About Parable
We’re church people building metrics and reporting for Planning Center — so no one in your congregation goes unnoticed.
Founder’s Story
I still remember what it felt like to be invisible at church—wanting to get involved but not knowing the right people, waiting for someone to notice me. No one ever did. Years later, my wife Bethany had the same experience. She wanted community; the church handed her a list and said “good luck.” That stuck with me. Parable is my attempt to make sure the next person looking for connection doesn’t fall through the cracks.
Years after that, I was the head of data analytics for a 30,000-member, ten-campus church. I had every dashboard I could ask for and still could not answer the question that mattered most: who is quietly on their way out the door? Attendance was up. Young families were not coming back. The data explaining why was sitting in Planning Center the whole time—spread across eight products, in eight different shapes, answerable only by someone willing to spend a Monday in spreadsheets.
That is the gap Parable closes. Not another place to enter data. A layer on top of the Planning Center your team already runs on, that reads everything nightly and answers the questions pastors actually ask.
Read the full story·More about Michael Visser
Who Builds Parable
Parable is founder-owned and built by people who have worked inside churches—not a general-purpose analytics company that discovered ministry as a market. Before Parable, founder Michael Visser led data analytics for a ten-campus, 30,000-member church, using the same Planning Center products our customers use every Sunday.
That background is why Parable understands what a first-time guest is, what a serving team is, and how attendance and giving move together in a ministry context—distinctions generic BI tools like Tableau or Power BI have no concept of. Every metric and default view is shaped by how ministry actually works.
We are based in Pensacola, Florida, and we are reachable: info@getparable.io.
Company Culture
Our foundation for serving the local church.
Spirit-Led, Data-Driven
We believe faith and data aren’t in conflict—they work together. Data doesn’t replace intuition; it sharpens it, helping leaders ask better questions and care for people before they slip away.
No One Falls Through the Cracks
Every church has people who are quietly disengaging—and no one notices until they’re gone. We build tools that shine a light on the unnoticed, so churches can reach people before they walk out the back door.
Faithful Stewardship
Churches have more data than ever, but most of it sits unused. We believe using every available tool to care for people isn’t less spiritual—it’s being a faithful steward of what God has given us
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