“How To Get Ideas,” by Jack Foster, is about…well, how to get ideas. It starts, though, with encouraging the readers to go back to how they solved problems and learned things when they were children – by asking “why?” Foster asserts that we often get stuck by just assuming that we pretty much do things the best way that they can be done, and so we miss possibilities that are right in front of us.
The book is divided into two main sections. The first section is entitled “Ten Ways to Idea-Condition Your Mind,” and it deals with unlearning routines and assumptions that have us hemmed in. Part two – “A Five-Step Method for Producing Ideas” – gets into the nitty-gritty of problem solving. It’s good stuff – lots of practical ideas, lots of grass roots wisdom and lots of real-life examples.
I took the book to Japan this last summer as light travel reading, and found that it was chock full of ideas that I could put to use right away. A key concept that I’ve tried to incorporate with my own team since that time is that for many problems, there is no single right answer – there might be eight right answers, or thirty-eight, or a hundred and eight! Instead of asking my creative team members to come up with an idea, I ask for multiple ideas. It frees up our thinking, and keeps us from getting too possessive about any individual idea (because there’s more where those came from). 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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