In 2011, 60% of the world’s 1 billion ‘extremely poor people’ lived in 5 countries- India, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This statistic indicates that ‘trickle down’ is not a very effective agent of economic development!
From my own experience of working in the developing world as a civil engineer I have observed that the ‘people friendly’ grass roots projects are the ones that help the poor. They are the ones that are community led and encourage development of talent and long term thinking
About 6 months ago my wife and I moved to a church that was ‘Trickle up’ rather than ‘Trickle down’. We feel liberated, loved and very blessed! Lots of churches talk about ‘Every member ministry’ and think it is a good idea, but do they do it? It is very demanding because as church members, we each take on responsibility and like a family we don’t always agree. The leadership team become facilitators and encourage the development of ministries as well as washing up the tea mugs.
There is a CVM/One Voice day conference on ‘Every member ministry’ at York on the 10th October 2015. See here for details
The conference will also explore other aspects of ‘Trickle up’. So come and explore with us and wash up the tea mugs!
