With this year’s ETS theme being “Global Evangelicalism,” one cannot discuss the topic without considering the impact of John R. W. Stott (1921-2011). So influential was Stott on the evangelical world stage that IVP’s five-volume series “A History of Evangelicalism” entitles the final volume about the second half of the twentieth century, The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott. In 2005, TIME magazine placed him among the world’s “100 most influential people” list. Biographer John Pollock described him as “in effect the theological leader of world evangelicalism.” This paper will look at why Stott was so important, drawing on my own personal friendship with Stott of thirty-five years, and by outlining his five-fold influence. First, I describe the city-wide, national, and international ministry he had while serving as the rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place, London. Second, I look at his influence through college and university missions. I first met him in my college days in the UK where I eventually became part of a small circle of his mentees for about four years. Third, I look at his influence through writing, highlighting several of his over fifty books that would eventually be translated ininto sixty-five languages. Fourth, and most relevant to the ETS conference theme, I consider his influence through the Lausanne movement, particularly as chief architect of the Lausanne Covenant (1974) and including the drama of his chairing the drafting committee. I had the privilege of being at one of the Lausanne gatherings with him there, as well as at the Third Congress in Cape Town in 2010, and am privileged to be at the Fourth Congress that meets this year in Seoul. Finally, I consider Stott’s greatest influence through what is now known as the Langham Partnership in equipping leaders for the global church. I saw him up close having served on the early board of the Langham Foundation US, later known as John Stott Ministries. I was also the US representative asked to sign the London Protocol forming The Langham Partnership International. John Stott summed up his priorities simply as “students and pastors,” expressing two of his great loves. Before he died, I was privileged to spend some time with him at the St. Barnabas community for retired Anglican clergy in Surrey, UK, where he spent his final years. I read to him a letter about how he had influenced my life and will end my presentation by reading from it.
Dr. Donald Sweeting (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), Chancellor, Colorado Christian University, Lakewood, Colorado