Steve Chalke

Oasis has since developed into a group of charities working in 11 countries over four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and North America) to deliver housing, training, youthwork, healthcare, family support and primary, secondary and higher education. It has grown into a significant voluntary sector provider, delivering services for local authorities and national governments as well as self-funded initiatives. In the UK, Oasis’ family of charities now includes Oasis Community Learning, Oasis Community Housing, Oasis Community Partnerships, the Oasis Foundation and Stop the Traffik as well as a growing network of Oasis churches. In the UK alone Oasis now employs over 5,000 staff as well as working with thousands more volunteers.

In June 2019 the Ministry of Justice announced that they had awarded Oasis the long-term contract to run the UK's first ‘Secure School’. Chalke explains that Oasis will offer a therapeutically informed education and health care based alternative to youth prison. He also recognises that "The challenge is huge...we have been given a massive responsibility. I realise that the reputation of the Ministry of Justice and the reputation of the whole of Oasis depends on this.". The Oasis Secure School, which will be known as Oasis Restore, will occupy the site of the Medway Secure Training College (formerly known as Borstal) which was previously run by G4S until 2016 when a BBC Panorama documentary exposed the level of drugs and violence in the jail and the government removed their contract. Oasis Restore will open in early 2021.

Chalke criticised traditional Christianity's rejection of "faithful gay relationships", saying that it has left far too many people feeling "vulnerable and isolated". He also wrote that it has done genuine physical harm. "People’s lives are at stake", he wrote. "Numerous studies show that suicide rates among gay people, especially young people, are comparatively high. Church leaders sometimes use this data to argue that homosexuality is unhealthy when tragically it's anti-gay stigma, propped up by Church attitudes, which, all too often, drives these statistics."

He continued; "Our poor understanding of the New Testament has brought misery, persecution, oppression and rejection to countless hundreds of thousands and millions of LGBT people. It’s time to apologize for the mistakes we’ve made and move on."

In 2018 Chalke was given the 'Spirit of London' award by the London Marathon.

In recent years Chalke's involvement in grassroots healthcare has naturally grown out of the wider work of community development Oasis is now doing in local communities around the UK and beyond. Following the 70th anniversary of the NHS in July 2018 he was asked to deliver a speech to senior NHS staff on the way forward in the development of community health and wellbeing, where he stated his view that, "Our problem is that we have medicalised health care, focusing our thinking, energy and funding too narrowly. What we call the National Health Service would be better labelled a National Sickness Service. It’s time to think differently and invest in the other pillars on which real health and wellbeing are built. Health is 3D – it is about body, mind and spirit. The NHS cannot solve the health problems of the UK alone. It is time to think more radically." Oasis has subsequently launched Oasis Community Heath as a new element of its work in partnership with Guy's and St.Thomas’ Charitable Trust and Frimley Park NHS Trust.

In March 2018 Chalke published 'The Gender Agenda', a short study exploring the theology of gender identity, reassignment and confirmation.

In 2017 Chalke was installed as an ecumenical canon of Southwark Cathedral.

In a 2017 interview with HuffPost Chalke explained that he believes the writings of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament are warning the early Christian Church against engaging in human relationships that are based on exploitation, abuse, and corruption. On the other hand, he claims, the New Testament has nothing to say about genuine, compassionate love between people of the same gender, as it is understood in today's world.

In 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Staffordshire University.

The provision of housing for vulnerable people has continued to be a priority for Chalke and Oasis. As a result, in April 2014 Oasis Housing formally merged with another homelessness charity known as Aquila Way to become what is now known as Oasis Community Housing, one of the Oasis UK subsidiary charities. It now helps around 1,200 vulnerable young people into housing each year.

In February 2014 Chalke published a paper on the Oasis UK website entitled "Restoring Confidence in the Bible: Can we use the Bible as a reliable moral and spiritual guide in our twenty-first century globalised world?" in which he states his rejection of the evangelical teaching that the bible is inerrant or infallible.

"There is a widespread, popular myth that unless faith is restricted to the private sphere, it will inevitably lead to intolerance and extremeism [sic]. But the reality could not be more different. Beneath the headlines of religious fanaticism and intolerance are the untold stories of countless individuals who, motivated by their personal faith, choose to work for the betterment of our society. For them, faith may be personal, but it is never private. Like the thousands of churches and other faith groups up and down the country that commit to improving the lives of society's most vulnerable – running homeless hostels, alcohol recovery programmes and youth mentoring schemes in response to the needs they see around them."

Chalke contends that there are two elements to healthy democracy; representative and participatory. He has suggested: "Democracy used to be focused around participation as much as representation, two ideas which together created a balance." Whilst Chalke believes that the hallmark of any healthy democracy is that it gives expression to these two types of democracy, he suggests that, "In our modern society, the democratic process has become far more passive and is now dominated by the idea of representation, where elected representatives (e.g. MP's) are held responsible for delivering the needs of those who voted, or who did not vote, for them. Westminster is the seat of representative democracy. Our society needs to invent new forms and practices that combine representative with participative democracy. The two can and indeed must meet. And the crucial point regarding the relationship between the two – between representative and participative democracy – is that the activity of the second guarentees [sic] the quality of the first. Representative democracy needs to be held accountable by participative democracy. /about-us]."

In early 2013, Chalke sent what The Independent said would be "shockwaves through Britain’s evangelical community", of which he is a leader, by stating, both on the Oasis Trust website and in an article in Christianity magazine, that he supports monogamous same-sex relationships and marriage.

Chalke had been reflecting on the matter for a long time and his January 2013 declaration represented what some regarded as a completely opposite position to the one he had earlier expressed when, in 2001, he wrote an article for Christianity (then known as Christianity and Renewal) entitled "What might Jesus say to Roy Clements about the Church and the Homosexual debate?" Clements had been a leader among Britain's evangelicals for many years when he suddenly revealed that he was gay, left his wife and began a relationship with a man.

In 2012 Chalke was chosen as one of the Olympic torchbearers for London 2012.

After performing his first same-sex couple blessing ceremony in his church in September 2012, and now offering both a same-sex couple blessing liturgy as well as an order of service and vows for a same-sex marriage service on the Oasis website, Chalke explained that he was torn about the January 2013 declaration, writing that he was "[c]ompelled because, in my understanding, the principles of justice, reconciliation and inclusion sit at the heart of Jesus’s message. Afraid because I recognise the Bible is understood by many to teach that the practice of homosexuality, in any circumstance, is a sin or ‘less than God’s best’."

In 2010 Oasis Youth Support, a youth violence intervention service, embedded into St Thomas’ Emergency Department, was set up under Chalke's leadership in partnership with senior hospital staff. OYS addresses the underlying issues surrounding the presentation of young people at the ED with violence-related injuries. It is designed to address psychosocial and environmental factors associated with the young people's attendance due to violence. The service provides a unique opportunity to engage vulnerable young people at a critical moment for change, often those who would not otherwise come to the attention of statutory services. It serves two London boroughs – Lambeth and Southwark – which have high levels of deprivation. It aims to reduce the number of young people returning to the Emergency Department as a result of violence, and to increase the ED's contribution towards a public health approach to violence in these areas.

March 2009 saw the publication of Stop The Traffick: People should not be Bought and Sold, co-authored by Chalke and Cherie Blair, which looks worldwide at the issue and responses to it.

In 2008 he was appointed Special Advisor on Community Action to the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), following the coalition's delivery of 1.5 million signatures in support of a global declaration against human trafficking at a UN conference in Vienna in February of that year. He held this position until 2015.

In 2005 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Sarum College, Salisbury.

In 2005 Chalke became the holder of the Guinness World Record for the largest amount of sponsorship money ever raised by an individual through a single event. He broke this record by raising £1.25 million for Oasis' work with schools in disadvantaged communities, through running the London Marathon. His record was beaten at the following year's marathon by Sir Steve Redgrave who raised over £1.785 million. In April 2007 Chalke recaptured the title as well as becoming the fastest money-generating sports person in history, by raising over £1.855 million in 3 hours 58 minutes 40 seconds. When he crossed the finishing line at the 2011 London Marathon, after 4 hours 31 minutes, Chalke broke this record for a third time by raising £2.32 million.

In 2005 Chalke founded Stop the Traffik, a global coalition which works to raise awareness of human trafficking in all countries and communities and to stop the buying and selling of people.

The continuing controversy led to the Evangelical Alliance organising a symposium in July 2005 to discuss the issue. A record of this symposium includes a chapter by Chalke, and his views are also contained in "the atonement debate". A group of three conservative evangelical theologians responded to Chalke with their book, Pierced for our Transgressions (Crossway Publishing, 2007), which strongly criticised Chalke's position as inconsistent with some evangelical confessions of faith. However, the prominent Anglican Open Evangelical theologian and former Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, endorsed Chalke as a leading evangelical and spoke out against the latter book, commenting, for instance, that 'despite the ringing endorsements of famous men, it [Pierced For Our Transgressions] is deeply, profoundly, and disturbingly unbiblical'.

In the 2004 New Year Honours, Chalke was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) "for services to social exclusion through the charities Oasis Trust and Parentalk".

In 2004 Chalke set up Oasis Community Learning as part of the Oasis Group of charities in order to deliver secondary education through the UK Government's Academies programme. The first three Oasis academies, at Enfield Lock, Grimsby and Immingham, opened in September 2007. Oasis’ involvement with secondary education has since grown and, from 2009, it also began to develop a focus on primary education. Today Oasis is responsible for 52 primary, secondary or all-through academies across England.

In 2003 Chalke co-authored The Lost Message of Jesus with Alan Mann (Zondervan). This book provoked considerable controversy in evangelical Christian circles. The debate arose mostly because of Chalke's rejection of a fundamental evangelical theological understanding of the atonement known as penal substitution. Chalke's views drew much criticism as well as support, with numerous articles, blogs and books being written on both sides of the debate.

In 2001 Chalke founded The Faithworks Movement, along with a companion magazine, to raise awareness of the role the Church can play within local communities. Faithworks's resources support churches of all denominations across the UK. Chalke has become a spokesman for the church in the national debate about the provision of public services by faith-based groups. Over 20,000 members—including individuals, churches and other not-for-profit organizations—count themselves as part of the Faithworks movement.

McHugh agreed, and commissioned Chalke to travel to India to make a series of inserts to be played into a week's special programming to raise the funds to build the hospital. Over £1m was donated: in 1996, the GM Priya Hospital, built by Oasis, opened in Dapegaon, one of the villages affected by the earthquake. It was named after the TV station and a young girl, Priya, who survived the earthquake. Priya had been buried for five days underneath rubble but was protected by her iron cot.

In September 1993, an earthquake devastated the Latur district in Maharashtra, India. Chalke, who was working as a news correspondent and presenter for GMTV (Good Morning Television), suggested to Peter McHugh, the Director of Programmes, that the station should run an appeal to build a hospital as a response to the crisis.

In the UK early in the 1990s, Oasis began to develop professional training for youth workers. By 2009, this had grown into a range of academically and professionally validated short courses, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of study in children's work, youth work and family practice and the Oasis College for Higher Education was established in central London.

Chalke has been a regular broadcaster for over 30 years. He hosted various shows for ITV during the 1990s as well as being part of their GMTV morning breakfast show team from 1993 to 1999. He also presented BBC1's Songs of Praise during that period, as well as hosting a regular show on BBC Radio 4 about community development, Changing Places. He currently contributes across the media as a social, religious and political commentator as well as being a regular presenter of Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2 and 'Prayer For The Day' on BBC Radio 4.

Chalke was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1981, after studying at Spurgeon's College in London. He was minister of Tonbridge Baptist Church in Kent for four years before setting up the Oasis Trust. He later formed a developing network of community churches around the UK which began with the foundation of Oasis Church Waterloo, London SE1, in 2003 and now includes churches in Salford, Enfield, Southampton, Croydon and Bristol as well as a growing number of other locations. Chalke remains senior minister of Oasis Church Waterloo, in the London Borough of Lambeth where Oasis currently also serves its local community through the delivery of a children's centre, a primary school, a secondary school, various adult education opportunities, a foodbank, a debt advice centre, a community farm, a coffee house, the local public library, a range of youth work schemes and a breadth of other community building programmes including football teams, choirs, yoga classes and circuit training, reading groups and language courses and more.

In the late 1980s Chalke set up Oasis’ first housing project, developed to accommodate homeless young people living in South London and to support them on their journey to independent housing. In the late 1990s Chalke began working with a group of churches in his home town of Croydon, Surrey, as well as in partnership with Croydon Council to establish what is now known as the Croydon Foyer. The Foyer, which opened in 2000, and is accredited through the Foyer Federation, provides housing and training for homeless people aged 18 to 25.

Chalke enjoys going to the gym and running. He married Cornelia Reeves in 1980 and they have four adult children; Emily, Daniel, Abigail and Joshua and six young grandsons.

Stephen John "Steve" Chalke, MBE (born 17 November 1955) is a British Baptist minister, the founder of the Oasis Charitable Trust, a former United Nations' Special Adviser on Human Trafficking and a social activist.

Chalke was born in Croydon, South London, in 1955. As a teenager he became a Christian and decided to dedicate his life working to end poverty. He graduated from Spurgeon's College, was ordained a Baptist minister in 1981, and served as a local minister for four years. In 1985 he founded the Oasis Trust to set up housing, healthcare and educational projects.

Initially STOP THE TRAFFIK was set up as a two-year campaign to coincide with the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807. The campaign intended to: