I know I’m slightly slow in paying my tributes to the late John Stott who died not so long ago but I felt I wanted to do so anyway. At the end of this post will be a collection of links to some others doing the same.

When I first started blogging I called it ‘the simple pastor’ for a few reasons, one that’s all I am – it was a reminder to myself that that’s all I was. Secondly it was because I was stirred by the theme of simplicity and lastly because there are plenty of friends who think I’m a bit simple! But to me John Stott is an inspiration because he embodied simplicity and generosity, he wrote about both long before it became the pressing need it is today and most importantly, he lived it out.

Stott had a deep concern for the poor, writing for the Guardian Matthew Cresswell says,

“The young Stott, for example, had great concern for the poorer “newspaper lads” and young market traders around Langham Place and would coach them at football in Regents Park. He also invited them on “covenanter camps”, which were attended by boys from the wealthier families around Oxford Street. This was never easy as his footballers were lively and outspoken, but Stott insisted that they were part of the community.

Taking it even further, Stott once made himself homeless, in order to empathise with the down-and-outs of the city. Sleeping under Charing Cross Bridge and in a hostel in the East End, he said it made him feel “like an outsider, a castaway”. However, after two days, the game was up, when staff at Toynbee Hall remained unconvinced of his “cockney” accent.”

But it was his work in connection with Lausanne that still strikes home with me. Cresswell, by way of introduction to that, says,

“In 1974, Stott played a key role in shaping the Lausanne Covenant, a major document that encouraged Christians to be more globally conscious, to champion social justice and to bring Christianity to more developing countries.”

To understand what shaped him, you could do worse than to read this article by Mark Meynell who said he was a man who resisted trying to gain the whole world. Here is a phrase that struck me,

“He had decided early on not to seek to gain the whole world. He could so easily have done do, with his gifts, intellect and leadership abilities.”

There is no doubt that John Stott could have been a rich man, his more than 50 books have sold more than 8 million over the decades but ‘early on he decided that the income from his public life would go the Langham Partnership’ or as the Guardian put it,‘Stott’s own considerable royalties from his writing went towards the production and distribution of theological books in developing countries.’

Notice that phrase ‘early on.’ Before he made his money, before he had achieved international recognition, before he had published 50 books, before he had done all this he had decided not to gain the whole world. He knew it would profit him nothing.

And this is why for me, it is not Basic Christianity or even The Cross of Christ that stands out among his writings but his last book, The Radical Disciple. In in he outlines what he considers to be the hallmarks of a disciple from the perspective of his near 90 years of life. Mark Heath writes,

“A fifth area is simplicity. John Stott speaks from a position of integrity on this subject, since his book sales and speaking engagements could have made him a millionaire, yet he practices what he preaches, giving all his book royalties towards the work of providing books for believers and pastors in poorer countries. He feels grieved that the International Consultation on Simple Lifestyle which took place in March 1980 received very little attention, and this chapter is simply given to republish their statement (which he co-wrote with Ron Sider). This is a very challenging chapter, and one that exposes deep-seated idols that we are reluctant to part with. It is sad that Stott seems to be something of a lone voice in the evangelical world on this subject.”

It was reading this that encouraged me that a quest for simplicity and generosity was part of my heritage as an evangelical and one whose path had been trod by John Stott. You can find the Lausanne papers on simplicity here and here.

So for me, Stott is the simple pastor, a hero of the faith not just for his wisdom, biblical clarity but for also for his humility, integrity and commitment to simplicity and generosity. It’s a privilege then to imitate him as he himself imitated Christ. (1 Cor 11:1).

• Here are three videos of the man himself which are all worth watching: John Stott Memorial Video, ‘When I feel most alive’ (HT: Ian Clary), ‘How I would most like to be remembered’ (HT: Dane Ortlund)
• I think you have to start with something like this from Mark Meynell or this or this from Marcus Honeysett
• Vinoth Ramachandra has a good post on integrity
• Justin Taylor has a good post on Stott’s conversion and Q has an excellent piece on his legacy and this from Gordon Kennedy sums up neatly what most who never met him think about him’
• JI Packer delivers a John Stott memorial service sermon in Vancouver
• Challies somehow captures the twitter reaction
• Here is a long list of links to tributes and obits and this is the Guardian one which I include because if even the Guardian prints a positive piece about an evangelical you know he must have been something special.