Cure or sticking plaster: where is Christian charity going?

Good intentions are not enough, argue Jenny Sinclair and Jon Kuhrt. We must ask ourselves if the approach we are taking to social action is really effective.

Poverty in Britain is getting worse. Despite the heroic efforts of volunteers, the dedication of a huge range of charities, and the stream of advocacy campaigns to ‘end poverty’, there are no signs of improvement and if anything, the trends indicate a further deterioration.

Therefore, we believe that Christian social witness stands at a crossroads. We should not simply celebrate the growth of social action because it proves the churches are useful. Instead, we should be self-critical, ask hard questions and carefully consider the right road to take in the next 20 years. Now is the time to grapple boldly and faithfully with the challenges our country faces and to ask: where is the ‘good way’ for Christian social action?

In November 2024, we – Jon Kuhrt, CEO of Hope into Action and Jenny Sinclair, Founder and Director of Together for the Common Good – led a one day ‘Advent Retreat’ for a cross-section of church, charity and social action leaders representing many of the major Christian charities and denominations. Outcomes of small group work were captured, and whilst this is not a joint statement from that meeting, this report draws on the key themes.  

‘The sins of social action’ 

We noted three ‘sins’ or ‘disconnections’ as the key challenges which we believe the church needs to grapple with: 

1. The disconnect between charity and justice  

The growth of social action should lead to a questioning of the underlying social and economic systems which generate such need in the first place. Homelessness and food poverty are good examples: recent years have seen a host of new church-based initiatives to address both these issues but there is more homelessness and more food insecurity than ever before. The underlying causes that generate these problems cannot be cured by voluntary efforts or by social security. Social action and welfare are not the same as social justice.  

Charitable kindness and personal generosity should be accompanied by a questioning of the power arrangements underpinning the political and economic status quo.

Given its prophetic role, the church cannot be content to be the handmaid of the state, running around filling in gaps that government either neglects or cannot fill. It must not be seduced by the lure of feeling useful, nor be comfortable being placed in the invidious position of, effectively, propping up a dysfunctional system.  

2. Dependency: the disconnect with empowerment  

The hard truth is that not all responses to poverty are effective. A huge amount has been learnt in the last few decades about what helps Majority World countries overcome poverty. The book Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo argued powerfully that ‘aid’ given from richer countries actually served to disempower economies and deepen poverty. We have to grapple with similar challenges in our response to UK domestic poverty.  

US Christian community developer Rob Lupton argues in his books Toxic Charity and Charity Detox that too often churches and charities worsen poverty by deepening dependency and destroying personal initiative: “When we do for those in need what they have the capacity to do for themselves, we disempower them.” 

He argues that our approaches are often wrong because we tend to mis-diagnose problems as crisis issues when they are actually chronic in nature. Social action needs to shift its emphasis to more empowering approaches that build the personal agency of those who are needing help.  

3. Secularization: the disconnect with faith  

A consistent challenge for Christian social action charities and projects is to maintain an active connection with the faith that birthed them. Sometimes faith fades due to a lack of confidence. Sometimes it is due to fear about what funders might think. Sometimes it becomes fossilised when a charity’s founding inspiration is neglected.  

Rather than something dynamic and creative, faith often becomes just a slightly embarrassing footnote in the history of an organisation. And the fruit becomes separated from the roots from which it has grown. This tendency diminishes both the charity and the beneficiary: most importantly, it limits the ability to respond to the spiritual needs of those affected by poverty.  

A Common Good response 

The scale of Christian charitable engagement is a testimony to the power and conviction of the Christian faith. The UK’s history has been deeply enriched by generations of Christian charitable activity.

But this growth and the dynamism of faith are not just something for the history books. The last 20 years have seen a significant rise in church-based charity and social action initiatives: food banks, night shelters, pantries, community supermarkets, larders, debt centres, Street Pastors, warm hubs and community meals have all expanded at significant rates. The number of new homeless charities and church-based night shelters has rapidly expanded, and more generally, there has been a boom in a wide range of Christian-led social franchise initiatives helping struggling families. 

However, poverty is getting worse. This brings Christian social action organisations to a crossroads.  

‘The great disrupter’  

We need to discern the times we are living in, examine our aims and what we do.   

We face a context where there is a tangible absence of hope for people trapped in poverty. Geopolitical volatility signals an unstable future, and a new Labour government has so far disappointed rather than inspired. 

Despite the change in management, there are few signs of the political will required to change the neoliberal market-state arrangement of the last 40 years. There is still a lack of a unifying and hopeful story to place ourselves within. Given the level of public debt, indications are that conditions are likely to get worse and that government is likely to look to faith-based social action to step up even further. 

Much of the mainstream charity sector has adopted the ways and means of the market.

Led by executives on six-figure salaries, and an ambition to measure effectiveness by size of turnover, rather than to demand economic reform, the sector’s default is to lobby government for more state funding and to chase contracts. The radical founders of these charities would be dismayed to see how they have been co-opted as arms of the state, as the economy fails to create conditions that allow people to lead fulfilling lives.   

Christian social action is not immune to this tendency, but it also contains the antidote. In the words of Jacob Dimitriou, Director of England at Housing Justice: “Christian social action should once again become the great disrupter.”

Of course, Christian social action has much to learn from secular charities, but we must never lose the distinctive emphasis of the gospel which makes our approach different. We must resist being co-opted into the state-funded ‘voluntary sector’ and losing our authentic Christian character.   

This lack of hope is exemplified in the way that the contemporary, state-funded charity sector is unable to have a proper debate. Imprisoned by self-protection, ‘groupthink’ and political correctness, it cannot find the courage to ask difficult questions. As Jacob Dimitriou continued: 

“Conferences in the charity sector are no longer places for ideas to be debated, but where the same mantras are trotted out and organizational egos swell. This stifles the energy of the movement-based responses to social injustices.”

To be faithful disciples we need to be willing to challenge across the accepted boundaries of theological and political tribalism. We need to talk about both structural change and personal responsibility. We need to talk about the political economy and family life. We need to talk about justice and Jesus. 

We need radical solutions which speak to the root of the problems we face and not settle for the shallow waters, sticking plaster solutions and contemporary acceptability. 

Three themes 

From our discernment in November 2024, these three themes emerged as critical for the future direction of Christian social action: 

1. Challenging power: class, justice and the political economy  

Christian social action should not ignore the role of political, social and economic power – and the underlying drivers which trap people in poverty and create the needs that charity aims to meet.  

Rather than simply acting as ‘benefactors’, which exacerbates class division, we should stand in solidarity with those trapped in poverty and together demand an economy less reliant on welfare and which instead generates decent, dignified employment. 

Across our combined networks, our grassroots knowledge reveals the realities of poverty. Our experience exposes a malaise that is at times overwhelming. Our interventions are vital, but we must face the hard reality that poverty cannot be ended while a low wage, high welfare economy remains in place. It is time we asked awkward questions. This does not require us to be party political.  

Both the state and the market need to be challenged about how human beings are treated. The powers of capital and state act like the modern Pharaohs of our time. As in Genesis 47, they seek to achieve control through economic methods of centralisation, exploitation, division and domination.  

We know this is not a new problem. For the past four decades, big corporations have benefited from globalisation, subordinating weak governments of all stripes to insulate financial interests from democratic decision-making. This collusion between capital and state has undermined the common good and is provoking increasing discontent.

The leadership class has not been able to comprehend that the resulting ‘populism’ is the blowback caused by their own policies.  

The unaffordability of housing and the off shoring of jobs are key issues to be addressed for the common good. The status of many jobs has changed, with work too often now failing to deliver the dignity that employment should provide. Instead, people are reduced to units of labour, manipulated for profit. The underlying philosophy driving this market dominance has been a disaster for stable community and for family life – it has in effect been an assault on relationship.  

Furthermore, our current welfare state arrangements have not incentivized work and have often imprisoned people in a benefit trap where they have been better off out of paid work. These are signs of a broken and de-humanizing political economy.  

Many campaigners call for an ‘end’ to poverty by arguing for rises in benefits. But despite the undeniable imperative of meeting essential need, such welfarist approaches can only offer a sticking plaster, leaving root causes unchallenged. By contrast, a justice approach in-keeping with the Christian tradition would demand a political economy that fosters decent jobs that enable people to earn well and thrive.  

The inequality gap in the UK continues to grow, with the top fifth owning two thirds of the wealth, and the bottom fifth only 0.5%. Given this injustice, we lament the fact that in recent years, “social justice” came to be more associated with identity politics than with economic justice. This distraction from its original meaning enabled large corporations to claim that their brands were ethical while the pay and conditions of those at the bottom went unnoticed. This cheap, shallow and performative approach disguised the true state of the economy. 

To be true to the Christian justice tradition, like its ancestor, the rabbinical, biblical tradition, we want to stand in solidarity with poor communities and demand an economy based on right relationship. 

We recognize that meaningful justice is achieved in relational ways, such as through the negotiation of decent wages and working conditions, by acting as a community to support a family in trouble, or by forming alliances of solidarity to achieve better housing conditions. Whilst the safety net is vital, our primary relationships should be with each other, not with the bureaucratic state.  

Too often, well-meaning churches and Christian charities fail to call for economic reform and instead prioritize the ‘welfarist’ or ‘identitarian’ interpretations of justice, not realising that these can act as a distraction from more fundamental questions of economic justice and inadvertently undermine social relationships.   

2. Changing practice: empowerment and the contributory principle 

As well as looking to systems of economic and political power, we must also be concerned with our own practice. Is the approach we are taking to social action effective? Good intentions are not enough. We need to face questions about whether some forms of social action are counterproductive.

Does our charity sometimes unintentionally trap people deeper in poverty? 

Together with the principle of solidarity, the principle of subsidiarity is vital – that responsibility is taken at the appropriate level, empowering people to help themselves. As Pope Benedict XVI said: “Subsidiarity is first and foremost a form of assistance to the human person.. [which].. respects personal dignity by recognizing in the person a subject who is always capable of giving something to others.”  

The uncomfortable truth is that too much of the growth of social action has been in activities focussed on giving out resources to people affected by poverty rather than forms of help which build mutuality. We are concerned that this growth is simply digging a bigger hole for the people it is seeking to serve.  

We are also troubled that this approach can accentuate class estrangement between the church and the people it aims to help. The professionalised language common in social action circles often communicates a middle-class, managerial, ‘service-client’ dynamic rather than a meaningful, reciprocal encounter. This can inadvertently rob people of their agency.  

We need to take seriously the message of books such as Toxic Charity or When Helping Hurts because they have exposed the complexities of compassion. We need to develop models of help which have empowerment and reciprocity at their heart, and approaches that enable people trapped in poverty to have agency. We need to enable people to discover the kingdom of God within themselves (Luke 17:21), to find the faith which heals them – not just to be passive recipients of hand-outs. 

Again, a relational, rather than transactional, approach is fundamental. Relationships must be two-way – inviting people into environments where their contribution is a vital ingredient in the change that is happening. In food poverty initiatives, this means that beneficiaries will pay something towards the food provision they are receiving and have the opportunity to help out. In homelessness services, this means empowering people to pay their rent and contribute to their own recovery from the challenges they face.  

A critical aspect of this is appreciating the difference between crisis problems which require an immediate, material response and chronic problems which require longer-term, relational approaches. As Robert Lupton argues, a crisis form of response to chronic issues is not helpful: 

“We respond generously to stories of people in crisis, but in fact most of our charity goes to people who face predictable, solvable problems of chronic poverty. An emergency response to chronic need is at best counterproductive and, over time, is actually harmful.”

Christian social action should aim to welcome people into participating in community rather than keeping them in receiving mode.

People are not transformed simply through what they receive but through what they participate in and contribute to. This is why the 12-Step movement of addiction recovery has been so effective and sustainable, because everyone who truly benefits commits to helping others. Thus, one person’s recovery is always bound up with another in a community-shaped form of help. 

A neat way of expressing this is the contributory principle: all forms of social action should empower beneficiaries to contribute to their own welfare and to the welfare of others. We should reject atomising, transactional approaches which can deepen dependency, and instead create structures that enable people to realize their own capacity to act.  

Building on this principle, it should be our longer term ambition to help build robust forms of local economy and co-ownership structures that safeguard people from hardship. As Andrew Forsey, National Director of Feeding Britain says, there are already examples of initiatives that suggest potential in that direction: 

“Churches up and down the country, through pantries, food clubs and co-ops, are expanding working-class purchasing power and reducing the need for food banks and remedying the inadequacies of both state and market provision. These institutions, built upon the contributory principle, seem adept at combining individual self-interest with the common good.” 

3. Deepening spirituality: confidence in our Christian distinctiveness  

Finally, we believe that now is the time for confidence in the distinctive nature of Christian social action. There is a well-worn path of secularization that many Christian charities have ventured down and in doing so have cut themselves off from the roots from which they grew. 

We call for a new emphasis on integration of faith alongside charitable activity. We must resist the tendency to dilute our distinctiveness until we are left with a legacy faith: a footnote in a charity’s history rather than something dynamic and life-giving. 

Our distinctive character is built on foundational beliefs about what it means to be human. We are relational beings made in the image of the Almighty God. Relationships are at the heart of what it means to be human because relationships are at the core of a Trinitarian God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This truth can and must infuse all we do. 

The biblical narrative has both relational justice and empowering mercy running right through it. The liberation from slavery in the Exodus, the social and economic justice enshrined in the Torah, the social concern of the prophets railing against idolatry and injustice, the compassion and transforming power of Jesus and his radical call to discipleship and the way the early church lived as a counter-cultural community. These stories continue to inspire countless people drawn into God’s work of restoration and repair.  

We want our lives and our work to reflect this grace and truth of Jesus not reject it. We want to call people and society into a radical way of living, into a movement which embodies this life-giving energy, that offers a constructive response to the socio-economic, cultural and spiritual malaise that has plagued our country for too long.  

Every Christian church and charity is called to be more than a service provider, more than a think tank, and has a vocation deeper than activism or volunteering.

In the words of Pope Francis, our calling “begins where we live…by bearing witness every day to the beauty of the Love that has looked upon us and lifted us up.”  

This crossroads calls us to ask ourselves honestly what it means to be a Christian. Indeed, the very idea of a separate ‘social action’ sector calls us to take a new look at discipleship formation. 

In a culture plagued by individualism, it is not only our charitable bodies that need reminding about the relational imperative – it should be integral to the vocation of every Christian. As Stanley Hauerwas reminds us, “The church does not have a social ethic; the church is a social ethic”.

And, as Benedict XVI says, charity (love) is not to be reserved to an activist class: it is “not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others.”  

Practices of discernment – listening to God in the local – are vital. These practices enable faith to become far more than a ‘starter motor’ for a social action project – it can become the engine of a whole new way of being. We must remember that the gospel is the source of hope in addressing the crises of our time, giving purpose, meaning, depth of insight and a route for forgiveness and fullness of life. 

Our charitable activities and local relationships can offer so much more than the bleak ‘allocation of resources’ world and the managerial mindset can supply. We can provide an answer to the poverty of relationships and identity. 

The Christian tradition must not fail to offer a response to the deep spiritual needs among our brothers and sisters affected by poverty. The scale of loneliness and despair is often hidden from view. We know that people in financial trouble are most likely to be living alone, and many have considered or attempted suicide as a way out. We also know that spiritual accompaniment, as part of a respectful offer of support, is often welcomed by people in need.

We recognise that many charities and initiatives operate in a mixed-zone with volunteers who may not always be committed Christians. This is a good thing, and there are lots of ways that a vibrant spirituality can be integrated sensitively alongside inclusive practice. 

The times call not for shyness but for what Lesslie Newbigin described as ‘proper confidence in the gospel’ and a conviction that ensures our Christian distinctiveness is integral to what we do and how we live. This does not mean a return to crude forms of proselytising: rather, as Pope Francis has said, the church “grows by attracting others. And what attracts is our witness”.

We must listen to God in prayer and boldly seek the grace and truth revealed in Jesus Christ. We must not be embarrassed by the distinctive roots that drive our motivation, nor should we allow social action to secularize the church and mute its ability to share the good news. 

It may look hopeless, and we may feel powerless. But grace is working. We can look for signs of the Holy Spirit in our neighbourhoods and our local economies – signs of trust, forbearance, forgiveness, covenantal relationships of reciprocity and mutuality. We can join in with this divine energy and build the common good together. This is what keeps us human, and our God-given humanity must be defended. This is a time to speak the truth with courage, to accompany each other, refuse tribalism and build unlikely alliances of mutual respect and loving friendship. 

This is an edited and abridged version of a report published by Together For the Common Good. To read the full report and download as a pdf, click here.

Like what you’ve read? Consider supporting the work of Adamah by making a donation and help us keep exploring life’s big (and not so big) issues!