You don't have a navigation controller in your app. You need to create one. Something like:
In your appDelegate create a UINavigationController instance variable and then use your existing viewController as the rootViewController of the navigation controller.
e.g. in pure code using a UITableViewController (you can use xibs as well which your template app probably does).
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
// Create root view and navigation controller
UITableViewController *rootViewController = [[[UITableViewController alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewStyleGrouped] autorelease];
self.navigationController = [[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:rootViewController] autorelease];
// Not necessary if you're using xibs
self.window = [[[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]] autorelease];
// Add the nav controller's root view to the window
[window addSubview:navigationController.view];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
return YES;
}
Then you can push/pop new views in the way you're attempting.