The Stott Legacy

Chris Wright and Tayo Arikawe

Chris Wright (PhD, Cambridge) is an Old Testament scholar and missiologist who is a prolific writer and sought-after teacher all over the world. After starting out in ministry in a Church of England church outside London, he spent several years teaching in India. He returned to the UK with his wife Liz and their children to work at All Nations Christian College, becoming Principal during the 1990s. He was invited by John Stott to take over from him in 2001 as director of what became Langham Partnership, a role he held for 20 years. In 2021 he relinquished that responsibility, handing over to Tayo Arikawe, while continuing his involvement as Langham’s Global Ambassador. He hosts the regular On Mission podcast for Langham.

 

Among his many publications, he is best known for The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (IVP 2006), The Mission of God’s People (Zondervan, 2010), Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (IVP, 2010), Knowing God through the Old Testament Trilogy (IVP, 2019), and numerous commentaries on individual biblical books.

 

• Langham Partnership: www.langham.org 
• On Mission podcast: https://us.langham.org/podcast/ 
• All Nations Christian College: www.allnations.ac.uk 

 

Tayo Arikawe is International Director of Langham Partnership, a demanding role that involves working with the three programmes of Langham (Scholars, Literature and Preaching) as well as the National Member teams in several countries which fundraise for the programmes. Originally from Nigeria, Tayo has been involved in pastoring and planting new churches in his home country, in several other African countries, and for the last 15 years, in the UK. Prior to joining Langham, he was the Director of Ministries for London City Mission. He is married to Calista and they have one son Mekus. On top of all that, he is (somehow) managing to find time to complete his PhD!

• London City Mission: https://www.lcm.org.uk 

Dr Ajith Fernando

After 35 years as the director of Youth for Christ (YfC) Sri Lanka, Ajith Fernando stepped back to become Teaching Director, giving him the space to write and teach that he’d struggled to find previously. Brought up in a Christian home which highly prized the exposition of the scriptures, it was unsurprising that he would find a model and mentor in the writing of John Stott. However, he has followed his lead in many different ways ever since, including being instrumental in committing YfC Sri Lanka to serving the country’s poor with various relief and discipleship programmes. He learned the importance of the simple lifestyle from Uncle John and with his wife Nelun, two adult children and four grandchildren, has made a profound contribution to the mission of the global church. A graduate of Asbury and Fuller seminaries, he has been awarded honorary doctorates by Asbury, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Gordon-Conwell seminary, and Tyndale Seminary in Canada.

 

Produced by Langham Partnership UKI

Dr Marcelo Vargas

Dr Marcelo Vargas lives in  La Paz, capital of his native Bolivia, where he is the director of the Centro de Capacitación Misionera, or the Mission Training Centre. He cofounded this with his wife Silvana, a psychologist who specialises in Family Therapy. He originally studied Electrical Engineering as an undergraduate in Brazil, where he expected to settle. But he was encouraged by Samuel Escobar and others to return to Bolivia to set up the country’s own Christian student movement to be affiliated with IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students). Having originally met John Stott at a student conference in Brazil, he went on to have many links with him and what became Langham Partnership. He spent a summer studying with him at LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) and would in time become a Langham Scholar while he was doing a PhD through the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. He was a contributor to the influential single-volume Bible Commentary produced in Latin America: the Comentario Bíblico Contemporáneo.

- Centro de Capacitación Misionera (in Spanish)

- Official website for the Comentario Bíblico Contemporáneo (in Spanish)

Produced by Langham Partnership UKI

 

Prof John Wyatt - Part 2

John Wyatt is Professor of Ethics and Perinatology at University College London and also Emeritus Professor of Neonatal Paediatrics, Ethics & Perinatology at University College London.

 

As a paediatrician, he specialised and led an intensive care unit for premature babies in London for 25 years. But alongside his medical practice, he has been a frequent contributor to the major medical ethical debates of our time, enabling him to play a significant part in updating John Stott’s Issues Facing Christians Today. He first joined All Souls, Langham Place as a medical student in the 1970s and was invited by Uncle John to become one of the initial members of his books and culture discussion group. Having spent the last 50 years at All Souls, he got to know Stott well, becoming one of his key medical advisers. It was John Wyatt who convinced Stott to include two very personal chapters in his very last book, Radical Disciple, under the titles of Dependence and Death.

 

John has written several books of his own, particularly focused on the major ethical dilemmas surrounding the beginning and end of life. Most recently, he has researched the implications and challenges raised by Artificial Intelligence for medical ethics. He is also a much sought-after speaker and lecturer all over the world.

This is Part 2 of 2.

• John’s Website and Blog for details of his books, articles and other resources
• Find some of his seminars at the Faraday Institute

Produced by Langham Partnership UKI

Prof John Wyatt - Part 1

John Wyatt is Professor of Ethics and Perinatology at University College London and also Emeritus Professor of Neonatal Paediatrics, Ethics & Perinatology at University College London.

 

As a paediatrician, he specialised and led an intensive care unit for premature babies in London for 25 years. But alongside his medical practice, he has been a frequent contributor to the major medical ethical debates of our time, enabling him to play a significant part in updating John Stott’s Issues Facing Christians Today. He first joined All Souls, Langham Place as a medical student in the 1970s and was invited by Uncle John to become one of the initial members of his books and culture discussion group. Having spent the last 50 years at All Souls, he got to know Stott well, becoming one of his key medical advisers. It was John Wyatt who convinced Stott to include two very personal chapters in his very last book, Radical Disciple, under the titles of Dependence and Death.

 

John has written several books of his own, particularly focused on the major ethical dilemmas surrounding the beginning and end of life. Most recently, he has researched the implications and challenges raised by Artificial Intelligence for medical ethics. He is also a much sought-after speaker and lecturer all over the world.

This episode is Part 1 of 2.

• John’s Website and Blog for details of his books, articles and other resources
• Find some of his seminars at the Faraday Institute

Produced by Langham Partnership UKI

Rico Tice

Rico Tice is a passionate evangelist known on university campuses and in local churches all over, in particular through Christianity Explored (CE) Ministries. He was first ordained in the Church of England when he joined the staff team of All Souls Langham Place, in London, in the mid-90s. John Stott was still very involved in church life at that point and mentored Rico over many years. He is still at All Souls and lives in central London with his wife Lucy and 3 young children, while at the same time, working with CE in its training and evangelistic work around the world.

 

• All Souls, Langham Place including past sermons by John Stott and Rico Tice
• Christianity Explored courses (for enquirers)
• CE Ministries (church-facing, for training and other resources)

 

• Excerpts from John Stott’s funeral at All Souls
• Videos of John Stott’s memorial at St Paul’s Cathedral

Dr Elaine Storkey

Elaine Storkey is a philosopher and sociologist who has worked for many years at the interface of the Church and the Academy. Her postgraduate studies were on Wittgenstein after which she has taught in many universities and colleges around the world, particularly in the UK and North America (with various posts in Oxford and Cambridge). She has published several books, many of which are concerned with issues of evangelicalism, gender and feminism, justice and Christian social action.

 

In the 1980s, John Stott invited her to teach at The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, where she developed courses in Christian Worldview amongst other things. Then in 1991 she succeeded him as director and led the institution until 1999. Since then she has continued to write and be involved in all kinds of ministries around the world, including stints as A Rocha, the Micah Challenge, the University of Gloucester, Restored and Tearfund (becoming its president in 1997).

 

• Elaine Storkey’s website and information on her books
• More on LICC
• More on Tearfund
• More on Restored: Ending violence against Women 

Produced by Langham Partnership UKI.

 

 

 

 

Bp Timothy Dudley-Smith - Part 2

Timothy Dudley-Smith is known to English-speaking Christians for the hundreds of hymns, with around 400 published, included in over 250 hymnals globally. But his ministry has extended far beyond writing verse for he was ordained in the Church of England in 1950 (after graduating from Cambridge in 1947), served in Rochester and London, then for many years writing and editing for the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS). In 1973 he was appointed Archdeacon of Norwich, and then Bishop of Thetford (assistant to the Bishop of Norwich). 

 

Throughout his life, he long life, John Stott was a central figure, which is why he was the perfect choice to work on Stott’s biography in his retirement. This ended up being two volumes, and aimed to set down an historical record of Stott’s life but leave much of the evaluation to subsequent historians who had the benefit of distance and greater perspective.

 

My conversation with him and his daughter Sarah Walter, in January 2022, was remarkable - he is 95 but his memory is sparkling and only needed the odd prompt from Sarah!

 

This episode is Part 2 of 2. 

• Bishop Timothy’s website with details of his publications and hymnwriting
• Details of the biography 
  • Volume 1: The Making of a Leader
  • Volume 2: A Global Ministry
• Current site of CPAS

 

Bp Timothy Dudley-Smith - Part 1

Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith

 

Timothy Dudley-Smith is known to English-speaking Christians for the hundreds of hymns, with around 400 published, included in over 250 hymnals globally. But his ministry has extended far beyond writing verse for he was ordained in the Church of England in 1950 (after graduating from Cambridge in 1947), served in Rochester and London, then for many years writing and editing for the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS). In 1973 he was appointed Archdeacon of Norwich, and then Bishop of Thetford (assistant to the Bishop of Norwich). 

 

Throughout his life, John Stott was a central figure, which is why he was the perfect choice to work on Stott’s biography in his retirement. This ended up being two volumes, and aimed to set down an historical record of Stott’s life but leave much of the evaluation to subsequent historians who had the benefit of distance and greater perspective.

 

My conversation with him and his daughter Sarah Walter, in January 2022, was remarkable - he is 95 but his memory is sparkling and only needed the odd prompt from Sarah!

 

This episode is Part 1 of 2.

• Bishop Timothy’s website with details of his publications and hymnwriting
• Details of the biography 
  • Volume 1: The Making of a Leader
  • Volume 2: A Global Ministry
• Current site of CPAS

José de Segovia

José de Segovia is a Spanish journalist based in Madrid with a particular interest in arts and culture. But that is not the only string to his bow, as he has also pursued theological studies at various points in Spain, the Netherlands and the UK. In 1982, he spent six months at the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity and as a result, got to know John Stott as a teacher, mentor and friend. Since then, he has felt Uncle John’s influence keenly, not least because he has spent his entire professional life taking Stott’s principle of double listening seriously. Along side his journalism, he has taught theology in several institutions and is a pastor at the Reformed Church in Madrid. He has also been very involved in the Spanish Evangelical Alliance, and at John Stott’s recommendation, was one of the World Evangelical Alliance’s representatives in its theological dialogues with the Vatican.

 

• More on LICC
• José’s blog (in Spanish) - including many posts about John Stott
• José’s podcast series about John Stott (in Spanish)
• Reformed Church of Madrid (where José pastors)