There has been a great deal written about the monumental collapse in finance and banking across the world and a lot of anger expended by commentators as to who is responsible for this state of affairs affecting savings, pensions and, all too soon, the real economy and the lives of ordinary people.

Much less has been written about where this seismic shift in the world economy leaves the rest of us, particularly those dependent on a continued commitment to innovative social policy and the regeneration of people and place now undoubtedly squeezing the third sector. The business mantra suggests that social inclusion depends on the growth of the economy on the basis that you must earn a pound before you can spend a pound - what future for the "trickle-down theory"? The spectre of recession is not good news for any of us, but the danger is that our poorest communities will suffer disproportionately in the coming recession. So what should we be thinking and doing next?

At the level of the individual and their families, it is difficult not to see a growing attitude of man-mind-thyself as people look out for themselves and their jobs. When difficult times come, our default position is invariably introspective. At a corporate level, companies are already opting out of helping charities - such as the cancellation of the fund-raising dinner planned by the charity, Who Cares, in Kelvingrove Art Gallery - and this trend will increase. Wednesday's employment figures were an indication of companies beginning to downsize, as it is euphemistically called. We've seen this in construction, financial services and yet to come in the bank branch shake-out. Retail will be next as people tighten the purse strings for fear of unemployment. Company bankruptcies, losses, lower profits and passed dividends will impact on the large company charities who disburse considerable sums to voluntary organisations on the basis of dividend income. If the voluntary sector - which supports those in our poorest communities - also collapses through reduced budgets and the withdrawal of public and charitable funding, then who will look out for the poor? Another factor not yet on our radar is that there is a generation of young people out there who have never experienced a recession and they will discover a drop in living standards as a result of the abrupt end to the live-now-pay-later lifestyle. Who's looking out for the new poor?

Poverty has become an industry, giving the middle classes a plentiful supply of jobs and lifelong careers in welfare and other services. This, too, will change as private and public funding become tighter. If the churches, wider faith groups and voluntary sector were to stop work today, one-third of all social services would cease and urban and rural communities would be immeasurably impoverished - though this is seldom fully recognised. Will funding increase in the voluntary sector as it has in the banking sector?

The claims of regeneration as model for addressing poverty are often overstated. In the week Glasgow got a well-deserved boost with the Lonely Planet Guide extolling its virtues as a cool and fun city to visit, we need to keep in mind that one-third of our population still live their lives on the wrong side of "cool". I have always had my doubts about how much of the regeneration in Glasgow actually "regenerates" anything in the true sense of the word, and how much of those resources reach their intended targets? Regenerate means to undergo or to cause to undergo physical, economic and spiritual renewal. Using this measurement, how much of Glasgow's present and planned regeneration is houses, flats, hotels and business parks - all necessary to broaden the tax base to pay for the services of any great city? In fairness, these developments do give employment both during construction and when the buildings are occupied. But is this what we need if we are to help those in greatest need and to fulfil our goal to be a just and inclusive society?

What are our leaders thinking and doing? Our own government is suggesting that a new financial world order is required - and that most certainly is a priority. The market is not all bad, but we mustn't easily forget what its excesses have done and will increasingly do to the real economy. The real test of government will be its ability to help us change the way we think about the future, rather than its skill in promising us that once the banks are nationalised, trust will be restored, the oncoming recession mitigated and our individual lifestyles safeguarded. Implicit in this way of thinking is the assumption that what has happened can be recast in some way without touching the hearts and minds of ordinary people.

The real test for ordinary people is in each of us seeing and dealing with the danger that these assurances give in masking the need for repentance. Repentance is "feeling such regret for past conduct as to change one's mind regarding it". Are we capable of this kind of hearts-and-minds change to the degree where our lifestyle expectations, our way of thinking and acting, our values and priorities - our very culture - undergoes a metamorphosis? All the comment at the moment is about scapegoats. Implicit in this is that we, the ordinary population, played no part in the meltdown. The prerequisite of fundamental national change is for all of us to see that we share some of the blame for what has happened and own up to the way we've been living these past 10 years in encouraging politicians, entrepreneurs and business types to promise us higher and better living standards beyond what we need.

This isn't a swipe against materialism per se; it is an argument suggesting that unless the nation's future is founded on values that benefit all of its people and respects our environment, then it will, yet again, become unsustainable in the long term. Society seems to have drifted to a point where success and quality of life are defined and measured in terms of purely material things and their absence taken as deprivation and lack of success - even failure. This, too, has a profound effect on the aspirations of our poorer communities.

If the voluntary sector becomes the poor relation in the coming economic recession, then it will be the vulnerable children and families who will suffer, the black economy will grow, drug and alcohol abuse will increase - all to the detriment of our civil society. Scotland's potential to change is, and it always has been, in its people; how they think, work and behave towards one another. Every so often in the history of communities and nations, something takes place of such magnitude as to bring about a sea-change in the cultural life of the people. Is the present credit crash such an event? Can we turn it to our good? Will the release of these huge negative, financial and economic forces as they impact Scotland bring about an equal and opposite release of the spiritual, intellectual and moral potential that once made us a leader among nations?

Rev John Matthews is minister of Ruchhill Parish Church and is a former European executive for General Electric.