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<\/a><\/p>\nI suspect that by now almost everyone who reads this blog will already know that John Stott passed away two days ago.<\/p>\n
It is impossible to overstate the influence Stott had on the evangelical world in the 20th Century. I thought I would here share some quotes and a round up of useful links form around the net. John Stott<\/a> Ministries has a website where you can read more about him. Third Way have a comprehensive interview with Stott<\/a> from 2005.<\/p>\n John Piper\u2019s personal reflection on Stott\u2019s life<\/a> is probably the best place to start:<\/p>\n \u201cJohn Stott turned the words of Bible sentences into windows onto glorious reality by explaining them in clear, compelling, complete, coherent, fresh, silly-free, English sentences . . Yes! This is what I was starving for and didn\u2019t even know it. Amazing! Someone is telling me what these sentences mean! Someone is making light shine on these words. It is shining so bright, I can\u2019t sleep in this light! I am waking up from decades of dull dealing with God\u2019s word. Thank you. Thank you. I could care less if you tell me any stories. I want to know what God means by these words!.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Justin Taylor<\/a>wrote a very good article about Sott which included the video I have also embedded below. He quoted John Stott\u2019s final published words, at the end of his last book, The Radical Disciple<\/a><\/em>, published in 2010:<\/p>\n As I lay down my pen for the last time (literally, since I confess I am not computerized) at the age of eighty-eight, I venture to send this valedictory message to my readers. I am grateful for your encouragement, for many of you have written to me. Looking ahead, none of us of course knows what the future of printing and publishing may be. But I myself am confident that the future of books is assured and that, though they will be complemented, they will never be altogether replaced. For there is something unique about books. Our favorite books become very precious to us and we even develop with them an almost living and affectionate relationship. Is it an altogether fanciful fact that we handle, stroke and even smell them as tokens of our esteem and affection? I am not referring only to an author\u2019s feeling for what he has written, but to all readers and their library. I have made it a rule not to quote from any book unless I have first handled it. So let me urge you to keep reading, and encourage your relatives and friends to do the same. For this is a much neglected means of grace. . . . Once again, farewell! (pp. 136-137)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here are a few quotes from John Stott that various people have shared on Twitter that give a good insight into the way he thought:<\/p>\n The Christian Post<\/a> quoted a colleague, \u201cI\u2019m not certain that John Stott would want people to remember him,\u201d and gives a detailed account of his life.<\/p>\n Christianity Today<\/a> has a very helpful article, which includes the following excerpt:<\/p>\n \u201cConservative evangelicals were a despised minority when Stott was ordained, without a single bishop in the Church of England. In response, Stott showed his ingenuity as a social entrepreneur. He was never one to keep his convictions to himself, nor to consider a situation hopeless. Instead, he fostered organizations meant to encourage younger evangelical clergy, and he helped organize and renew evangelical conferences.<\/p>\n Most of all, he served as a model of confidence and intellectual strength. \u201cI remember reading his books as a young student,\u201d says Old Testament scholar Chris Wright, whom Stott later chose to lead Langham Partners International, the Majority World ministry of biblical scholarship and preaching that Stott started as a result of his global travels. \u201cThey were so clearly argued you felt that you had a case.\u201d<\/p>\n Stott believed in the mind as a gift from God. In an evangelical world tempted to rely on proof texts and emotive stories, Stott drilled down deep into Scripture to display its power. Many people, hearing Stott preach for the first time, said they had never heard the Bible expounded with such clarity and depth. His passion was to learn what God said, and to let it shape life. Stott\u2019s preaching and writing renewed faith in the inspiration of Scripture\u2014not only because he defended it, but because he displayed it.<\/p>\n At the same time, his practice of evangelism demonstrated that \u201cplain, ordinary Christianity\u201d could appeal to all classes of people. What evangelicals most treasured\u2014the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the Scriptures that testified to them\u2014he showed to be potent resources for winning the world. Largely through Stott\u2019s leadership, British evangelicalism was transformed from a defensive backwater to an engaged and significant movement.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Tim Challies <\/a>shares some highlights from Twitter, while the Gospel Coalition<\/a> posted an article from a British Minister that states, \u201cTo ministers like myself, perhaps it is John Stott\u2019s concern for careful, faithful and meticulous exposition of the Scriptures that will be his lasting legacy. For him, preaching was not just an \u2018add on\u2019 to the busy life of a minister but a huge privilege and a solemn responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n British Newspapers have posted obitaries including the following:<\/p>\n\n
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