Meeting human needs in Jesus' name
Basic Principles for Every Church to Strengthen Ministry in Their Community. Taught by trainers who cumulatively have over 100 years experience with under-resourced communities (and every community is under-resourced in some way)
Upside Down: Meet the Need First exists to give courage to Christian believers who want to Meet the Need First.
Inspired by Jesus’s teaching, we aim to help others see what he saw and do what he did—to Serve the Unserved, See the Unseen, and understand that Small is Big.
From city streets to back country roads, we strive to help those who want to begin ministry know where to start, encourage those already pouring out their lives, and inspire an upside down approach to spreading God’s Kingdom.
Our aim is to encourage Christians to turn their thinking about community engagement upside down. So often, Christians think “church” first, then people come to faith, and then they do ministry in their communities. But Jesus taught another way. He started with ministry, meeting the need first in his community. His ministry grew people’s faith, and then He built the church on that faith.
We believe Jesus sends us to Meet the Need First in communities that face the most challenging circumstances.
Consider Jesus’s first sermon:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.
Luke 4:18-19
Just as in Jesus’s day, today there are places in cities, towns, and the countryside where people are particularly vulnerable to damaging outcomes. Jesus sends His followers to these communities of need to do what He did, to meet needs, grow faith, and build the church.
We teach principles and best practices to help people Meet the Need First in communities of need.
Here are our core principles:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is one helpful way to understand the range of human need. In Upside Down training, we talk how we minister to immediate needs through Relief work, and deeper needs through Release work.
As humans, we all have needs. Needs that go unmet become hindrances to life and faith. Almost every culture has a saying something like this: “The hungry person has no ears.” Unless we deal with immediate needs, a person is not able to move to a more whole and integrated place in life. However, if we only focus on addressing tangible needs, we end up giving away our own emptiness. Therefore, we’ve learned, it’s “Meet the Need First,” not only “Meet the Need.”
Jesus teaches us to look for those who are falling through the cracks or those who live in the shadows.
“But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, and you will be blessed, because they can’t repay you.
Luke 14:13-14
In Jesus’ upside down world, you look for people who can’t pay you back. We are to look for those who aren’t influential “connectors” or “gatekeepers.”
Faith is having eyes to See the Unseen. The apostle Paul reminds us to
“Fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18
In other words, the inside stuff is more important than the outside stuff.
Jesus saw ministry in terms of starting small. He taught that one small seed planted eventually provides shelter and cover for many.
“What is the Kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it? It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds make nests in its branches.
Luke 13:18-19
Jesus’s teaching and example helps us understand three stages in ministry:
Meet the Need First: Looking for ways to engage our neighborhoods
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Available resources for your church and community across the state of North Carolina.
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Upside Down: Meet the Need First shares principles for applying Jesus’s example
and turning the world upside down
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