Color Outside The Lines [Hardcover]

Howard G. Hendricks (Author)

Book Description

Series: Swindoll Leadership Library | Publication Date: October 22, 1998

All of us yearn to be creative, but few of us feel we truly are. In this fun-to-read, energy-packed guide to stimulating our ingenuity, Hendricks proposes a nine-step process for unleashing an exciting spark of creativity and innovation in our lives, including creative approaches to problem solving such as mind-mapping, storyboarding, brainstorming, and five-sensing. With dynamic examples and proven concepts, Hendricks helps us to identify roadblocks that may keep us from being creative in our lives and ministries, and helps to unleash our creative potential.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

HOWARD HENDRICKS - a faculty member since 1951, Dr. Hendricks sees the adult children of former students now attending his classes. He is also the former Bible teacher and chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys football team. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (October 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849913659
• ISBN-13: 978-0849913655
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,281,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a home run by one of America's premere leaders., November 25, 1998

By 

Dr. Larry Halsey ([e-mail] (Beckley, WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color Outside The Lines (Hardcover)

Long-time leader and professor at Dallas Theological Seminary has written a volume that takes church leadership to new frontiers. . Pelted with quotes by notables (Drucker, Bennis, Nanus, et al), the author, with characteristic lightening flashes, tackles subjects such as personal and organizational creativity, leadership and family principles. Let this generation of Christian leaders rise up and call Hendricks blessed!! Five Stars!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So you think you're not creative?, January 30, 2005

By 

Liberty Student (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color Outside the Lines (Swindoll Leadership Library) (Paperback)

Dr. Hendricks has produced a marvelous book that captures an all too often missing ingredient from the skill sets of today's leaders: creativity. In the author's words, this book is about "the newness of life in Christ, the creative, redemptive side of our salvation." Since The Fall, man has been steadily drifting farther and farther away from God. Along with this distancing is the decline of creativity as stale thinking replaced an awareness of God's creative essence. Armed with this recognition, the author illustrates the fact that every creative act ultimately points toward God as The Creator. Hendricks' desire is to produce churches and leaders that are aware of the gift of creativity so they might become fully alive in Christ, ever-growing, driving change within the church, flexible, and unsatisfied with the status quo.

Color Outside the Lines neatly divides into three parts. In the first part Hendricks defines and examines the many facets of creativity. Part two introduces the creative problem-solving process and offers many techniques to accomplish it. Part three concludes the book with several chapters that focus on the application of creativity. The value of this three-step method is its completeness. Hendricks does not stir up a longing for creativity inside the reader, only to leave him to his own devices. At the conclusion of each of twenty-two chapters is a series of short exercises designed to awaken the reader's God-given creativity. By the time the reader arrives at the last page he has come full-circle along side the author's creativity. Not only did the reader participate in a discussion of creativity, he discovered his own repressed creativity, and was given a charge by Hendricks to allow this now awakened creativity to consume the his life.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a MUST read for educators, April 26, 2006

By 

Lawrence Davis (Austell, Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Color Outside the Lines (Swindoll Leadership Library) (Paperback)

COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES BOOK REVIEW

Throughout the book, Howard Hendricks focuses on the importance of creativity as a necessary component of education. Yet, Hendricks transports this creative priority outside the traditional bounds of educational circumspection and infuses the subject with an intensity that necessitates immediate implementation. He continually underscores his deep convictions that modern Christians must find new and fresh approaches for sharing the Good News in the "language" of the 21st century. Numerous local churches, he laments,are experiencing "spiritual dry rot." They are in desperate need of a revitalized vision that meets the needs of its congregation and ministries. Fortunately, Hendricks convincingly communicates the situation is not hopeless and promotes creativity as the primary conduit for the solution. Thus, the heartbeat of the book pulsates with practical principles that will foster and cultivate creativity within the body of Christ.

The primary supposition of the book (which he states several times) is Hendricks' belief that a significant portion of creativity can be learned. He thus kills the myth that people are born into a creative "caste" which portions each with a finite capacity of creativity that cannot be increased. While it is true that certain individuals are especially gifted with the ability to be creative, Hendricks postulates that all people can develop a useful creative perspective that provokes thinking and initiates new reasoning patterns. This creative thinking, however, must be exercised and disciplined so the user knows "how to distinguish a God-given creative
thought from a castle in the air." Thus, "creativity is not just an instrument; it is an environment" that must be intelligently constructed and evaluated. In fact, Hendricks warns that useful "creativity arises from a sense of security, from freedom within boundaries that define a person and community welfare." Creativity must be channeled into relevance and application.

Despite his non-traditional approach, Hendricks beliefs about the impact and role of creativity are rooted in the fundamental nature of God. He reminds the readers that the emphasis on creativity is not a new trend or educational fad. Creativity is the medium of life itself. Nature and creation reveal God as the highest standard for creativity. In fact, the Sciences, with all of their "discoveries" and inventions, in reality collectively give a standing ovation to the magnificent artistry and innovative design of God's handiwork (unfortunately, most scientists are too self-centered to hear this heavenly-aimed applause!) Naturally, since humanity was created in God's image, Hendricks then extrapolates this creative attribute of God to include man. He quotes Ryken (pg 31), " Human creativity is rooted in divine creativity. Artists create because God created first."

Since the main aim of the Christian walk is to develop a Godly image that will cause itself to be reproduced in others, Hendricks not only promotes the integration of creativity within the sphere of Christian education and discipleship but considers it a biblical mandate that Christians should become creative. The expression of our creativity defines our purpose. As Dr. Hendricks states it: "We have nothing to do with the fact of life but everything to do with its meaning." Thus, all Christians must conclude that the methodology for conforming to the true image of Christ is heavily dependent on their individual expression and use of creativity.