According to a media release obtained by ANS, Dr. Stott will also be moving home from his flat in Bridford Mews, London, where he has lived for more than 30 years, to a retirement community for Anglican clergy in the south of England which will be able to provide more fully for his present and future needs. Dr Stott has made this decision with the strong belief that it is God’s provision for him at this stage.

A biography posted to the Langham Partnership website says John Stott was born in London in 1921 to Sir Arnold and Lady Stott. He was educated at Rugby School, where he became head boy, and Trinity College Cambridge. At Trinity he earned a double first in French and theology, and was elected a senior scholar.

Stott trained for the pastorate at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He was awarded a Lambeth doctorate in divinity in 1983 and has honorary doctorates from schools in America, Britain and Canada. Although Stott was confirmed into the Anglican Church in 1936 and took part in formal religious duties at school, he remained spiritually restless.

Stott writes of that time in his life: "As a typical adolescent, I was aware of two things about myself, though doubtless I could not have articulated them in these terms then. First, if there was a God, I was estranged from him. I tried to find him, but he seemed to be enveloped in a fog I could not penetrate. Secondly, I was defeated. I knew the kind of person I was, and also the kind of person I longed to be. Between the ideal and the reality there was a great gulf fixed. I had high ideals but a weak will. . . . [W]hat brought me to Christ was this sense of defeat and of estrangement, and the astonishing news that the historic Christ offered to meet the very needs of which I was conscious." (1)

On 13 February 1938, Eric Nash (widely known as ‘Bash’) came to give a talk to the Christian Union at Rugby School. His text was Pilate’s question: “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ?”

Stott recalls: "That I needed to do anything with Jesus was an entirely novel idea to me, for I had imagined that somehow he had done whatever needed to be done, and that my part was only to acquiesce. This Mr Nash, however, was quietly but powerfully insisting that everybody had to do something about Jesus, and that nobody could remain neutral. Either we copy Pilate and weakly reject him, or we accept him personally and follow him."

After talking privately with Nash and taking the rest of the day to think further, Stott explains, "that night at my bedside I made the experiment of faith, and 'opened the door' to Christ. I saw no flash of lightning …in fact I had no emotional experience at all. I just crept into bed and went to sleep. For weeks afterwards, even months, I was unsure what had happened to me. But gradually I grew, as the diary I was writing at the time makes clear, into a clearer understanding and a firmer assurance of the salvation and lordship of Jesus Christ." (2)

Preaching ministry focused on church he attended all his life

John Stott has attended his local church, All Souls, Langham Place in London’s West End (www.allsouls.org) , since he was a small boy. One of his earliest life memories is of sitting in the gallery and dropping paper pellets onto the fashionable hats of the ladies below! Many years later, and following his ordination in 1945, John Stott became assistant curate at All Souls and then, unusually, went straight on to become rector in 1950. He became rector emeritus in 1975, a position which he continues to hold, and he still preaches there several times each quarter.

His website biography states that soon after his appointment as rector, Dr. Stott began to encourage church members to attend a weekly training course in evangelism. A monthly “guest service” was established, combining regular parochial evangelism with Anglican evening prayer, and follow-up discipleship courses for new Christians were started in people’s homes. All Souls offered midweek lunchtime services, a central weekly prayer meeting and monthly services of prayer for the sick. “Children’s church” and family services were established, a chaplain to a group of Oxford Street stores was appointed, and the All Souls Clubhouse was founded as a Christian community centre. John Stott took parish visiting seriously; he once even disguised himself as homeless and slept on the streets in order to find out what it was like.

All Souls Church grew numerically during the 1950s and 1960s, the site says. John Stott continually pleaded with people not to dismiss other, closer evangelical churches just to be a part of the congregation at All Souls. Like one of his mentors, Charles Simeon of Cambridge, Dr. Stott turned down opportunities for advancement in the church hierarchy and remained at the same church throughout his ministry. His role as a wise, prayerful and caring pastor with an incredible ability to remember names and circumstances has been for many people his most significant contribution.