Stephen John Chalke MBE FRSA (born 17 November 1955) is a British Baptist minister, the founder of the Oasis Charitable Trust,[1] a former United Nations' Special Adviser on Human Trafficking and a social activist.

Chalke is the author of a large number of books and articles as well as a former presenter and now regular contributor and commentator on television, radio and other media.

[3] Oasis has since developed into a group of charities that currently operate in nine countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa, providing housing, education, healthcare, training, youth work, and family support.

[4] It has grown into a significant voluntary sector provider, delivering services for local authorities and national governments as well as self-funded initiatives.

According to the Department for Education “The National Institute of Teaching was founded by four leading school trusts, with a long and established record in helping teachers and leaders carve out the career that is right for them and working with children in local communities.” Its task is to boost the quality of teaching and school leadership by carrying out research, applying the insights to its professional development programmes, and sharing findings with the whole education sector.

Chalke, who was working as a 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.

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.

The Association was already running a series of hospitals in the north of the country and Chalke believed it had the capacity and infrastructure to sustain the work that Oasis and GMTV had begun.

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.

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.

[13] Chalke has taken on many causes in his career, from working with vulnerable children on the African continent, to community learning through his Oasis Academies, to championing LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) and BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) rights to helping churches to realize their potential for helping people in their communities with such issues as poverty and homelessness, to stopping human trafficking, and a myriad of other things.

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.

The campaign intended to: 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.

These hubs empower communities of law enforcement, government agencies, local authorities and NGOs to build resilience through coordination at a strategic and tactical level.

Embedded Modern Slavery Coordinators enable resilience building by developing bridges between the hubs and vulnerable local communities.

He has drawn strong criticism from leading atheists and secularists such as Polly Toynbee and Keith Porteous Wood,[29][30] with whom he has publicly debated, as well as Terry Sanderson[31] and others for his stance.

"Most dangerous are the Christian global corporations such as Oasis headed up by Steve Chalke who have snatched growing numbers of academy contracts, also have ambitions to run hospitals too.

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.

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.

[36] The People's Parliament has received support from many parliamentarians and church leaders, including the now former Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Revd James Jones, who endorsed it, saying: "This new initiative is based on the well established principles of Christ-centred vision, rigorous thinking, a depth of community engagement and a clear articulation of a biblical worldview, which are the foundations on which Oasis' work has been built.

"[37] In early 2013, Chalke sent what The Independent said would be "shockwaves through Britain’s evangelical community",[38] of which he is a leader, by stating, both on the Oasis Trust website[39] and in an article in Christianity magazine,[40] that he supports monogamous same-sex relationships and marriage.

"[42] Because evangelical communities tend to place enormous importance on Biblical literalism, inerrancy and infallibility, the approximately 5,000-word extended version of Chalke's declaration provided theological and scriptural justifications for his new acceptance of committed homosexual relationships.

[38] Chalke criticised traditional Christianity's rejection of "faithful gay relationships", saying that it has left far too many people feeling "vulnerable and isolated".

It's one thing to be critical of a promiscuous lifestyle, but shouldn't the Church consider nurturing positive models for permanent and monogamous homosexual relationships?

"[44] 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.

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.

Because of this, I feel deep sorrow that, on one hand, vast numbers of people around the world consider our sacred text to be, at best, confusing and, at worst, intolerant and violent.

Only as we adopt an open, humble, discursive and transparent approach to this task will we be in a strong position to respond with integrity to the moral, social and political issues which face us as individuals, as local and national communities and as a global society as a whole.

[2] 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".