I have an idea, now what?
When you have an idea for a new initiative, you need to work out if it’s a God idea, or just a good idea remembering that God calls us into things, not out of things.
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I am someone who has a lot of ideas. I like to think about the possibilities and the opportunities and not be limited by the practicalities.
However, the challenge for ideas people is that we can struggle to put those ideas into action. That’s why we need to work out a method of refining those ideas and taking some through to the implementation phase.
I’ve learnt this through bitter experience.
“My dream and prayer is that you can move from ideation to implementation. From good idea, to seeing the idea in reality”
When I was a child, I thought I would learn how to play the guitar. It was a fabulous idea. I even formed a band and chose a name for the band. The only problem was that I didn’t even own a guitar, let alone play a guitar.
Then the day came when I picked up a guitar from a charity shop and I started strumming it, but realised it wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. Then of course life happened, school was busy, and after a few band rehearsals I found that I wasn’t really able to, or more to the point, willing to, prioritise guitar practise.
So 30 years later, I am still about the same level as I was back then. Terrible at playing the guitar, but now ‘band-less’ too. Why? Because it was a good idea, but I didn’t really move to the next stage of implementing the idea successfully.
Now, I am convinced there are people out there who have ideas that God has been speaking to them about, and during lockdown especially, they really started to get excited about those ideas. However, the busyness of life has meant that those ideas could be de-prioritised for another time – you know, a time when you have more time?
My dream and prayer is that you can move from ideation to implementation. From good idea, to seeing the idea in reality. From living in the guitar case to being taken out and played. That’s why we made space at the recent Stronger 2022 conference to speak into this and we invited Bayile Adeoti to come and lead us in a session entitled ‘I have an idea, now what?’.
Bayile is a wife, mother, social entrepreneur, church Leader & public speaker. Bayile has a passion to see people realise their God given potential. Originally I wrote this article before we released Bayile’s whole talk, but you can now find it here. Even so, I wanted to draw out a few points that resonated in what she said.
What does God say about it?
Bayile began her session reminding us that we don’t just need a good idea, we need a God infused idea.
This is what she said:
‘You may have an idea. But it's important that you have a word that you can carry. A promise that you can hold on to because building a business, having an idea is great, but to persevere and to survive through everything that you're going to encounter, it’s so important that you’re standing on the Word of God.’
What a great encouragement from Bayile and so true. Having an idea is the easy bit. Putting it into action and bringing it to fruition is the hard bit. It’s going to require perseverance and patience, not to mention tenacity and resolve. For that you’re going to need to make sure it’s an idea that you think God might be speaking to you about.
How do you do that? Simple.
1.Take your ideas, and thoughts and talk to God about it.
2.Ask him to speak to you about it.
3.Talk to one or two trusted friends about it, get them to pray for you
4.Seek some wise counsel from a mentor or coach
5.Be listening out for God’s encouragement. Either he’ll give you a green light, a red light, or an amber light. Pray about it heavily. Hold the outcome lightly.
There maybe people out there who are thinking about starting a business, or setting up a new project, or making a career move, or have a great idea for a new ministry, or whatever it is. You need to know God, the good shepherd is leading you (Psalm 23). Often we discover it when we take a prayerful step forward and see what happens.
What does your ‘shape’ say about it?
I could say that I’ve got an idea to become an Olympic gymnast. That’s a great idea, Matt! But the problem is, I actually physically couldn’t become an Olympic gymnast. I mean, I’m fit, I can run, but it’s perhaps a little bit too late for me to start on that trajectory. Also, I don’t really want to become an Olympic gymnast.
We need to look at our ‘shape’, and by that I don’t mean physical shape, I mean the way we’re wired, what we’re passionate about, how God wired our personality. There are loads of personality profiles out there. I really like this one www.16personalities.com. Check it out and see if it resonates with you?
The point is, our unique shape, the way we’re wired as it were, will tell us something about whether God is leading us into a new idea. This is what Bayile reminded us about in her session:
‘And we see that once again with King David when he wants to go and battle Goliath. And he's ready to go out to battle. But Saul says him, you need to wear my armour, you're so small. And in 1 Samuel 17.34-39, we see David …he knew that he was able to take down Goliath because he'd already fought a lion and a bear…. And he tried to go but couldn't. And he was not used to the armour. And David says ‘I can’t go with these, I'm not used to them’. And so he took them off because David knew what he was capable, and the weapons that God had given him…’
This is where involving others in the conversation is really helpful. Others who you can trust and who pray for you. Talk to them about it. Use them as a sounding board, and say, ‘listen, this is what I’m thinking, what do you think?’. Get them to ask you questions to help you look at it from different angles.
I love that Proverb, ‘plans fail for lack of counsell, but with many advisors they succeed’ Proverbs 15.22. I’ve seen this Proverb at work in my own experience. God uses those around us.
What does it look like to ‘do’ it?
So you’ve had an idea, you feel like God has been leading you, you’ve involved others, you feel like it fits your shape, you get the sense that God is leading you into things (not out of things ... there’s a difference) and you now need to work out what next!
There’s a whole raft of things under this heading ‘what next’ and you may feel overwhelmed with where to begin. The beauty though is that there are actually only a few things that you need to do and it usually comes down to:
Talk to someone (e.g. a friend, a potential team member, your vicar, a co-founder, …)
Write something (e.g. a plan of next steps, an email, a proposal, an email…)
Learn something (e.g. google it, watch a youtube about it, read a Harvard Business review about it, read a book on it, facebook-it, talk to a mentor…)
Pray something (e.g. Lord I need your help, link me up with the right people, what next, Lord?, open doors, Lord…)
Bayile in her session actually picks up on that final point ‘learn something’ and says this:
‘…there are other people who have actually gone before you. My friends always tell me that you don't need to reinvent the wheel, that somebody has already done the thing that you want to do, you just need to learn from them…’
Such a good piece of advice and together I guarantee all of this provides a good basis from which to respond to your idea and begin to see it become a little bit more real.
There was so much more we could talk about from Bayile’s session, but hopefully this gives you a little taste and we can’t wait to share the whole talk with you. You’ll love it.
