Check out my t-shirts HERE. I’m growing my inventory all the time. And check out my contemplative art here.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
This is a large format, 12″x48″ (30cm x 122cm), acrylic and ink on canvas painting (gallery wrapped). It is a commissioned piece, being adopted today by the new owner. You can view a larger image of the painting here. I don’t normally work with canvas as I prefer working with paper. However, I used raw canvas and soaked it down and treated the acrylic paints like watercolor paints and the canvas like wet paper. It worked I think.
Check out my t-shirts HERE. I’m growing my inventory all the time. And check out my contemplative art here.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
Check out my t-shirts HERE. I’m growing my inventory all the time. And check out my contemplative art here.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
These are the three women I live with: Lisa (my wife), Casile (17 year old daughter), and Abby, our dog. They keep me in line, in my opinion.
My first passion is to free people. I also am passionate about how such people intentionally gather together. So this is the kind of community I am a part of. I used to think that with such a community, we would be known as a radical and liberating place, and then that we would attract people hungering for this freedom, authenticity and honesty, and that as a result finances would no longer be an issue. I just imagined that it would be cutting edge and extremely attractive to all kinds of people and be placed firmly on the map of successful communities.
So, after years and years of being a part of a community that endeavors to be this kind of place, we are not the success I’d thought we’d be. We do not grow in numbers in any significant way, and money trickles in like a slowly drying spring. It has forced me to rethink my assumptions. My assumption was that it would breed success in the above ways. I was wrong. It doesn’t. Instead, what I’ve come to conclude is that (and this relates 1-10 from the previous posts), generally speaking, we, as religious people…
- are attracted to the biggest and best show in town.
- want to be told what to do.
- hold those who struggle in disdain.
- will only give money when manipulated to do so.
- want to be told what to believe.
- want to be a part of the right group and villainize the wrong one.
- like to categorize and then judge others.
- don’t like the commitment love requires.
- are uncomfortable with honesty and authenticity.
- love conditionally.
Again, this is a generalization. For what I have found about nurturing such a community is that, rather than granting the institution or organization success, it does create an environment for individuals to blossom into their fullest. This is the one clear success I’ve noticed. No, we aren’t that attractive to others. No, we aren’t growing really. No, our offerings continue to shrink. But yes, there are some incredibly amazing individuals who have found a way to be honest, authentic and liberated while being committed to a community. They’ve found a way to be free and responsible. They’ve found an environment within which they can truly seek truth and live it out in a life of love.
Of course, I’ve read of such people who’ve learned this in prison camps. So I’m taking no credit at all. And neither can this community. It really all comes down to the courage, tenacity, and the hunger for freedom in each person’s heart. If they want it, no matter what context they are in, they’ll find it.
Check out my t-shirts HERE. I’m growing my inventory all the time. And check out my contemplative art here.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
Check out my t-shirts HERE. I’m growing my inventory all the time. And check out my contemplative art here.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
So let me put the post “Should I go back?” into the positive. I empathize with people who have left. In my opinion most if not all have good reason. At least the ones I’ve conversed with. So, with that in mind, I suggest that communities:
- speak a common language that reflects a common lifestyle that the culture won’t find strange. (The Greek of the New Testament is “Koine”, which means “common”).
- not impose expectations on people.
- embrace everyone regardless of their struggles.
- not let money be a factor in how people are accepted, respected or treated.
- create an environment where people are free to explore truth in their own way.
- be open-minded, generous and inclusive towards all faiths and non-faiths.
- not brand people according to their orientations, choices or situations (gay, straight, single-mom, living together, divorced, etc.).
- love and care for others.
- encourage openness, honesty and authenticity.
- love unconditionally for the long haul.
Now I must add that I have reached a tentative conclusion that I might expand upon tomorrow. I believe that it is possible to create such a community, but it is misleading to think that this will result in success in terms of numbers, money or attractiveness. Its success, if we wish to call it that, is found in something else. Stay tuned until tomorrow for what I mean.
Check out my t-shirts HERE. I’m growing my inventory all the time. And check out my contemplative art here.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
This is a watercolor piece I did on commission. I shipped it out today to the client in the USA. It is 5″x7″ (13cm x 18cm) on Arches #140 coldpress cotton rag paper.
Check out my t-shirts HERE. I’m growing my inventory all the time. And check out my contemplative art here.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
Check out nakedpastor t-shirts HERE. I’m growing my inventory all the time. And check out my art here.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
On my vacation I met with many people who have left the church. They are people I know and love. So from the start I want to say that these are generalizations. I do realize others might have more positive things to say. But what I hear from the people I talk with is pretty consistent. This is not my opinion. I’m not making judgments. This is just what I hear:
- When they’ve been gone from church for a while and return they are all shocked by the strange lingo that people talk. It is a coded and getto-ized language that no one else understands but insiders.
- When they go back more than once, suddenly there is a huge feeling of expectation that weighs down on them. They know that if they commit at all, they are going to have to meet certain expectations.
- Although few admit it, shame is an important and powerful tool used to keep sins, weaknesses, struggles and differences concealed.
- One quickly learns that although indulgences ended officially many years ago, money is still an effective means to earn rank, privilege and allowances within a community.
- One discovers almost immediately what the belief system to be embraced is. Critical and inquisitive thinking is generally not welcomed.
- Although it is rarely ever explicit, competition and the disdain for other religions and even other churches percolates through the attitudes, language and actions of the community.
- Orientation, condition and status (examples: divorced, single mom, living together, gay, addict, etc.) are the equivalent of brands that are accepted or not.
- If you come and go, in the end no one really seems to notice or care.
- You are expected to grow only if it enables conformity.
- Even though, if you keep going, you feel you are being knitted into the community, there is a strange feeling that there is something conditional about your acceptance and membership.
David Hayward is a pastor artistically stripping to the essential.
