JOHN STOTT, THE HUMBLE LEADER
By Julia Cameron
Christian Focus. 154 pages. £5.99
ISBN 978 1 845 507 879
John Stott’s name will need no introduction to readers of Evangelicals Now. He died last year, honoured as perhaps the most influential (and surely among the most godly) of the evangelical leaders of our generation. Any Christian could only be inspired and strengthened in faith by learning something of ‘Uncle John’, as he liked his younger friends to call him.
This short book, written with just such younger readers in mind, is an admirable introduction to the man himself, his life and his remarkable life’s work. Julia Cameron, Director of Publishing for the Lausanne Movement (a biblically-based movement for world evangelisation, which John Stott did much to found and foster), writes clearly and attractively, from her personal friendship with her subject, the recollections and assessments of many friends, and from published sources. The book is user-friendly, with short chapters interspersed with informative ‘fact-files’, a map, a timeline, questions to discuss, ideas for things to do and suggestions for further reading.
The New Testament reminds us (e.g. in Hebrews 11) what an inspiration the example of heroes of the faith can be to us, and it is in this spirit that the book is written. It deserves a warm welcome from all readers of this paper. Have you not a young protégé, a niece or nephew perhaps, to whom you could present a copy?
The book comes in the publisher’s ‘Trailblazer’ series with nine to 14-year-olds in mind. It would be a strategic service to offer the substance of the book in a form suitable for the student age-group, CU bookstalls and the like. We all still have so much to learn from ‘Uncle John’s’ godly example.
Timothy Dudley-Smith,
Bishop of Thetford, 1981-91; before that Secretary of the Church Pastoral-Aid Society; a lifelong friend of John Stott, he wrote the two-volume authorised biography
