2021 marks one hundred years since the birth
of John Stott, an English Anglican who impacted evangelical Christianity in the 20th Century
more than any other individual.

Commitment to God

John Stott first committed himself to God as a seventeen year old school boy at Rugby School following the evangelistic work of Eric Nash. The young John Stott was keenly aware of his inability to live the kind of life he saw as being necessary for all men and women and one night at his bedside he accepted the Lordship of Jesus Christ and trusted in Christ’s subtitutionary life and death.

Throughout the rest of his life and across his ministry, John Stott displayed utter devotion to the triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This year, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Langham Founder John Stott’s birth. And this month, we pause to remember his passing a decade ago [July 27, 2011]. As we do, we give thanks for his life, his legacy, and his global impact that continues today through Langham—and you.

Remembering John Stott
from Rev Dr Chris Wright
global ambassador and ministry director, langham partnership

We have been celebrating this year the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1921.  It just set me wondering what he might be thinking or saying to us if he were with us today. 

  • I’m certain that his eyes would have twinkled with joy and pleasure at how the Langham ministries he founded in such a humble way some 50 years ago have grown and multiplied in their geographical expansion, operational scope, financial resourcing, and spiritual fruitfulness. But he would have taken no credit, other than being available for God to work through him and pass the vision on to others. 
  • I’m sure his eyes would also have shed tears in prayer for all those among our global family who have lost their lives or suffered multiple bereavements among their close families and church communities. John had the mind of Christ and a Spirit-softened heart for those in pain or need or deprivation of any kind. He loved his friends and shared the joys and pains of their lives in incredibly personal depth.
  • I’m sure he would have encouraged us to think widely and creatively about the changing world around us, and how our missional thinking and strategies and actions must constantly strive to keep up with what God himself is doing in the world. That was such a mark of his own ministry, as he listened to and learned from friends all over the world, and interacted with evangelical networks such as Lausanne, IFES and WEA. 
  • But I’m also sure that he would have urged us to “keep our eye on the ball”, to keep the main thing the main thing – namely the centrality of the Word of God in its power to build up the people of God in Christlikeness, maturity and mission in the world.  I think the first photo below is “saying” that, as John has his hands reverently on his Bible, as if to say, “This is what my whole life has been about.”  The other one was taken at the Hookses, his writing retreat by the sea in Wales, where he wrote so many of the books that have enabled people all over the world to live for God and his Word in their own diverse contexts. 
  • And I expect he would have wanted to say a huge Thank You! to all of you, the many, many people who now serve the Lord and his church within the global Langham family!