My new book Without a Vision My People Prosper is now available on Amazon (.com, .ca, .uk, .de, .wherever!).
I have invited several people to review the book. I don’t expect agreement from all quarters, but I do feel my claims about visionary thinking in the church ought to be considered. I want pastors and church leaders everywhere to read this book because I believe it is helpful to the church.
This is what I say about it:
I challenge the modern need to formulate visions and set goals for local congregations. I argue that even though vision and goals might be useful for individuals, businesses and other organizations, it is harmful to genuine community. Through a collection of my most relevant posts and cartoons from my blog, nakedpastor, I passionately endeavor to call the church back to the priority of fellowship over accomplishments.
This is what others are saying:
- “Through the power of his pen, he draws cartoons that lay bare the questions that dare not be spoken inside the walls of institutional Christianity. Those looking for answers will need to search elsewhere but for the rest of us living in the gray, David offers hope and healing with his cartoons that make me laugh through my tears.” (Becky Garrison)
- “The book follows a linear pattern in that it is ordered chronologically as the author wrestled through his own questions. But none of us really solve life’s big questions; we keep coming back to them anew. Thus, the book builds on itself in a natural manner. It isn’t a systematic system where you can turn to the chapter for the issue you want help with. Once you’ve flipped through and enjoyed the drawings and skimmed it as a whole, this is the book to keep on the nightstand for a couple months, reading just a few pages per day and abiding in them until ready to move on… I have only had the book long enough for the quick read, but am looking forward to reading it more slowly with others in my community.”(Caedmon)
- “I have seen artists poke fun at the church before and I have seen scholars point out error, but David’s work goes much deeper. His many years as a Pastor add the dimension of a true and heartfelt concern for the church. Yet his true forte is the ability to get to the crux of an issue through art. Such a rare combination of talent and insight is what makes this book a gem. This book will inspire and challenge you to see the church in a new light.”(John Contabile)
You can go to my Amazon page to order Without a Vision My People Prosper. My first book of cartoons, Nakepastor101, is also available there: CLICK HERE!
And yes, we are working on getting it ready for Kindle. Soon.
Thanks!
My name is David Hayward, and I am the nakedpastor. I am a graffiti artist on the walls of religion.
My Vision.
I hate every body.
Just saying. Describing is what I’m doing. Doesn’t matter: race, sexual preference, state or nationality, north or south, Canadian or points south, female, make. Trans or
impersonators great & small, the 1% or 99,
rich and poor, family, neighbor, colleague,
No body need take it personally.
Hate is my bottom-line and fundamental
what it’s like to be a part and not the whole
and why I can’t Just Get Along, why I fear on
a regular basis, anxiety to panic variations of my prodigious & prodigal experience.
Homeland Insecurity. Makes good sense.
Got to keep my borders intact. Un-encroached. Family jewels safe and sound
Besides that: my attention deficiency and ignorance is monumentally generated by my natural selection: choosing “this” and “ that” at the expense of all the rest, continually
ripping-off my terms of desire and significances from the larger field, and mall, and community, and whole.
This can’t be said in public and I put my original spin on it and keep it covered with new clothes and exercise: I read a lot—try and keep up with current events.
Have to.
If I want to fit-in.
Love is all we need and all we talk about when not slapping my forehead in consternation and dismay critically thinking about all them bastards. No one loves a bad guy. What…are you kidding?
Charity begins in the home but Helen Hate is not allowed in the kitchen let alone parlor.- not to mention Sophie’s hoist: stealing away the goodness, steal away, steal away.
Hosanah. (Save Now)
Pray for me.
Sam, What the hell are you talking about? I see no correlation between David’s post and your comment. Most of the time, your comments leave me shaking my head in consternation. Whatever it is you are trying to say, I just don’t get it.
If your hate is directed toward David, don’t you think it would behoove you to be specific in your criticism instead of ranting about Flying Spaghetti Monster knows what? If your hate is directed toward your own spiritual failings, don’t you think it would be better to invest in a personal journal and refillable pen (and maybe the services of a skilled therapist or spiritual counselor)?
You have a lot to say, but most of the time all I hear when I read your comments is a loud, clanging gong.
I mean, I’m all for everybody in the band having a chance to play their tune, but isn’t there a point at which the too frequent, off pitch improvisational solos start to detract from the whole experience for the audience and for the participants?
To each his own, I guess. Fa-la-la-la-la… I just don’t get where you are coming from–at all.
And your fine book seems cheap enough ($13) that even an atheist may pick it up to learn from a fine soul.
Is this the only prose you have out there for us so far?
Sorry ttm. My Hate. Descriptively and non-thologically: the fundamental bottom line is something like “original sin.” Next to bottom line: original spin–the cover up and the denial which makes it almost impossible to “appreciate” and acknowledge. Hard to characterize an “original sin” notion in a post-enlightenment, modern, post-modern (almost post-literate, neo-oral)age where such a description seems anti-humanist. I’ve had students in class tell me “hate” was a word not allowed in their homes. As if the problem was a word and would go away if the word were banned.
The Bad Guys are always out-there, over-there, beyond-us, beyond me.Almost impossible to identify with my own hate–resistance, natural antagonism and opposition. I scapegoat and side with my fellow goodies” (all of us wanna-be-good so bad we can’t afford the bad-it-takes) OR I’m a victim of other people’s fears, anxieties, defense and can’t recognize my own. Beam and speck problem.
Do I overstate? Exaggerate? I’m sure I do. A violence against the norm. Probably does little good (and creates confusion) to claim my own hate, but it surely doesn’t work to accuse others of it. “WHAT, you calling me a hater! I’ll kick yr ass.” etc.
Uh, okay, Sam. How’d you make the leap from an exciting release of David’s book on church vision to a rant about your personal hate and the concept of original sin? (Perhaps, in order to make my point more understandable to you, I should be responding to your comment by whining about my adverse physical reactions to certain types of exercise or a description of my recent sexual escapades or a compendium of personal revelations related to the existence of extraterrestrial beings…)
I guess what I mean is when what you say doesn’t seem to relate to what has already been said it might make sense to you, but it sounds like this to me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2dt8Cls9AQ&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLD12CB819D86BF6A6
Sorry…
Good point, ttm. Leap is what it was. Although there’s been long converse-action going on & on this blog; and I confess to being more wrapped up in it and insensitive to David’s books. (Though I have read his Z Theory and been a regular responder to the Vision of Visonless discussion over the past month)
Ever since David tapped me as a FB friend over a year ago, I’ve been taking issue with his anti-church, anti-pastor, anti-brain-wash and manipulation church-wall graffiti, which I felt, while it pertained to his church-experience (and to many others,) at the same time accused the church-as-a-whole: hurling bathwater and baby out the window, so to speak. I told him early, I would be his “satan” in this view of his: accusing & countering his vision with what I feel to be the larger picture.
On a side-bar: I can appreciate anyone’s adverse reaction to exercise, and our extra-terrestrial (literally: desire – of the stars, sidereal) interest has always been a partial explanation for failure to obtain satisfaction, no no no. It’s beyond us.
Sam, no comment about the sexual escapades, eh?
I made a comment earlier which is awaiting moderation. I hope that David approves it… it’s short and to the point. I will let that stand as my last interaction with you today since I have found talking to and rebuking “Satan” to be a complete waste of time.
And if the comment does not obtain approval, oh well. Silence is golden.
I understand ttm. Sexual escapades abound & are pretty much variants on a theme. Rebuking “Satan”–that’s something else. (I said I’d be a “satan” for David–a prosecutor, accuser, adversary, jester in a court; I don’t make claims to the Fundamentalism Title–goatee and tail, though I can understand your confusion)
I appreciate your irritation and challenge. For the sake of argument–possibly edifying, if sustained: how else work out salvation in fear and trembling?
Yeah: monkey-business for sure. Without love: clanging brass and gong show. I would speak with tons of angles, but my bottom-line hate leaks through my polite cover-up. Naked Bastard! Trying to make virtue of it.
there you go again sam pissing all over my room talking about nonsense that has nothing at all to do with the post. thanks for the congratulations by the way. geez.
Congratulations, David! I hope that the book is well received. Money’s tight at the moment, but I will order it when I can…
David, you’ve got plenty of appreciators. Your ongoing cartoons and blog satirize and criticize –your graffiti against the walls of the “church.” Your 95 theses, say. As well as those who support and validate your vision, don’t you see the appropriateness of its antithesis? Those who would object, qualify, take issue, modify? Isn’t that what comes with publication, declaration, books, movies, blogs…? Otherwise it’s all a hallelujah chorus–not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s not as edifying as sustained argument, don’t you agree? OR what’s a blog for?
listen sam i have dealt with detractors my whole ministry. it seemed to be god’s personal gift to me… constant thorns in my side. it’s one thing when someone really doesn’t understand or is just being a fundamentalist prick. it’s another thing when someone thinks it’s their ministry to take a dump on all that is good just because there’s too much good. “you’ve got plenty of appreciators”… so you think it is your call to agitate? are you jealous? are you really so hateful? i don’t think so. i think you crave attention. why else would someone immediately on the announcement of my new book start making a mess of things?
Hateful& jealous, fearful & anxious, threatened & defensive: all of these qualities and more, I’m sure. But I’m not criticizing because of “too much goodness.” I’m simply pointing out that you’ve got plenty of validation and support. Mostly. And my call to agitate is simply the antithetical position I have been taking to your vision from the beginning. Which, antagonism, I believe, goes with the territory of being a critic–your position and mine. Your book takes a stand. You describe it as dangerously right. You are putting it out there, hoping people will read and respond and react. I’ve been “antagonistic” from the start.
Thesis. Antithesis. If the two stay engaged for a sustained period: the possibility of synthesis. These issues are as important to me and many as they are to you: and you are the one taking the stand. Consider me God’s Personal Gift to you if you want. It’s the ideas that are at stake.
The Church needs a vision.
That vision is Christ and His promises. If we lose sight of that vision then it will be replaced with something, and that something is usually our own desires and appetites and egos… which will lead us nowhere.
Sam, Don’t know you. But if you behave in person the way you do on this blog I think it would be safe to assume you have very few friends. You are a complete ass. Thank you for making yourself irrelevant and saving me the trouble of reading your comments in the future.
Steve,
Jesus is not a vision. What the church needs is relationship…first with Him and then with each other. That’s what I get out of David’s work.
Is there a New Testament passage talking about a “relationship” with Jesus? What is the Greek word here?
I know how I use the word: there are people I have relationships with and those I don’t. I hike, chat, share food and jokes and much more with those I have ‘relationships’ with. Imagining doing all that in my head doesn’t count as a “relationship”. Or at least that is what my therapist tells me.
Of course, my definition of “relationship” is a PFB (pre-FaceBook) definition. Maybe imagined relationships counts as much as real relationships nowadays.
My “relationship” with Jesus is most certainly not imagined. I fully believe His Spirit indwells me and therefore we communicate and and chat and share and joke, etc.
Perhaps more directly to the point of my comment though is that Jesus illustrated and spoke of what it means to have relationships with others. He even defined it and made it His “New command”.
I read this and thought of you: “The clearer the sense of vision a person/community has for the future, the less likely that vision is from God.” (Leonard Sweet, Nudge, p. 81)
Gary,
In as far as we continually walk away from Jesus, we need to be constantly keep the vision of Christ and His promises of raising us from the dead to live with Him forever.
Yes, that is a vision.
And yes, we do need a realtionship with Him and with each other. That is all a part of the vision of Christ.
No vision, or visions centered on ‘what we do’ will surely get us nowhere, in the longrun.
@ Gary
You said,
“Saving faith and Christian discipleship have been reduced to the cliché “a personal relationship with Jesus.” It’s hard to imagine a more disastrous twisting of what it means to be a Christian. Many people (including Judas and Satan) had some kind of “personal relationship” with Jesus during His earthly ministry without submitting to Him as Lord.”
- John MacArthur http://www.symphonyofscripture.com/?p=1383
Sabio,
Before I go too far down this path with you I would like to know if you consider yourself a Christian. Not to pass judgment upon you, but rather to have some frame of reference.
Steve,
I share the same hunger for the fulfillment of Christ’s promises that I sense you do. Seems like perhaps we are trying to split a pretty fine hair.
My point is that I get what it is David is trying to say, not that all vision is bad. BTW I totally agree with your last sentence.
Gary,
Thanks, my friend. I do think we are on the same page.
“A thick skin–is a gift from God”.
(Konrad Adenauer, Germany’s first post-war Chancellor).
Great job David. I would love to get a kindle copy. Do you know when it will be available?
i’m working on it kevin. not sure. i’ll let everyone know when i do!
Sam scoville I would love to know what car you drive.
We’ve been driving a 1990 Taurus and Camry till this summer when we traded the Taurus for an 08 Outback, Kevin.
sam
you do know that camry is made by toyota, correct?
why do you support a japanese made vehicle?
are you anti-american?
i can’t believe you made the decision to support outsourcing our car manufacturing. leaving the working and middle class in this country to go home to a home they can’t keep.
that’s hateful sam.
Kevin: the Outback is Japanese, too. The Camry was inherited in the mid-90′s from my father-in-laws ancient girlfriend after she died. The second-hand Subaru we paid outfight, here in Asheville. I just finished responding to one of Naked Pastors celebrations on UNITY (how we’re all one) and I guess if I have to defend my Japanese car, I’d stand on that All-One notion. However, you are right: that’s a betrayal of My Country Tis of Thee partiality. It’s a bind, isn’t it–always torn between devil and deep bluse sees. Damned if I do or don’t, I’m damned, damnit. I never claimed to be less than hateful. In fact: I’m quite naked about it. Naked Bastard: that’s me. Pray for me, Kevin. I want to be good.
Haha I like that you claim to be hateful. That’s a good place to start and finish.
I can assume that you are a socialist with your all is one ideals. I bet that works out well at the university. I can also make the assumption that you probably side with the westboro baptist church and their protesting of military funerals.
So you are a socialist, anti patriot, anti military, can i say anti gay?
How would your boss at the school feel about these characterizations of you? Or no I should bet that you have tenure to cover that.
What a shame.
How do you feel about my insane assumpsitions of you?
Would you like a “personal Satan” as you claim to be to David?
It’s really silly isn’t it Sam?
Had a kid in class announce: THIS TEXT SUCKS, and we were all set back on our silly heels for a moment till we realized what he said said everything about himself, and nothing about the book. We rejoiced greatly in that collective insight and “This Text Sucks” became a shared shibboleth–reminding us that what-we-say reveals our selves and only by convention and (really) conspiracy do we let it mean something about what it seems to talk about. Your assumptions say a lot about you. I’m not denying that all my observations say about ME and not necessarily about David or anyone else. I wouldn’t write it all off as silly, however: what we say to each other. If we stay in conversation, we might get somewhere–edify.
I teach in a small college started by the Presbyterian mission in the 1890′s. We don’t have tenure or rank. It’s extremely GayFriendly. Got a beef farm and forest and 1,000 acres in the Blue Ridge. Students work 15 hrs a week.
Hateful is a safer claim for me to make about myself than loving–I admit it. Clanging Brass.
xxxooo, Naked Bastard.
“Clanging brass” that loves to hear himself (as it were) pontificate. What you seem to believe to be brilliant uttering s…most simply find distracting at best. (More like annoyingly childish and counter-productive)
But you are right about one thing…the fact that you take great delight in it all does say something about you.
I actually woke up this morning thinking about you, Gary–your list of faith-belief that were part of your upbringing, for good and for ill, i guess, and eventually seen as for ill. Do I have it right? Was it in this thread, or another. I can imagine how difficult it would be to “come out” from under that collective mind-set and environment. I do love to hear myself pontificate, dazzled by my own lucid schemes. . This is a naked confession. And I recognize how annoying it also must sound. Walking on Eggs, Walking on Water: mission impossible either way.
Joy to the whirl. I do delight. Pray for me, Gary–I’m a naked bastard surrounded by Goodies ( you know: them who wanna-be good so bad they cant afford the bad-it-takes –or at least admitting the bad-they-are) to get good.) ayinwurround.