Moore College, Sydney, Australia

Moore College in Sydney, Australia, an Anglican institution.

Part 1
http://vimeo.com/38812562

Part 2
http://vimeo.com/38814448

Part 3
http://vimeo.com/38815104

Lee Gatiss: New Director of Church Society



Rev. Lee Gattis, Church of England,
a Reformed Anglican Prayer Book Man.
This is an excellent piece of news. 
Lee also understands the Protestant and
Calvinistic character of
old BCP Churchmanship

Indeed, some very, very good news.  While Lee finishes his PhD at Cambridge (I believe he got the ThM under Dr. Carl Trueman at WTS-P on Rev. Augustus Montague Toplady and old school Calvinism in the Church of England), he'll be running Church Society and centralizing operations at Cambridge.  Perhaps he'll meet the soon-to-be-ex CANTAUR when he, Roman Williams, repairs to Magdale College, Cambridge.  Lee understands the Protestant and Calvinistic face of old school Anglicanism.  As an exilic Anglican, deep inside Babylon for many years, we older folks need these young Daniels--these youngins bespeak to us old goats hope for better days and better presentations of the old biblical faith, doctrine, worship and quiet piety.  These young scholars speak afresh and anew.  May Lee's tribe--amongst the youth--be extended and may his tent be widened.


The Press Release is at:  http://www.churchsociety.org/press/PR_2012-03_LeeGatiss.asp

Press Releases

19 March 2012 New Director of Church Society

The Council of Church Society has announced today that the Revd Lee Gatiss has agreed to become the Society’s new Director with effect from 1st January 2013.

Lee is presently completing a PhD on Seventeenth Century biblical interpretation at Peterhouse, Cambridge. When he takes up the role of Church Society Director, he will remain in Cambridge, enabling the Society to develop its profile and work within the Cambridge churches, theological colleges, and other networks.

Lee is well known to the Society already as a speaker and writer and is a member of the Editorial Board of Churchman, as well as its Review Editor. He is also Editor of the Society’s Reformed Evangelical Anglican Library project (REAL).

In addition, Lee is a Visiting Lecturer in Church History at Wales Evangelical School of Theology and has lectured undergraduates and ordinands while in Cambridge, as well as speaking around the country and in various European cities (most recently Eger, Athens, and Nuremberg).

Prior to commencing his PhD, Lee was Associate Minister at St Helen's Church, Bishopsgate (2004 - 2009) and Assistant Curate at St Botolph's Church, Barton Seagrave with St Edmund’s, Warkton (2001 - 2004), a Church Society Trust parish.

Lee has a degree in Modern History from Oxford University, as well as Theology degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) and Oak Hill College. He is the editor of the internet journal Theologian (www.theologian.org.uk) and author/editor of many books and articles. He is married to Kerry and they have three children.

The Council of Church Society looks forward to working very closely with Lee in the ongoing development and shaping of the different aspects of the Society's activities.

In response to his appointment Lee commented that:

'I am delighted to accept this challenge and opportunity to continue serving Anglican Evangelicals at this crucial time in the history of the Church of England and Anglican Communion. Throughout its long history, Church Society has always been committed to what Her Majesty's coronation oath called "the true profession of the gospel... the Protestant Reformed religion." For the glory of God and the greater good of England and the world, it is my prayer that together we can strengthen and defend this precious inheritance as we make Christ known in our generation. I am thrilled to be playing a part in serving that vision as Director of Church Society."

Church Society Council

-End-

History, Vision and Values: All Souls, Langham Place, London

Three issues.

First, a brief  history of All Souls Anglican Church, Langham Place, in downtown London.  It is taken from their website at: http://www.allsouls.org/Groups/132679/All_Souls_site/Discovering/Our_History/Our_History.aspx. 

Second, we post their statement of “Vision and Values” of All Souls at: http://www.allsouls.org/Groups/132678/All_Souls_site/Discovering/Vision_and_Values/Vision_and_Values.aspx. 

Third, as a concluding aside, we doubt that All Souls has used the 1662 Book of Common Prayer for quite some time.  We are not sure why.  But, assuredly, it’s a modern innovation.

Now, for the “History.”

Welcome to All Souls, the only surviving church built by the renowned regency architect, John Nash. It is one of the “Waterloo Churches” built to express the nation’s thanksgiving to God for victory over Napoleon in 1815, and was erected in 1822-24.

John Nash & All Souls

In the early 19th century, new churches were needed to serve the rapidly growing population of St. Marylebone. John Nash was working on his Regent Street scheme (leading from Piccadilly Circus to Regents Park), and the site for All Souls fitted in splendidly, iving scope for a landmark building to close the vista from Oxford Circus and swing his new road round to join the existing Portland Place. All Souls is built of Bath stone and is simply an ornate, but ordinary, galleried hall, or a wide nave with no transepts. It is entered through a rotunda surrounded by a portico with Ionic columns, whose capitals are made of artificial Coade stone. The winged cherubs’ heads are unusual and based on a design by Michelangelo. The unique spire consists of 17 concave sides encircled by Corinthian columns. Originally, a stone balustrade ran all round the roof, but after part fell onto the pavement early in the 20th century, most was removed and only the part on the rotunda remains today. There is no east window; instead, the interior is dominated by the painting ‘Ecce Homo’ (‘Behold the Man’), which depicts Jesus Christ during his trial before Pontius Pilate (as related in John 18:28-40). It was painted by Richard Westall (later drawing master to the young Princess Victoria) and probably presented to All Souls by King George IV. Nash was responsible for the church’s interior, though most of his designs were lost, apart from the mahogany case housing the central body of the gallery organ. Over the years, the instrument has been replaced and re-modeled and the case extended, fitted with new gilded front pipes. Nash’s design was greeted in some quarters with derision. The combination of Gothic spire and classical rotunda was criticized, and the distinctive tower and spire was castigated in the House of Commons as “a mass of deformity”, “resembling an extinguisher on a flat candlestick”. The infamous cartoonist George Cruikshank, even depicted Nash impaled on his spire (see the above).

All Souls was completed in 1824 and consecrated on 25 November. It seated 1500 people in high boxed pews and there was just one service each Sunday. No doubt in part because of the up and coming nature of Marylebone, the church rapidly became fashionable, and full.

Crown Connections

All Souls has always had strong connections to the Crown and these remain today. The Prince Regent (as he then was) first bought the land on which the church was built, selected his favourite architect to build West Side of Langham Place by Thomas Shepherd (1828)

Second, here are the “Vision and Values” of All Souls, Langham Place, London. 

Vision and Values

Our vision
Growing an international community to reach a multicultural society for

Christ.

Our aims

·                     Come together to learn to live Christ across our scattered networks

·                     Send out to serve and speak Christ along our different networks

·                     Send on to witness and work for Christ in new networks

All Souls Church is:

·                     a  Church of England Church and we hold orthodox Anglican beliefs subscribing to the historical creeds which speak of our belief in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as well as the 39 Articles with their reminders of the great Reformation principles of 'Christ Alone, Scripture Alone, Faith Alone.'

(You can find links to the texts of the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the 39 Articles at www.anglicansonline.org/basics/what_believe.html)

·                     a member of the Evangelical Alliance and we subscribe to their Basis of Faith (www.eauk.org/about/basis-of-faith.cfm).

Urban Pastor: Evangelicals in the Church of England & Fanatics

The Urban Pastor, a Church of England cleric, brings a few notes about the situation in the Church of England.  We do endorse the idea that old Prayer Book Churchmanship puts a clamp on enthusiasts, fanatics and wild-eyed revivalists so common to the United States.  See:  http://theurbanpastor.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/economical-with-the-truth/.  Here's Urban Pastor:


"Interesting article from the Economist here. It’s about the alleged rise of evangelicalism in the Church of England. It doesn’t really analyse the increased marginalization of class or ‘conservative’ evangelicals, but you wouldn’t expect them to be aware of the complexity of the situation in the Church of England. I’m not sure I am! Or anyone is. But evangelicalism has increasingly come to be understood as an umbrella term covering over all manner of, let’s say, positions.

"If what Peter Brierley and his statisticians say is right, then the future of Anglicanism in this country is of declining numbers of Anglicans but an increased proportion of both clergy and laity who would describe themselves as evangelical. Whether that leads to increased influence in the denomination, brought about by sheer weight of numbers or perhaps by financial clout, remains to be seen. I’m not holding my breath. The trajectory of the Church of England is unmistakably clear. It would take a complete change of direction if evangelicalism was to be regarded as mainstream. God can do it, if He wants. And so there’s hope. But humanly speaking, the writing’s been on the wall for a while now. We press on (at the margins) in CCB. But others are more involved and will stay until they’re ejected. They wouldn’t be the first good guys to be excluded from the established church.
But despite that, you’ve got to love an article that begins with the following paragraph; not so much for the accuracy of the observation but the beauty of expression!

EVER since the 18th century, England’s established church has harboured a suspicion of religious enthusiasm. Anglicanism’s cosy ubiquity as a reassuring, if vestigial, presence in every English suburb and village is regarded as a defence against the sort of fanaticism that leads to social or ethnic conflict. But every so often in English church history, compromise and emollience have triggered a countervailing reaction: an upsurge in faith of a more passionate kind. Such a change may be under way now."

 For Urban Pastor's less cheerful conclusion, see the rest at:
http://theurbanpastor.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/economical-with-the-truth/

Why Bother with the Church of England?

http://theurbanpastor.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/why-bother-with-the-church-of-england/

Why Bother with the Church of England?

February 20, 2012 by theurbanpastor

It was Friday night. I was looking for the Cardiff Blues game on the channels at the top end of the scale. And there it was; General Synod on the BBC Parliament Channel. I’d never seen it before. I was glued. I saw some familiar faces spread throughout the Church House debating chamber; Chris Hobbs (the St Thomas’ Oakwood one) had a natty crimson red v-neck sweater on. Even though supper was ready, Rosslyn couldn’t tear me away as I tried to follow a debate on various ammendments to a revisionist proposal concerning women and the episcopacy. In the end I just sat there in despair. This was the church that I belong to. And they don’t seem to like having people like me around! It prompted the question, ‘why bother with the Church of England?’


It’s one I revisit from time to time, especially given our precarious position on the edge of all things Church of England. This is Jonathan Fletcher’s answer. And it’s one I’m broadly happy with.

Jonathan’s case for remaining in the Church of England has four key components


1. Theologically the Church of England is, in Jonathan’s estimation, the best presentation of the Reformed Protestant faith. We see that in the Thirty Nine Articles and the doctrine of the Book of Common Prayer. These are the foundation documents upon which the Church of England has been built. Theologically it’s home for reformed evangelicals.


2. Liturgically the principles that lie behind the content of Cranmer’s Services are thoroughly helpful in ministry. Though we may wish to update the language of the liturgy, the priority of ensuring that our meetings are biblical, accessible, congregational and edifying is right.


3. Historically God has used the Church of England to bring revival to this country. Jonathan acknowledges that the C of E is in bad shape at the present. But, as he reminds us (not from personal experience!) it’s been worse than this. Back in the 18th century. And God worked through it to bring the gospel to the nation.


4. Pastorally many people in this country look to the Church of England for the support they need to live for Christ. It’s perhaps especially the case that in Urban Priority Areas and rural settings people look to the Parish Church for spiritual encouragement. Jonathan is unwilling to leave sheep without a shepherd.


It’s a great little video. It’s only 5 minutes long. And it may be worth watching if, like me from time to time, you just want to jump ship altogether!

Anglican Rev.Dr. Paul Zahl on the Rev. John Stott (1921-2011)

http://www.mbird.com/2011/07/the-death-of-a-great-minister/

The Death of a Great Minister

by Mockingbird on Jul 28, 2011 • 9:51 pm 3 Comments

A touching obituary for John Stott, written by Paul Zahl, courtesy of the This New England blog at the Providence Journal (RI):



The English minister John R.W. Stott, who died this week, seems to have been the real thing. Not a figure of scandal, not a figure of greed, not a figure of hypocrisy, not someone trying to do a number on you.

Rather this man seems to have walked his whole life in the steps of Jesus.

He lived for the last 35 years in a two-room garage apartment above the rectory of an exceptionally busy Church of England parish in downtown London. He traveled all over the world encouraging simple Christians, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, and always traveled second-class, in “the back of the bus”.

Rarely appearing in clerical garb except when strictly required by the occasion, his personal habits were simple, quiet and modest.

He was also the author of dozens of books, a chaplain to the Queen of England, and doubly cherished for having turned down a bishopric in the Church of England.

He always counseled people of traditional theological principles to stay in the old Church, no matter how mixed and distressed it could become, rather than thumb their noses and start something new.

This was because Stott thought that you can accomplish more by helping from within. This ”gentle persuasion” of John Stott’s was rooted in his character, which was unconsciously humble in every way you could see.

One of my readers reports that when Stott came to dinner in his rectory, the first thing he would do was play with the children. And mean it!

Our sons have never forgotten what they would later call ‘the John Stott factor.” By this they meant his kind persona, which was as interested in them when they were six, as he was interested in their parents and other elders.

The man never made distinctions between people. Therefore everyone who met him, from two to toothless, loved him.

We should probably study this man’s life. He never married yet had hundreds of children. He took no money from anything he did but was a rich man.

He wasn’t angular in controversy — no killer of churches! — but had rock-like convictions. He had authority coming out of every pore, but never took authority.

John Stott would say it all came from The Master. Wherever it came from, the world could use more of what he had.

NTY on Rev. Mr. John Stott

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/world/europe/28stott.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

 

Rev. John Stott, Major Evangelical Figure, Dies at 90

 

The Rev. John Stott, one of the world’s most influential figures in the spread of evangelical Christianity over the past half-century, died Wednesday in Lingfield, Surrey, in the south of England. He was 90.       

Enlarge This Image

Richard Perry/The New York Times

The Rev. John Stott at Trinity Church in Manhattan in 2006. Mr. Stott exerted influence largely through his many books.

His death was confirmed by Suanne Camfield, a spokeswoman for his publisher, InterVarsity Press.
The religion scholar Michael Cromartie once said that if evangelicals could elect a pope, they would be likely to choose Mr. Stott. Though less known in the United States and hardly a household name outside the evangelical sphere, Mr. Stott, an author, preacher and theologian, was often compared to the Rev. Billy Graham, his American contemporary.

But while Mr. Graham’s influence is rooted in a rousing preaching style and a personal magnetism that has filled stadiums, Mr. Stott’s relied on a proliferation of books — grounded in learning but accessible to all — and the evangelical organization he founded, Langham Partnership International, named after its cradle, All Souls Church at Langham Place in London’s West End.

“We must be global Christians,” he once wrote, “with a global mission, because our God is a global God.”

Beginning at the college campus level and branching out country by country, the Langham Partnership (known as the John Stott Ministries in the United States) grew into an organization comprising 5 national and 10 regional nondenominational movements.

Before then, through the Anglican Church, Mr. Stott had led a revival of evangelical Christianity in Britain, exhorting Britons to find personal salvation by repenting sin and accepting Jesus as their savior.

But he also demanded that evangelicals look beyond liturgy and Christian tradition and remain engaged in worldly matters — “to take more responsible attitudes toward economics, the arts, politics and culture in general,” as Mark A. Noll, a University of Notre Dame professor and scholar of the movement, said in an interview in 2007.

“And perhaps most importantly,” Professor Noll added, Mr. Stott became “a patron, mentor, friend and encourager of thousands of pastors, students and laypeople from the newer Christian parts of the world.” He became a bridge, Professor Noll said, “between the West and the rising Christian world.”
       
Mr. Stott was dedicated to helping the poor in developing countries, what he termed the Majority World. Using royalties from his books, he set up trusts to help gifted students from the developing world earn doctorates abroad and then return to their native countries to teach in theological seminaries.

For all his fame on several continents, Mr. Stott’s travels and appearances were remarkably devoid of pomp, befitting his simple message of reason and faith and his unassuming demeanor. Those in his ministries knew him simply as Uncle John. In his later years, he lived in a two-room apartment over the garage of a London rectory, and for many years he kept a small cottage on the Welsh coast, where he did much of his prodigious writing in longhand and, until 2001, without electricity.

“Pride is without doubt the greatest temptation of Christian leaders,” Mr. Stott said in 2006 during a visit to the United States. “And I’m very well aware of the dangers of being feted and don’t enjoy it and don’t think one should enjoy it.”

Believing the college campus to be the most effective pulpit from which to preach, he frequently led weeklong evangelist meetings at universities in Australia, Asia, Africa, North America and elsewhere around the world. One event drew as many as 18,000 students. Until 2003 he was an active vice president of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

“I declare myself an impenitent believer in the power of preaching,” he told an evangelical group in New York in 2006, by then a frail and stooped figure walking with a cane. “The pew cannot rise higher than the pulpit.”

Mr. Stott, a leading evangelical theologian, was regarded as the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, a declaration of the movement’s beliefs and global aspirations. Drafted in Switzerland in 1974 at an international evangelical congress, it is regarded as a 20th-century milestone of evangelicalism.

Mr. Stott was the author of about 50 books published in 65 languages. Among his best known are “Basic Christianity” (1958), “Christ the Controversialist” (1970) and “The Cross of Christ” (1986).
“Basic Christianity” alone has been translated into more than 60 languages and has sold more than 2.5 million copies, according to the John Stott Ministries, which said his books have sold more than eight million copies worldwide. His last book — he himself described it as such — was “The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling,” published in 2010.

“To read Stott is to see someone practicing ‘thoughtful allegiance’ to Scripture,” David Brooks wrote in The New York Times in an admiring column 1n 2004 titled, “Who Is John Stott?”

“For him, Christianity means probing the mysteries of Christ. He is always exploring paradoxes. Jesus teaches humility, so why does he talk about himself so much? What does it mean to gain power through weakness, or freedom through obedience? In many cases the truth is not found in the middle of apparent opposites, but on both extremes simultaneously.”

The books have become staples of evangelicalism, said David Neff, editor of the evangelical publication Christianity Today. “Almost anyone who is a leader in American evangelicalism has read those books and been shaped by them.”

John Robert Walmsley Stott was born in London on April 27, 1921, the youngest of three children of Sir Arnold W. Stott, a prominent physician and an agnostic, and his wife, Emily, a Lutheran who attended All Souls. His older sisters died before him. A lifelong celibate, he left no immediate survivors.

The young Mr. Stott originally intended to train for the diplomatic service, but influenced by the Christian Gospel, he changed plans while still in preparatory school, determined to enter the Anglican Church.

He graduated from Trinity College at Cambridge in 1943; transferred to Ridley Hall Theological College, also at Cambridge; and was ordained a minister in the Church of England in 1945. He started as an assistant curate at All Souls Church. After receiving a master’s degree at Cambridge in 1947, he advanced, at the age of 29, to rector of the church in 1950. When he turned rector emeritus in 1975, he moved from the rectory to a modest apartment over its garage.

The British government acknowledged his contributions in 2006 by naming him a Commander of the British Empire. He was appointed a chaplain to the queen in 1959 and served in that post until he reached retirement age in 1991. In 2005, Time magazine selected him as one the world’s “100 Most Influential People.” He retired from the public ministry in 2007.

An avid birder and bird photographer, Mr. Stott took his binoculars and cameras on all his travels and wrote a book about the many species he encountered. Titled “The Birds Our Teachers: Biblical Lessons From a Lifelong Bird-Watcher” (1999), the book is illustrated with his own photographs.
At Mr. Stott’s death at the retirement home, his friends and associates were at his bedside, reading Scriptures and listening to Handel’s "Messiah," the All Souls Church Web site said.

“The evangelical world has lost one of its greatest spokesmen,” Mr. Graham said in a statement on Wednesday, “and I have lost one of my close personal friends and advisers. I look forward to seeing him again when I go to heaven.”

Christianity Today, Some Words from "Uncle John" Stott

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/words.to.treasure.from.uncle.john/28351.htm

Words to treasure from 'Uncle John'

by Eryn Sun, Christian Post

Langham Partnership

John Stott

Though actions speak louder than words, for the late Reverend John Stott, one of the most influential evangelists of the 20th century, words held equal weight to his deeds.

Stott, who died on Wednesday at the age of 90, lived and wrote about his love of God and His Word.

He was able to balance his Christ-centered faith and encouraged Christians to do the same, challenging them 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”, noted members of the Lausanne Movement, which Stott helped establish.
In remembering the humble preacher, author, and theologian, here are a few of his lasting words:

His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us with no other choice.

The truth is that there are such things as Christian tears, and too few of us ever weep them.

Every Christian should be both conservative and radical; conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it.

Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.

We should not ask, ‘What is wrong with the world?’ for that diagnosis has already been given. Rather we should ask, "What has happened to salt and light?"

Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our neighbour.

Sin and child of God are incompatible. They may occasionally meet; they cannot live together in harmony.

Good conduct arises out of good doctrine.

The very first thing which needs to be said about Christian ministers of all kinds is that they are "under" people as their servants rather than "over" them (as their leaders, let alone their lords). Jesus made this absolutely plain. The chief characteristic of Christian leaders, he insisted, is humility not authority, and gentleness not power.

We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behaviour.

On the Passing of a Christian Gentleman -- John Stott

http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2011/07/on-the-passing-of-a-christian.php

On the Passing of a Christian Gentleman -- John Stott

Posted by Derek Thomas

 

I have just learned of the death of John Stott. He was ninety years old. I will reflect on this tomorrow, but the fact that I have been walking with Christ for the past forty years is entirely due (from a human point of view) to John Stott. It was through reading his book Basic Christianity in 1971 as a college freshman that I first encountered the gospel. Within days of reading it, I had turned from darkness to light. I have kept a copy of this book within arms reach in my study ever since as a reminder of God's grace to me. I am grateful to God for giving us this scholarly gentleman, full of grace and biblical determination. His last book, published only a year or so ago, The Radical Disciple is a testimony to a man who maintained his biblical convictions to the very end. I am grateful, too, for his indefatigable secretary, Frances Whitehead, whom I came to know from her annual visits to the church in Belfast (to visit her life-long friend) where I used to minister.

Thank you, Dr. Stott, for your faithfulness. May it urge us to follow the Savior as you did.

John Stott: Prince of the Church Dies

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=14658

John Stott: Prince of the Church Dies
By Dr. David Wells
July 27, 2011

A great man has died. On July 27, 2011, John Stott left this world, aged 90. He passed into the presence of his Lord.

What gain for him. What loss for us.

John was born in London to Sir Arnold and Emily Stott in 1921. After his schooling at two boarding schools, Oakley Hall and Rugby, he went on to Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduating with firsts, he moved down the road to Ridley Hall Theological College for his theological training. He was then ordained in the Church of England, and served as a curate in All Souls church, London, from 1945 to 1950. At the very young age of 29, he then became its rector in 1950. Today, pastorates have become very brief-in some denominations the average is as low as 3 years-but he remained, remarkably, in this church for over 50 years as curate, rector, and then rector emeritus. He retired at the age of 86.

Along the way, he has received many honors including being named one of the Chaplains to the Queen in 1959 and in 2006 he was given a national honor, the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), by the Queen.

It has been from this platform, All Souls church, that he has exercised one of the most biblically consistent, thoughtful, remarkable, stain-free, God-blessed and far-reaching ministries of our time. David Edwards has spoken of him as being the most influential churchman of our day. This is correct but it is also true that his influence has extended far from Britain and has reached the four corners of the earth. The whole world became his parish.

Stott will be remembered for a long time to come for his roles as writer, speaker, and leader. In these roles he often served different audiences and yet what stands out across a long life is how utterly consistent he was. And that consistency, in public and in private, was rooted in the same, unshakable convictions. At their center, first, was his lifelong commitment to make himself subject to the truth of Scripture. It was because of his own inner commitment at this point that he could preach to others with such insistence and directness. Yet his sermons were not simply words but expositions of divinely given truth. For Scripture is not merely a book but, in and through its teaching, it is the disclosure of God, the unveiling of his character, will, and ways. What this inspired Scripture says, God says. So it was that Stott preached and so it was that he pastored. And the second principle concerned the uniqueness of Christ as God-incarnate and the uniqueness of his substitutionary death on the Cross. Without this work, there is no reconciliation with God, no forgiveness, no justification, and no hope. It is these principles that framed and directed everything he did.

First, then, there was his role as a writer. He wrote or edited almost 60 books. Among them, of course, is his classic, Basic Christianity, which sold more than a million copies and is translated into more than 50 languages. His books fall into two main categories: Those on or about the biblical Word and those in which he sought to engage the world from within the truth of this Word. Included in the former category are his many commentaries as well as studies on biblical themes such as his Baptism and Fullness of the Holy Spirit, his study of the Christian life, The Contemporary Christian, and perhaps most importantly, his Cross of Christ. Included in the latter, are volumes like his seminal study, Christian Mission in the Modern World, and his work on some of our contemporary ethical issues, Involvement.

Second, his role as a speaker. It is hard to remember now that when John began his preaching in All Souls, the expository sermon was almost unknown or, at least, unpracticed in most churches. It is a testament to the greatness of his influence that expository preaching has come back. With his clarity, luminous language, and matchless organization, he showed us how to preach. But the fact is that preaching is not simply technique that can be learned. Without a deeply spiritual person behind the words, they fall to the ground. And that is what he was. His expositions, in part borne also by his commentaries, have been heard around the world.

Third, there was his role as a leader. When John began in All Souls, evangelicals were a small, inconsequential minority in the Church of England as well as elsewhere. Under his leadership they emerged in Anglicanism as a voice with which church leaders, who might not have been otherwise sympathetic, had to reckon. But this was no mere game over power and attention. Stott wanted the church's life to be reformed in light of the teaching of Scripture and the Scripture's central theme, the person and work of Christ. It was this same impulse that he also brought into the wider evangelical movement, most notably at the Lausanne Congress in 1974, the most representative gathering of Christians in history to that time, where he was mainly responsible for the Lausanne Covenant. This is what also explains his worldwide travels. Despite his privileged upbringing, he had a heart for those in the developing world and did more than anyone else to bring theological education to its church leaders, books to its seminaries, and expository preaching into its churches.

A pastor, preacher, teacher, a writer, leader, friend to so many, an exemplar of what Christian faith is about, a model in every way, he will be sorely missed. A prince he was; a prince has now left us to join the heavenly choirs in their worship around the Lamb.

In his final book, The Radical Disciple, he spoke of having become dependent on others as he has needed more and more care which he was receiving in the College of St. Barnabas. I visited him there, in the company of old friends, at the end of last month. His mind was clear but his vitality had all gone. He was bed-ridden, immobile, and his life was seeping away. As we left, we consoled ourselves with the thought that when we next see him, he will be leaping and laughing in a new body.

His old body will now be buried near his beloved retreat in Wales, the Hookses. Before that, though, he will be given a funeral in St. Paul's Cathedral. This is an honor reserved for those of great prominence in the nation. It is good that John will not be there on this occasion. He would be deeply embarrassed by such attention.

Dr. David Wells is, Ph.D. is the Distinguished Senior Research Professor, 1979 Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Dr. Wells taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and chaired its division of systematic theology. Since arriving at Gordon-Conwell in 1979, he has served in a variety of positions. He moved to his current position in 2008 after having served as the Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology since 1991.

*****

JOHN STOTT (1911-2011)

By Ted Schroder
July 27, 2011

I have just received word from England that John Stott died this afternoon. An old friend, George Cassidy, retired bishop of Southwell, emailed that John's secretary, Frances Whithead, his niece, Caroline Stott, his former study assistant, Matthew Smith and Philip Herbert were with him. They read a few Psalms and his breathing became very shallow and he slipped away. George commented: "End of an era; and gratitude to God for his wonderful life."

Antoinette and I were hoping to visit him later this year in his nursing home. He celebrated his 90th birthday in April, and was very frail. He was ready and eager to go on to be with the Lord he so loved and served.

In his commentary on 2 Timothy: Guard the Gospel, John wrote these words on chapter 4, verses 6-8:

"The apostle uses two vivid figures of speech to portray his coming death, one taken from the language of sacrifice and the other (probably) of boats. First, 'I am already on the point of being sacrificed.' Or 'Already my life is being poured out on the altar.' He likens his life to a libation or drink offering. So imminent does he believe his martyrdom to be that he speaks of the sacrifice as having already begun. He goes on: 'the time of my departure has come'. 'Departure' (analysis) seems to have become a regular word for death, but we need not necessarily conclude from this that its metaphorical origin had been entirely forgotten. It means 'loosing' and could be used either of striking a tent or of 'release from shackles', or of untying a boat from its moorings. The last is certainly the most picturesque of the three possibilities. The two images then to some extent correspond for the end of this life (outpoured as a libation) is the beginning of another (putting out to sea). As the anchor is weighed, the ropes are slipped, and the boat is about to set sail for another shore." (p.113)

After further exposition of having fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith, John concludes.

"This then is 'Paul the aged'...His little boat is about to set sail. He is eagerly awaiting his crown....Our God is the God of history....He buries his workmen, but carries on his work. The torch of the gospel is handed down by each generation to the next. As the leaders of the former generation die, it is all the more urgent for those of the next generation to step forward bravely to take their place....We cannot rest forever on the leadership of the preceding generation. The day comes when we must step into their shoes and ourselves take the lead. That day had come for Timothy. It comes to us all in time." (p.116)

I owe more than I can tell to John Stott. He took a callow youth as his assistant and mentored him, then launched me into ministry. Over the years he kept in touch by letters and visits. His books have been a constant inspiration. My testimony can be echoed by hundreds or thousands of others all over the world.

Thank you Lord, for the privilege of knowing him personally and for being recipient of his brotherly affection and fatherly care. May his legacy continue to bear fruit. May his influence grow. May he ever be remembered as the Prince of Preachers of his day, and the friend of believers of all races throughout the world.

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." (1 Cor.2:5)

Ted Schroder
Amelia Island, Florida

John Stott Memorial Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD6JW-RnBQQ

(NYT Op-Ed, 2004) Who is John Stott?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=2

Who Is John Stott?

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: November 30, 2004

im Russert is a great journalist, but he made a mistake last weekend. He included Jerry Falwell and Al Sharpton in a discussion on religion and public life.

Inviting these two bozos onto "Meet the Press" to discuss that issue is like inviting Britney Spears and Larry Flynt to discuss D. H. Lawrence. Naturally, they got into a demeaning food fight that would have lowered the intellectual discourse of your average nursery school.

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This is why so many people are so misinformed about evangelical Christians. There is a world of difference between real-life people of faith and the made-for-TV, Elmer Gantry-style blowhards who are selected to represent them. Falwell and Pat Robertson are held up as spokesmen for evangelicals, which is ridiculous. Meanwhile people like John Stott, who are actually important, get ignored.

It could be that you have never heard of John Stott. I don't blame you. As far as I can tell, Stott has never appeared on an important American news program. A computer search suggests that Stott's name hasn't appeared in this newspaper since April 10, 1956, and it's never appeared in many other important publications.

Yet, as Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center notes, if evangelicals could elect a pope, Stott is the person they would likely choose. He was the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, a crucial organizing document for modern evangelicalism. He is the author of more than 40 books, which have been translated into over 72 languages and have sold in the millions. Now rector emeritus at All Souls, Langham Place, in London, he has traveled the world preaching and teaching.

When you read Stott, you encounter first a tone of voice. Tom Wolfe once noticed that at a certain moment all airline pilots came to speak like Chuck Yeager. The parallel is inexact, but over the years I've heard hundreds of evangelicals who sound like Stott.

It is a voice that is friendly, courteous and natural. It is humble and self-critical, but also confident, joyful and optimistic. Stott's mission is to pierce through all the encrustations and share direct contact with Jesus. Stott says that the central message of the gospel is not the teachings of Jesus, but Jesus himself, the human/divine figure. He is always bringing people back to the concrete reality of Jesus' life and sacrifice.

There's been a lot of twaddle written recently about the supposed opposition between faith and reason. To read Stott is to see someone practicing "thoughtful allegiance" to scripture. For him, Christianity means probing the mysteries of Christ. He is always exploring paradoxes. Jesus teaches humility, so why does he talk about himself so much? What does it mean to gain power through weakness, or freedom through obedience? In many cases the truth is not found in the middle of apparent opposites, but on both extremes simultaneously.

Stott is so embracing it's always a bit of a shock - especially if you're a Jew like me - when you come across something on which he will not compromise. It's like being in "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," except he has a backbone of steel. He does not accept homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle, and of course he believes in evangelizing among nonbelievers. He is pro-life and pro-death penalty, even though he is not a political conservative on most issues.

Most important, he does not believe truth is plural. He does not believe in relativizing good and evil or that all faiths are independently valid, or that truth is something humans are working toward. Instead, Truth has been revealed. As he writes:

"It is not because we are ultra-conservative, or obscurantist, or reactionary or the other horrid things which we are sometimes said to be. It is rather because we love Jesus Christ, and because we are determined, God helping us, to bear witness to his unique glory and absolute sufficiency. In Christ and in the biblical witness to Christ God's revelation is complete; to add any words of our own to his finished work is derogatory to Christ."

Politicians, especially Democrats, are now trying harder to appeal to people of faith. But people of faith are not just another interest group, like gun owners. You have to begin by understanding the faith. And you can't understand this rising global movement if you don't meet its authentic representatives.

Not Falwell, but Stott.

Memorial Video of the Anglican Churchman, the Rev. Dr. John Stott (1921-2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD6JW-RnBQQ&feature=share

Evangelical Anglican John Stott Dies (1921-2011)

Editor's Note: John Stott died today at 3:15 London time (about 9:15 a.m. CST), according to John Stott Ministries President Benjamin Homan. Homan said that Stott's death came after complications related to old age and that he has been in discomfort for the last several weeks. Family and close friends gathered with Stott today as they listened to Handel's Messiah. Homan said that John Stott Ministries has been preparing for his death for the past 15 years. "I think he set an impeccable example for leaders of ministries of handing things over to other leaders," Homan said. "He imparted to many a love for the global church and imparted a passion for biblical fidelity and a love for the Savior." This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

* * *

"An evangelical is a plain, ordinary Christian," John Stott told Christianity Today in an October 2006 interview. From his conversion at Rugby secondary school in 1938 to his death in 2011 at 90 years old, Stott exemplified how extraordinary plain, ordinary Christianity can be. He was not known as an original thinker, nor did he seek to be. He always turned to the Bible for understanding, and his unforgettable gift was to penetrate and explain the Scriptures. As editor Kenneth Kantzer wrote in CT's pages in 1981, "When I hear him expound a text, invariably I exclaim to myself, 'That's exactly what it means! Why didn't I see it before?'"

Until his conversion and subsequent call to Christian ministry, Stott seemed headed for the diplomatic corps. A skilled linguist, he would win a first at Cambridge in French before going on to study theology, in which he also gained a first. (A prestigious "first" is something like "highest honors" for an American graduate.) Nobody doubted that Stott would have made a superb diplomat. In his ministry, he retained the best qualities of that calling, which is to faithfully and skillfully represent someone else.

Like any good diplomat, Stott knew exactly who he was and where he came from. Born into an emotionally close and cultured doctor's family, he spent virtually his entire life in the same London neighborhood. As a child, he attended All Souls Church, sometimes sitting in the balcony and dropping wads of paper on the ladies' hats below. At his ordination in the Church of England in 1945, Stott became curate there and then, in 1950, rector of the badly war-damaged church. He would remain on staff for the rest of his days.

Stott was thoroughly English in stereotypical ways: incisive, cool, time-conscious, orderly, and balanced. Though he had a great gift for friendship, he was not given to small talk or self-revelation. (He did have a wry sense of humor and was a talented amateur musician.) A lifelong bachelor, he showed a formidable capacity for work. When he was at a writing project, he could happily keep his own company for weeks on end at his retreat in Wales, grinding out page after page of well-regulated prose.

At the same time, he relished the world around him in all its variety. Perhaps nothing showed this so obviously as his lifelong love for birdwatching, which biographer Timothy Dudley-Smith says bordered on an obsession. In his later decades, Stott spent a great proportion of his time traveling, much of it in Majority World countries. Time for birds was nearly always included. He traveled without entourage, sometimes preaching in a cathedral one day and under a tree the next, meeting the mighty and the lowly and staying in their homes. As a London pastor, too, he formed strong attachments to a wide variety of humanity. When he encountered opposition or criticism, he would seek it out for an exchange of views. He did not enjoy conflict, but he was committed to dialogue.

For more, see:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/julyweb-only/john-stott-obit.html