book review: Without A Vision My People Prosper

title: without a vision my people prosper
author: david hayward
publisher: nakedpastor
date: 2011


I've been a fan of David Hayward's work for some time - I have one of his drawings in my office; his "Naked Pastor" cartoons are usually thoughtful, provocative, and challenging.

This book is a collection of his blog posts, ordered chronologically, that takes us through some of his thoughts, discussions, musings, essays, arguments and questions on the theme of vision.


There will be lots of christians and more specifically lots of church leaders [because we are, after all, a different breed :-)] that will not like this book, because it asks more questions [and dangerous questions at that] than it gives answers. 


David's main theme in "Without A Vision My People Prosper" is that creating detailed vision plans for churches is counterproductive to the church's real mission. There are some excellent posts, but there is also a sense as David writes in the introduction:

"So what we have here is like a quilt. My hope is that, no matter how crazy this quilt is, the pieces still somehow sew together to make a completed whole. Even though no single post will drive home my point, I certainly trust that the entire collection will."

David's book is an important counter to the excess emphasis placed on "vision statements" which have shaped much of the modern church, into something other than the life of the people of God envisioned [can I use that word here? :-)] in the New Testament. In a sense I think we chase vision statements because we don't like the type of community that the Bible describes. 


I would recommended "Without A Vision My People Prosper" to church leaders who are passionate about real community.