tenet of Jesus’ teaching was the kingdom of God. It was the gospel He proclaimed (Mark 1:15) and the reality He taught His followers to seek above all else (Matthew 6:33). What most concerned Jesus was “how his church can and should reflect the culture of the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus did not teach about the Kingdom in a straightforward, expository manner, though. Instead, He chose to speak indirectly, through parables. Jesus often introduced parables with the phrase, “The kingdom of heaven is like …” (e.g., Matthew 13:24,31,33).
Why did Jesus teach indirectly by comparison? “We tend to lean toward the technicalities of church rather than the One who breathed it into existence. In other words, we tend to legalize,” writes Burnette. “Through the parables, Jesus chose instead to conceptualize, to throw us off the scent of our endless checklists while still leaving us completely immersed in the aroma of his kingdom.”
Burnette focuses on three parables in particular because they illuminate important aspects of a church’s culture, defined as its “unique environment, language, vibe, DNA, value system, and the like.” These are the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32), the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3–23), and the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30).
The Parable of the Prodigal Son, which Burnette renames the Parable of the Two Sons, reveals a culture of invitation. Burnette writes, “The bottom line is that our Father cares about lost people [i.e., the younger brother], and if we walk in the attitude of the older brother in Jesus’ story, we will only care about ourselves.”
The emphasis of the Parable of the Sower is a culture of discipleship. The parable has three elements: the gospel (seed), the evangelist (sower), and the evangelized (soil). Its central insight is that “the primary energy of a healthy and kingdom-growing church is spent on cultivating, turning, rehabbing, preparing, and keeping the soil of the hearts of people sustained.”
A culture of stewardship is the point of the Parable of the Talents. Pastors often feel discouragement and jealousy when they compare the churches they lead to others. But if a single talent represented 20 years’ wages, then even the one-talent servant was wealthy. “No matter what God has entrusted to us, it’s his and we are incredibly well supplied because our Master backs his investment in us.”
It’s easy to talk about these Kingdom values. Pastors talk about invitation, discipleship and stewardship all the time, after all. The words appear in the mission, vision and value statements of many churches. All too often, though, the words don’t accurately reflect congregational culture. What Parable Church does well is help church leaders align their reality with the values Jesus’ teaching reveals.
Book Reviewed
Mike Burnette with John Driver, Parable Church: How the Teachings of Jesus Shape the Culture of Our Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Reflective, 2021).
P.S. If you like my review, please click "Helpful" on my Amazon review page.
P.P.S. This review appears in the April 2021 issue of Influence magazine and appears here by permission.
“What three or four things did you do to experience such fast growth?” they asked.
Burnette prayed and searched Scripture and eventually concluded, “Jesus never told us how to ‘do church.’”
You read that right.
Jesus did not answer many of the questions that agitate church leaders. Pastors want answers about proper Sunday morning attire, budget priorities, effective outreach programs, corporate governance and organizational structure, and so on. According to Burnette, the New Testament epistles sometimes touch on these matters, but their answers are “contextual and descriptive, not necessarily prescriptive.” How-to-do-church questions were not on Jesus’ radar, however.
Instead, Burnette argues in his new book, Parable Church, Jesus talked about “how to be his church.” The central tenet of Jesus’ teaching was the kingdom of God. It was the gospel He proclaimed (Mark 1:15) and the reality He taught His followers to seek above all else (Matthew 6:33). What most concerned Jesus was “how his church can and should reflect the culture of the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus did not teach about the Kingdom in a straightforward, expository manner, though. Instead, He chose to speak indirectly, through parables. Jesus often introduced parables with the phrase, “The kingdom of heaven is like …” (e.g., Matthew 13:24,31,33).
Why did Jesus teach indirectly by comparison? “We tend to lean toward the technicalities of church rather than the One who breathed it into existence. In other words, we tend to legalize,” writes Burnette. “Through the parables, Jesus chose instead to conceptualize, to throw us off the scent of our endless checklists while still leaving us completely immersed in the aroma of his kingdom.”
Burnette focuses on three parables in particular because they illuminate important aspects of a church’s culture, defined as its “unique environment, language, vibe, DNA, value system, and the like.” These are the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32), the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3–23), and the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30).
The Parable of the Prodigal Son, which Burnette renames the Parable of the Two Sons, reveals a culture of invitation. Burnette writes, “The bottom line is that our Father cares about lost people [i.e., the younger brother], and if we walk in the attitude of the older brother in Jesus’ story, we will only care about ourselves.”
The emphasis of the Parable of the Sower is a culture of discipleship. The parable has three elements: the gospel (seed), the evangelist (sower), and the evangelized (soil). Its central insight is that “the primary energy of a healthy and kingdom-growing church is spent on cultivating, turning, rehabbing, preparing, and keeping the soil of the hearts of people sustained.”
A culture of stewardship is the point of the Parable of the Talents. Pastors often feel discouragement and jealousy when they compare the churches they lead to others. But if a single talent represented 20 years’ wages, then even the one-talent servant was wealthy. “No matter what God has entrusted to us, it’s his and we are incredibly well supplied because our Master backs his investment in us.”
It’s easy to talk about these Kingdom values. Pastors talk about invitation, discipleship and stewardship all the time, after all. The words appear in the mission, vision and value statements of many churches. All too often, though, the words don’t accurately reflect congregational culture. What Parable Church does well is help church leaders align their reality with the values Jesus’ teaching reveals.
Book Reviewed
Mike Burnette with John Driver, Parable Church: How the Teachings of Jesus Shape the Culture of Our Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Reflective, 2021).
P.S. If you like my review, please click "Helpful" on my Amazon review page.
P.P.S. This review appears in the April 2021 issue of Influence magazine and appears here by permission.
August 25, 2021
2/3 of the way in, Driver picks parables that are rarely discussed well in context, and points out the counter-intuitive messages they carry for church leaders. That makes the book a humbling, but very nutritional experience.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews