John R. W. Stott - (1921-2011): My Biblical Hero

A Reflection

I first encountered John R. W. Stott as a student at London University (LBC) in the 1960's. I was raised among the Plymouth Brethren and, therefore, had a deep suspicion of things like a trained/paid clergy, (we believed and practiced the priesthood of all believers), infant baptism (we opposed it), and our view of the sacraments was symbolic memorial, non-sacramental, but central to the worship of the assembly.

I roomed with an Anglican from India who insisted I go hear John Stott at All Souls' Langham Place; to appease his insistence, I went along. My life was changed forever. I will always be grateful for the Brethren scholars I was raised with, but books by Bishop J.C. Ryle, Westcott and Hort, Michael Ramsey et al were never far from my elbow. (I would later discover C.S. Lewis, J.I. Packer and Michael Green.)

Listening to him preach, Stott was a study in a man who never wasted a single word in the pulpit. He became, for me, one of the greatest living Bible teachers, pastors, and evangelical statesmen of all time, beloved in the UK, and later in the US where he was regularly featured at Inter-Varsity rallies.

Nearly every book he wrote wound up on my bookshelf. Basic Christianity and The Cross of Christ became the mainstays for informing others about The Faith and for keeping me focused on Christ's death and resurrection as central to the message of Christ. There was and is "no other name..."

A number of us were deeply and forever changed by "Uncle John". They included Ted Schroder, an assistant of Stott's at All Souls who went on to be an Episcopal priest, chaplain and devotional book writer in the US. Dr. David Wells went on to become a Distinguished Research Professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. Os Guinness became a world-renown author, speaker and social critic with a long list of books. I became a scrappy, theologically trained Anglican journalist with an eye for theological and ecclesiastical BS and heretics. (Both Schroder and Wells have written tributes to Stott. They can be found here http://tinyurl.com/3h9ztru

Over the years, our paths would cross in different countries; two spring to mind....

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