EULOGY FOR JOHN STOTT

February 15, 1993, the sanctuary of Atlanta’s Church of the Apostles, is recorded forever in my personal Bible. It’s recorded there because I knew I would never want to lose the lecture notes I would take that day. They came from the same man who authored at least eight of the most important books in my personal library including his magnum opus THE CROSS OF CHRIST and over fifty others that will influence Christian leaders for generations to come. His name was John R. W. Stott. His clarity was legendary, his accuracy impeccable, his thoroughness indisputable. As Tim Stafford wrote in his Christianity Today Magazine eulogy, “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?'"

John R. W. Stott passed from this earth at age ninety on July 27, 2011. Stott was the Rector of the Church of All Souls in London from 1950 to 1975 whereupon he became Rector Emeritus so that he could continue to spend more time on his worldwide ministries. I want very much for you to know and appreciate him but I can’t begin to cover, in the few paragraphs here, the impact he has made. Instead I will share my notes from that day and encourage you to read the Wikipedia page about him on your own.

“Never take the attitude that you couldn’t be clearer, more accurate or more practical, no matter what kind of compliments you may receive.”

“Some of the Bible is hard to understand. Therefore, never be so arrogant as to think you don’t need a teacher.” (2 Peter 3:16).

“Never take your modern ideas and transplant them into the meaning of the Biblical writer. Take the meaning of the writer and say it, speak it into modernity.”

“Our ultimate goal and our constant motivation are and should ever be the supreme glory and honor of Jesus Christ.”

“The good news is just this: God’s righteousness – God’s way of putting us right without putting himself into the wrong.”

“In exegesis (Biblical interpretation) I feel the need to think myself prayerfully into the text until I am under it, not over it. It is meditation really, over and over, reflecting on the text prayerfully, until I think that I understand its message. It takes time. It begins with time.”

I hope you will visit Wikipedia and Christianity Today to read more about Stott. However, if you find that you do not have time remember this much: If there is some part of the faith that you do not understand, some place where you want to go deeper but do not know how, or some collision between the world as you know it and the gospel as you understand it – consult John R. W. Stott. You will be glad that you did.