John Stott

dies,

aged 90

CAPE TOWN – John Stott (left), the British preacher, author and evangelist, died in Lingfield, Surrey on July 27, 2011. He was 90 years old.

He shaped much of the course of evangelicalism in the 20^th century through his writing and preaching, and in 2005, TIME magazine placed him among the world’s “100 most influential people”.

He was chief architect of The Lausanne Covenant (1974) and remained as Honorary Chairman of The Lausanne Movement until he died. He took an active prayerful interest in Cape Town 2010: The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization from the time the idea of such a Congress was formed.

He impacted the church around the world in many ways. Perhaps his greatest contribution was to articulate clearly and to defend robustly the evangelical faith which he always understood to be biblical faith, grounded in the New Testament. Evangelicalism was to Stott an expression of historic, orthodox Christianity.

Perhaps more than any other person in the last century, he restored confidence in the authority of God’s Word and in the centrality of biblical preaching and teaching. He inspired many evangelicals around the world to make a robust and clear affirmation of biblical truth while at the same time emphasising that this must be backed up with a distinctive, godly Christian life. 

Stott was described as “a renaissance man with a reformation theology”. He had remarkable intellectual reach, and always worked to bring his mind under the scrutiny of the Bible. He loved Scripture and for more than 50 years he read the whole Bible through annually, using Robert Murray McCheyne’s reading plan.

He summed up his priorities as “students and pastors”.

He was able to hold together, in constructive biblical tension, a passionate commitment to evangelism along with a profound commitment to ministering to the needs of people in the context of suffering and brokenness. – The Lausanne Movement.