Prophet or Provider: what is the church’s role to those on the margins?

On Tuesday 21st October, I am very honoured to be giving the annual Hook Lecture at Leeds Minster on the title: Prophet or Provider? How can we be a prophetic voice for change while meeting the needs of people at the margins.

Watch this 90 second video introducing this topic:

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We are living in times of significant change, anxiety and anger.  Consensus is breaking down, polarization breaking out and the evidence is seen both online and on our streets. Wealth and property increasingly held by smaller number, our housing crisis deepens and trust and confidence in mainstream political parties is rock bottom.

Pope Francis described our times as:

‘Not an era of change, but a change of era’.

And the divisions are fueled by social media culture making vast amounts of money from algorithms designed around the worst human impulses, feeding us a diet of content curated to bloat our own sense of righteousness and feed a collective addiction to anger. W.B. Yeats’ famous lines seem more relevant than ever:

‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.’

Optimism or hope?

I believe we should prepare for the situation facing our communities to get tougher. I don’t believe there is cause for optimism, but more than ever there is a need for hope.

I work for an organisation with hope in its name, Hope into Action, a Christian charity which works with churches to house people who have been homeless.  Over recent weeks, its been alarming to see the direct impact of these national tensions, especially related to immigration, directly affect our frontline work.

Transformation

As I have constantly seen over the last 30 years that I have worked with people affected by homelessness, hope is a vital ingredient of transformation. Hope unlocks a sense that things can get better, that the future can be different to the past, that there is something to aim for, something to live for.  

And I am someone convinced by the hope of the Christian gospel – the good news of Jesus: not a vague sense that things will be OK, or a optimism founded in the goodness of humanity but a hope firmly anchored in what God has done through Christ, what he is doing through his Spirit and what he will one day complete.

What does it look like to put Christian hope into action in today’s world? What is the Church called to be at this moment of turmoil and increasing poverty in our country?

Poverty is getting worse

Over the last 15-20 years there has been no shortage of social action initiatives starting up such as warm hubs, debt centres and homeless shelters. And, most notably, food banks, a form of social action unknown even just 20 years ago. 77% of which are currently based in churches.

But the overall picture of UK poverty is deteriorating. In 2025, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports that over 21% of the UK population are living in poverty. When it comes to my area of work in homelessness, rough sleeping has risen 20% and there is a record 131,000 homeless households currently in temporary accommodation.

So despite the heroic efforts of volunteers, charities and churches, and despite the stream of advocacy campaigns vowing to “end poverty”, there are no signs of improvement and the trends indicate a further deterioration.

Crossroads

Therefore, I believe that the church’s social witness stands at a crossroads. Now is the time to grapple boldly and faithfully with the challenges our country faces and seek answers rooted in Christian hope.

We should not celebrate the growth of social action because it proves the church is useful. We need to draw deeper on our traditions and biblical theology, be self-critical, ask hard questions and carefully consider the right road to take in the next 20 years.

Are we just providers of handouts, the givers of resources – or do we have something genuinely prophetic to say to our rich, polarized, unequal and angry country?

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The Hook Lecture is organised by the Leeds Church Institute in association with Leeds Minster and Leeds University. For details and bookings: The Hook Lecture 2025