by David Hayward | Apr 20, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm confused
The other day I said to a good friend, “You’re perfect. It’s just integrating the pieces.” I remember once reading the theologian John Calvin and he said that the Fall represented the disintegration of the person. Unfortunately, he grimly...
by David Hayward | Apr 11, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm angry
I am just going to ramble here, reveal an ugly part of myself, and I’m going to swear because this is what happened. I’m kind of sharing my rant with Lisa during our walk yesterday. A rant against myself. I’m going to give you a peek into it. The other day a friend...
by David Hayward | Apr 2, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm okay
Beautiful is good. It’s good to be moved by the beautiful. In fact, I’ve come to believe that when I’m deeply moved by something I think is beautiful, it is indicating to me something that is deeply true. I’ve had many such moments in my life. I remember when I first...
by David Hayward | Mar 30, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm sad
Last year I had a dream in which my father told me I should perhaps come to see him because he wasn’t sure he had much time left. So I did. That week I caught a plane and went, by myself, to see him. I was there for a week. It wasn’t until one of the last nights there...
by David Hayward | Mar 19, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm okay
Hi guys! This letter has 2 purposes: First: Lisa and I are going on a much needed vacation tomorrow. We’ll be gone for a week. Apparently there’s no internet where we’re going, so I’ll be off the radar. Amazing! I think I’ll like it. I love how the community is...
by David Hayward | Mar 12, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm confused
It all came in a package. The abuse I suffered. The control I was under. The theology I was fed. The denomination I was in. The community I was provided. It all came as a package. Some people tried to convince me, and some still do, that it was just the abuse I...
by David Hayward | Mar 6, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm confused
It has always fascinated me how our thoughts can be so detached from our actions. This realization started growing in me when I was a teenager in the church. They would say and do things that shocked me because it was so out of character from the way they proposed to...
by David Hayward | Feb 26, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm okay
I have been publicly sharing my work online for over a decade. The name “nakedpastor” originated from my desire to bare my soul as a pastor, to be honest about my journey, my thoughts, my vocation, my life, and to be vulnerable about my weaknesses and struggles as...
by David Hayward | Feb 19, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm scared
I love David Whyte’s work. Check him out if you haven’t come across him already. A couple months ago he informed us that he’d written another poem, “Sweet Darkness”, and collaborated with a woodcut print artist to create this beautiful...
by David Hayward | Feb 12, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm okay
Early this morning I arose. The air was so cold outside that everything was silent. Including the radiant moon and its attendant stars. The only sound was the snow crunching under my boots. We took our second son to the airport at 3:30 am. We took our first yesterday...
by David Hayward | Feb 5, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm angry, I'm sad
I do not like it when people mock other religions. I also do not like it when people mock the stages of faith that I have journeyed through. I’m not sure how this happened, but somewhere along the way I learned that it was not only negligent and shortsighted to...
by David Hayward | Jan 29, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm confused, I'm sad
I want to write to you today about the mystery of lost friends. What I mean is those people who were your friends, in fact very good friends, who suddenly drop off your radar. I mean online and in offline. I’m talking about people who you would have sworn are your...
by David Hayward | Jan 20, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm sad
I want to share something with you guys because I can’t do it anywhere else and many of you were involved in this dramatic story. Just a bit of background: Many of you may remember a couple of my posts from a couple of years ago about Tony Jones, a progressive...
by David Hayward | Jan 16, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm sad
This letter is on the same theme as the last two: relationships. Like you probably already know, when Lisa and I left the church, it wasn’t long before pretty much all of our relationships were severed. That wasn’t the plan, but the incoming pastor decided that’s what...
by David Hayward | Jan 7, 2017 | David's Letters, I'm okay
This is a kind of continuation of last week’s letter on community. Probably the most difficult issue for Lisa and I once we left the church was community, or friendship. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about it because loneliness sucks. Lisa and I were anything but...
by David Hayward | Dec 30, 2016 | David's Letters, I'm confused
No, the title of this letter is not clickbait, because I do want to reflect on community and orgasms. I’ve experienced real, authentic community… the kind that is beautiful and unforgettable… the kind we want to experience all the time and enjoy consistently. This...
