Dear Friends,
“Like Moses, he was one of the humblest men on the face of the earth, and yet at the same time he was one of the truly great leaders God has given to his people. He was, for all of us who knew him, a walking embodiment of the simple beauty of Jesus, whom he loved above all else.” That’s how Chris Wright, of the Langham Partnership, summed up his assessment of John Stott, who died this week at the age of 90.
Whether as preacher, evangelist, author, apologist, visionary, strategist, counsellor or friend, he was the outstanding evangelical Christian leader of the twentieth century. Here is just a selection of the articles paying tribute to him that can be found on the web:
http://articles.langhampartnership.org/2011/07/27/john-stott-dies-at-90/
http://www.allsouls.org/Articles/273279/John.aspx
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/8668938/The-Rev-John-Stott.html
Let us thank God for giving us this great servant, and let us learn from him, both what he taught and how he lived. Truly he lived by the words with which he concluded his final book, The Radical Disciple: “Basic to all discipleship is our resolve not only to address Jesus with polite titles, but to follow his teaching and obey his commands.”
Chris Hobbs,
Vicar.