John Stott’s legacy

No one else shaped the way Sydney Anglicans preach today as much as John Stott. Will his legacy continue in the next generation of preachers?

Michael Jensen’s wonderful tribute to Stott on the ABC website recounts the effect of Stott’s preaching on John Chapman:

When Stott came to Sydney in 1958 for a mission at Sydney University, he left a lasting impact. Local evangelist and preacher John Chapman apparently went home and tore up all his sermon notes! Having heard what Stott did in the pulpit, there was simply no going back to the old method of pious reflection.

Stott’s preaching changed the way a generation preached. As the Archbishop wrote here on sydneyanglicans.net.

The biblical preaching of my youth would start characteristically from a verse, sometimes taken out of context and used as a starting point for an extended Christian homily with exhortation. Our first hand experience of John Stott was different. He took passages rather than texts and gave rigorous attention to the context and the meaning of the passage taken as a whole.

Stott’s model became the new normal...." To read more, click here.