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Remembering John Stott: Stuart Barton Babbage and others comment in Eternity

7:38pm Sunday, 31st July 2011

Stuart Barton Babbage

Sir Arnold Stott, the eminent Harley Street consultant, hoped that his gifted son, who was Head Prefect at Rugby School, and who was later to graduate with a double first at Cambridge University, would be a diplomat. It was an understandable hope, for John had all the obvious gifts: high intelligence, integrity, humility, charisma, and self discipline. But, as a consequence of his conversion at school, his destiny was to be an ambassador not for Caesar but for Christ.
John Stott was pre-eminently an evangelist to students around the world and in commentaries he wrote as a gifted expositor of the word of God. It is instructive to compare Billy Graham’s autobiography with Timothy Dudley Smith’s massive biography of John Stott. Billy Graham’s autobiography is graphic and revealing; by contrast John Stott’s biography is reticent and discreet. We learn much about John Stott’s bird watching, nothing about his role as Chaplain to the Queen and the names of individuals, high and low, whom he met and ministered to.
I count it a rare honour that he invited me to preach at All Souls, Langham Place. I also shared with him the platform at one of the great Urbana Conventions under the auspices of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship in America. John Stott stayed with me when conducting a Mission to Melbourne University. He was a memorable guest, delighting my children by teaching them the longest word in the English language, floccinaucinihilipilification!
I agree with Chris Wright that John Stott’s life is, for us all, a challenge, a rebuke, an encouragement and an inspiration. Thanks be to God!
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15
Stuart Barton Babbage was formerly Principal of Ridley Theological College, Melbourne, and Anglican Dean of Melbourne.

Chris Wright of Langham Partnership

We are sure that you would wish to be among the first to know that on Wednesday, July 27,
at 3.15pm (UK time), John Stott went to be with the Lord. Close family and friends were with him during the morning, and they listened together with him to selections from Handel’s Messiah, including “I know that my Redeemer liveth”, and read through 2 Timothy. He died very peacefully during the afternoon. He had become very weak and weary in recent months and we thank God for a merciful and peaceful ending to his earthly pilgrimage.
A man of remarkable global vision and strategic insight, he was instrumental in the establishment of many thriving Christian agencies. Countless people around the world can testify to the personal encouragement they have received from ‘Uncle John’. Please join us in praying that the Lord, who has now called his good and faithful servant John home to his rest and reward, may continue to bless with increasing fruitfulness all the ministries that have sprung from his vision and leadership.

Round-up of other tributes

Karen Mudge

All over the world, those who have been touched by the teaching, writing and ministry of John Stott, have been remembering and paying tribute to him. The former Rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place, London was one of the most significant Christian leaders of the 20th century, and passed away on 27 July 2011 aged 90.
In Sydney, Archbishop Peter Jensen reflected on Stott’s contribution both worldwide and in Australia. “We thank God for the inspiring life and ministry of John Stott. He was one of the most remarkable Christian leaders of his generation.
“His impact in Sydney was especially that of an evangelist and an expository Bible teacher, but his faithfulness and creativity ensured a world-wide influence on many fronts.He was a man used by God to bless the lives of countless others”, the Archbishop said.
Billy Graham said “The evangelical world has lost one of its greatest spokesmen, and I have lost one of my close personal friends and advisors. I look forward to seeing him again when I go to Heaven.”
Greg Clarke, CEO of Bible Society Australia said “Stott was one of the first Christian authors I read seriously as a young adult. His book, The Cross of Christ, and his concept of ‘double listening’ (to the word and the world) have both shaped me profoundly. But it was his persona that affected me most: in him, I saw that it was possible for reasonableness, gentleness, zeal and entrepreneurialism all to co-exist in a follower of Christ. Thanks be to God for his life.”
Stuart Piggins, Director of the Centre for the History of Christian Thought and Experience at Macquarie University, believes that along with Billy Graham, John Stott was the most important figure in evangelicalism in the second half of the 20th century, especially as the architect of the type of evangelicalism now embraced in Sydney.
“John Stott always made a great impact when he came to Australia. I remember the marvellous CMS summer school in 1964-65 when he spoke on 2 Corinthians, on the topic of ‘We Do Not Lose Heart’, and as he said the phrase in Biblical Greek, the Moore college students listening told him, ‘But that’s not how you say it!’ It was a lot of fun.”
“Stott made a great and lasting impact on those who attended that summer.” Piggins remembers how his sister was converted through Stott’s message at that CMS summer school, and how she was able to go and have a private discussion with John Stott.
“Although his chief reputation is as a Bible teacher,” Piggins reflects, “he was a very effective evangelist too.”
“When John Stott used to call me at home, my house mates would pass the phone while making wild facial gestures of excitement and delight,” remembers James Catford, Group Chief Executive of the British & Foreign Bible Society. “But when we all got food poisoning after we’d had him round for tea, nobody had the guts to ask him if he’d been as sick as the rest of us. Such was the respect and love we had for him, we were all too tongue-tied and awestruck to get close to ‘Uncle John’.
“My father brought Margaret Thatcher to a Prom Praise event at the Royal Albert Hall where John spoke from the stage about coming to faith in Christ at an early age. He told his story in the third person, paused for effect, and then said, ‘I know this story is true —because I was that boy.’”
John Stott asked that donations following his death might be given to the Langham Partnership, which seeks to raise the standards of Biblical teaching and preaching around the world.