I still remember when Pastor Dennis Sy started our staff meeting at Victory Makati with a devotional based on a book he read. He was so passionate about what he learned when he was sharing with us and asked us to also read the book. He said that it will radically change not just our ministry but our lives as well.

He was right.

The book was Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight. I assumed it would be another helpful theological read: useful for sermon prep, maybe clarifying a few interpretive issues. I didn’t expect it to quietly rearrange how I read the Bible, how I teach it, and how I allow it to form my life.

It didn’t just sharpen my ministry. It softened my heart.

The Big Idea: Seeing the Blue Parakeet

McKnight opens with a deceptively simple metaphor. Imagine reading the Bible faithfully but missing something obvious, like a bright blue parakeet perched right in the middle of the room. Everyone sees it. Everyone hears it. But because we’ve been trained to focus on certain verses, themes, or traditions, we somehow overlook what’s plainly there.

The “blue parakeet” is the Bible’s overarching story, God’s redemptive narrative moving from creation to new creation. McKnight argues that many Christians read Scripture selectively, emphasizing familiar passages while sidelining others that don’t fit our theological systems, cultural preferences, or church traditions.

That landed hard on me.

I realized how easy it is, even as a preacher, to approach the Bible with a set of lenses already in place. We don’t always let Scripture speak on its own terms. Sometimes we filter it through what we were taught, what we’re comfortable with, or what we’ve always assumed.

McKnight isn’t calling us to abandon tradition. He’s calling us to read Scripture with the church, not merely through tradition. There’s a difference, and it matters.

The Bible Is a Story We Live Inside Of

One of the most freeing insights of Blue Parakeet is this:
The Bible is not primarily a rulebook, a systematic theology, or a collection of proof texts. It is a story… and we are invited to live inside it.

That perspective resonated deeply with me.

It explains why Scripture shapes us not just by information, but by formation. Laws, wisdom, prophecy, gospel, letters—they all make sense when read as part of God’s unfolding story of covenant, redemption, and renewal.

For preaching, this has been transformative. Instead of asking, “What verse supports my point?” I now ask, “Where does this passage fit in God’s story; and where do we fit in it today?”

That shift produces sermons that don’t just inform the mind but reorient the heart.

Tradition: A Gift, Not a Cage

McKnight spends a significant portion of the book addressing tradition—and this is where I found his theology both honest and pastoral.

We don’t read the Bible alone. We never have. We read it shaped by history, culture, denomination, and community. Tradition can be a gift—it gives us guardrails, wisdom, and continuity. But when tradition becomes unquestionable, it can also blind us.

McKnight’s call is not to reject tradition, but to submit tradition to Scripture’s larger story.

That’s a humble posture. And it’s one I want to model as a future pastor.

It reminds me that faithful teaching doesn’t mean being rigid. It means being anchored—anchored in the story God is telling, not just the arguments we’ve inherited.

A Personal Impact Beyond the Pulpit

What surprised me most was how personal this book became.

Blue Parakeet didn’t just change how I preach. It changed how I read Scripture devotionally. It slowed me down. It made me more attentive. It invited me to listen rather than rush to conclusions.

It also stirred conversations at home.

The book impacted me so deeply that I encouraged my wife to start reading it too. I wanted her to experience the same freedom, to see Scripture not as fragmented commands, but as a coherent, hope-filled story that shapes everyday life.

That, to me, is the mark of a meaningful theological book. It doesn’t stay in the study. It spills into relationships, conversations, and shared discipleship.

Why This Book Matters for the Church Today

We live in a time when Christians argue passionately about verses while missing the story. We debate ethics, doctrine, and practice… often without asking how the whole Bible points us toward Jesus and God’s new creation.

Blue Parakeet is a gentle but firm call to recover biblical imagination.

It empowers believers to read Scripture with confidence and humility. It frees pastors from proof-texting. It invites communities to discern together. And it reminds us that theology, at its best, leads to love, faithfulness, and hope.

Looking back, Pastor Dennis didn’t just give me a reading assignment. He gave me a reset.

Blue Parakeet reminded me why I fell in love with Scripture in the first place… not because it gave me easy answers, but because it invited me into God’s story.

And the more I live inside that story, the more I want others to see the blue parakeet too: bright, unmistakable, and pointing us again and again to Jesus, who stands at the very center of it all.