British Anglican clergyman and theologian John Stott CBE (27 April 1921 – 27 July 2011) was a prominent figure in the global evangelical movement. He was one of the main contributors to the 1974 Lausanne Covenant. Time magazine named Stott one of the world’s 100 most important people in 2005.
John Stott
Sir Arnold and Emily “Lily” Stott (née Holland) welcomed John Stott into the world on April 27, 1921, in London, England. His mother had grown up Lutheran and frequented the local Church of England church, All Souls, Langham Place, while his father was an agnostic and a prominent doctor at Harley Street. At the age of eight, Stott was transferred to boarding schools, first to Oakley Hall, a prep school. He continued on to Rugby School in 1935. In 1938, while attending Rugby School, John Stott heard the director of the Iwerne camps, Eric Nash (also known as “Bash”), give a lecture titled “What Then Shall I Do with Jesus, Who Is Called the Christ?” Following this discussion, Nash directed Stott to Revelation 3:20, which states, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Later, Stott shared the following account of how this poem affected him:
Here, then, is the crucial question which we have been leading up to. Have we ever opened our door to Christ? Have we ever invited him in? This was exactly the question which I needed to have put to me. For, intellectually speaking, I had believed in Jesus all my life, on the other side of the door. I had regularly struggled to say my prayers through the key-hole. I had even pushed pennies under the door in a vain attempt to pacify him. I had been baptized, yes and confirmed as well. I went to church, read my Bible, had high ideals, and tried to be good and do good. But all the time, often without realising it, I was holding Christ at arm’s length, and keeping him outside. I knew that to open the door might have momentous consequences. I am profoundly grateful to him for enabling me to open the door. Looking back now over more than fifty years, I realise that that simple step has changed the entire direction, course and quality of my life.
Nash served as Stott’s mentor, writing to him once a week with guidance on how to advance in his Christian walk and on practical matters like running the school’s Christian Union.
Additionally, John Stott was a member of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship and a pacifist during this time. He abandoned pacifism in his later years and switched to a “just war” position.
John Stott earned a double first in French and theology while studying modern languages at Trinity College, Cambridge. He participated actively in the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union while he was a student, but the executive committee felt he was too important to be asked to dedicate his time to the committee.
He moved to Ridley Hall Theological College, which is connected to the University of Cambridge, after Trinity in order to prepare for Anglican clerical ordination.
Later, in 1983, he was awarded a Lambeth Doctor of Divinity.
John Stott Ministry
After receiving his deacon ordination in 1945, John Stott served as a curate at All Souls Church in Langham Place from 1945 to 1950 before being appointed rector from 1950 to 1975. With the exception of a few years spent at Cambridge, he had spent nearly his entire life in this church, where he had been raised. “Uncle John” had “Auntie Frances” as his right hand, and the two worked together until his death. In 1956, he employed Frances Whitehead as his secretary. During his tenure as rector, he gained more and more national and international clout, most notably as a major figure in the 1966–1967 controversy concerning the propriety of evangelicals staying in the Church of England.
In order to unite the many branches of evangelicalism, he established the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) in 1960. To free up his time for other endeavors, he appointed a vicar of All Souls in 1970 in response to mounting demands on his time from outside the All Souls flock. Michael Baughen, who was the vicar at the time, succeeded Stott as rector in 1975. Stott stayed in the church and was named rector emeritus.
He established the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity in 1982, where he served as honorary president until his passing, and the Langham Trust in 1969. He brought together prominent evangelical thinkers during his administration to create programs and courses that would introduce Christianity to a nonreligious audience.
He frequently talked to sizable audiences around the nation on “Matters of Life and Death” with the help of journalist Elaine Storkey, the institute’s director, and renowned pediatrician John Wyatt. The Nottingham statement, which was released after he chaired the second National Evangelical Anglican Congress in April 1977, read, “Seeing ourselves and Roman Catholics as fellow-Christians, we repent of attitudes that have seemed to deny it.” Some evangelicals at the time were upset about this.
John Stott Book Collection
In addition to several articles and studies, John Stott authored more than 50 books, some of which are only available in Chinese, Korean, or Spanish.
Among these is Basic Christianity, a book that aims to clarify the Christian message and persuade readers of its veracity and significance.
Published in 1961, The Preacher’s Portrait: Some New Testament Word Studies was a crucial resource for clergy.
According to J. I. Packer, “No other treatment of this supreme subject says so much so truly and so well.” He is also the author of The Cross of Christ.
He also authored Essentials: A Liberal–Evangelical Dialogue, a discussion with liberal theologian and clergyman David L. Edwards over whether or not what evangelicals consider fundamental should be considered such. His book Evangelical Truth, published in 2005, enumerates what he believes to be the core tenets of Christianity that are crucial to evangelicalism.
He kept up his regular writing till his death, even after formally retiring from public appearances. He and J. Alec Motyer co-authored The Anglican Evangelical Doctrine of Infant Baptism in 2008.
His two last major works, which serve as a summary of his ideas, provide an introduction to his philosophy. Both were released by IVP, the publishing business he had been associated with throughout his life.
- His thoughts on church life were published in The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor in 2007.
- At the age of 88, he witnessed the publication of The Radical Disciple, his last work, in January 2010. It ends with a heartfelt farewell and a request that the Langham Partnership International carry on his legacy.
John Stott’s influence on Anglicanism
John Stott was a member of the Church of England’s conservative evangelical wing. His leadership of evangelicalism within the Church of England was crucial, and he was seen as a major factor in convincing evangelicals to stay active in the Church of England instead of defecting to churches that were solely evangelical. He was instrumental in two significant occurrences in this respect.
In 1966, Martyn Lloyd-Jones unexpectedly called for evangelicals to come together as evangelicals and leave their “mixed” denominations while he was chairing the National Assembly of Evangelicals, a meeting organized by the Evangelical Alliance. The conviction that evangelical perspectives on important issues like the atonement and the inspiration of Scripture are necessary for genuine Christian fellowship served as the driving force behind this viewpoint. John Stott was seen similarly by evangelical Anglicans as Lloyd-Jones was by many in the free churches. Although Stott was not scheduled to speak that evening, he used his position as chairman to publicly dispute Lloyd-Jones’ viewpoint, claiming that it was contrary to both history and the Bible.
The inaugural National Evangelical Anglican Congress took place at Keele University the following year. Due in great part to Stott’s influence, evangelical Anglicans at this meeting rejected Lloyd-Jones’ separationist stance and pledged to fully participate in the Church of England.
A significant portion of the British evangelical community was essentially steered in the right path by these two conferences. The precise nature of Lloyd-Jones’s beliefs is still up for question, but it is certain that they led to the two groups taking radically different stances. These stances and the ensuing division are still mostly in place today.
Personal Life
John Stott never got married, had no kids, and lived a life of celibacy. He stated, “The gift of singleness is more a vocation than an empowerment, although to be sure God is faithful in supporting those he calls.” He donated his fortune and led a modest life. “The biggest temptation for Christian leaders is definitely pride,” he stated. ‘I would pray more’ was his response when asked what he would do differently if he could go back in time.
Birdwatching was Stott’s favorite way to unwind, and his novel The Birds Our Teachers capitalizes on this passion.
