The global church (and Anglicans) lost a titan not long ago, when John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) passed from this world to the next. One is only now getting a sense of the stone God dropped into the pond of history through this remarkable man, as ever more ripples move through the waters of those who lives and ministries he touched.
John Stott was above all a preacher, and as such he modeled a craft that is increasingly weak in the West.
My mother taught English, and we had a life long conversation about writer-based versus reader-based prose. Good articles and books do the work for the reader, she insisted–they reach out and draw you in.
Dr. Stott was a listener-based preacher. I do not mean by this that he allowed his potential audience to set the topic; nothing could be further from the truth. He was someone who sought to expound Holy Scripture throughout his life.
But he did it though making an argument that one who heard him could follow. As you listened you had the sense that John had wrestled mightily with the text so that you would not need to. More than one person has quipped that John Stott made St. Paul more understandable than Paul himself did!
I will always remember him speaking on the Acts of the Apostles chapter 17 about the mission to Thessalonica. He observed with great care the verbs used in the passage to describe what Paul was trying to do””argue, explain, prove. Then he noted with real force that in response some were “persuaded” by what had been presented. How many times, he asked, do we hear that response to contemporary sermons?
I pray that we might learn to follow in the footsteps of this persuasive preacher. Let us wrestle hard with the text, but let us also present a coherent narrative which is easy to follow. So easy to follow, in fact, that many who did not even wish to hear it will find themselves grabbed and drawn in.
–The Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon is Canon Theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina and Convenor of this blog
Is there an online source of Stott’s sermons, and, if so, can you recommend a few to start with? I’d like to hear him preaching, rather than just read them. Many thanks.
Try the All Souls website – register to hear them free!
#1 In case it helps MarkP, two sermon series by John Stott [‘The Integrated Christian’ and ‘Who is this Jesus’] which give a flavour of his preaching may be listened to here where there is also a link to the All Souls sermon bank [as Clarin notes] where Stott’s sermons back to the 1960’s are available by registering for free. They can be searched by bible reference, topic etc.
As far as preaching goes, his lectures on 2 Timothy at the Urbana 8th Univarsity Missions Conference December 1967 are well worth listening to:-
Part 1: ‘The charge to Guard the Gospel – 2 Timothy 1
Part 2: ‘The charge to Suffer for the Gospel’ – 2 Timothy 2
Part 3: ‘Continue in the Gospel’ – 2 Timothy 3
Part 4: ‘Preaching the Gospel’ – 2 Timothy 4
There are more audio links here and here and here
He showed remarkable foresight in preserving his teaching legacy for the rest of us, and for that I am thankful.
Amen to needing better preaching (and music). I suppose the problem for preachers is that they have to spend too much time on boilers, and breaking up fights. It takes a lot of time to prepare a great sermon, and few choose to make that investment. The same could also be said for the organ voluntary. (at least it is not of such importance)
I second Kendall’s call to raise the standards of preaching, even or especially in orthodox circles, where sometimes we tend to allow preachers to get away with sloppy preparation or poor communication just because the content of the message is sound. I’ll only add that preaching never takes place in a cultural vacuum, and that one of the great challenges of preaching well in our time is that we have to compete with other slick forms of communication in the mass media, that are often much more exciting and entertaining. More importantly perhaps, there is ample scientific documentation now that the fact that most people watch way too much TV has shortened the attention span of the vast bulk of the populace.
I have a personal pet pieve about preaching that is orthodox and biblical, but simply boring. Surely, it’s a major sin to take the greatest news that the world has ever heard, or ever will hear, and make it seem tepid, dull, or irrelevant. One of the constant challenges I face as a preacher is trying to keep the familiar truths of the ancient biblical text fresh, not by changing the content or adulterating the gospel to conform to the assumptions of an increasingly secular and ungodly world, but by finding original ways to communicate the unchanging gospel to a constantly changing world.
Part of what helps is watching or hearing master preachers in action. Like Stott. Or Billy Graham. I’m thankful that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has just released a marvelous treasure of Billy’s sermons online. To celebrate his 93rd birthday last week, the BGEA made over 900 of his sermons and speeches available as audio files. I look forward to listening to some of them.
David Handy+