You may not know who Shane Claiborne is, but you will be familiar with Jesus' transformation of society from the lowest of the low to the highest of kings.

Claiborne argues in a new column on Red Letter Christians that at present, the church is too focussed on reaching only those at the top, but instead the life of Jesus Christ should serve as the model for outreach.

In his view, attracting high-level influencers to Christian initiatives will not necessarily encourage those who look up to them to become Christians themselves.

"Jesus didn't start at the top – but at the bottom," says Claiborne. "Jesus chose the ordinary. He chose the down-and-out, the bruised and battered, the marginalized and outcast."

Claiborne is founder of The Simple Way in inner city Philadelphia, a faith-based community encouraging change and seeking to be a living expression of the Christian faith.

He says he first noticed the trouble with the model of trickle-down change through his high school experience with the Young Life organisation. Young Life implemented what they called the "Key Kid" philosophy among students, believing that if they could connect with the most popular kids in schools others would follow.

Reaching cheerleaders and all-star athletes was a powerful strategy. It worked, Claiborne acknowledges. But is this tactic in line with the example Jesus gave us? He says even Young Life had their doubts about this.

And the question is a relevant one for the church today as it seeks to engage with those both inside and outside the church.

"Would those who surrounded Jesus even be able to afford tickets to our conferences? Would they get an invitation to our think-tank summit?" asked Claiborne.

He stresses that titles and wealth are not the kind of thing to be valued in ordinary life, so the church shouldn't focus on them to produce change in our world.

"I'm not sure Jesus would feel comfortable sleeping in a Ritz Carlton," noted Claiborne.

We need to take a step back, he suggests.

It's not the rich, powerful or popular that can make the change we, as Christians, long for. It's the ordinary and the modest. He says the Bible tells us that the best Christians are those who have suffered themselves - that scars and wounds are more powerful credentials than degrees and titles.

 "I long for the day when those with the deepest wounds become the loudest voices in the Church."

By defaulting to the the rich and powerful, Claiborne argues that the church is actually alienating those who have greater potential to carry out it's tasks.

"Too often the church has done just the opposite: we have attracted the people Jesus frustrated and frustrated the people Jesus attracted."

But if that is true; where do we go next?

"The Kingdom of God does not trickle down… it bubbles up," says Claiborne.

Therefore, it's not influential money-makers or those with celebrity status that the church needs to turn to. It is, rather, those on the street - those with the bruises and scars that make up real credentials.

Claiborne encouraged Christians to "get out of our summits and into the streets", where they will find those who will carry God's message from rock bottom as high as they can go.

In concluding, he shared this passage from Corinthians: "Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are." (1 Corinthians 1: 26-28.)