John Stott: The Making of a Leader: A Biography of the Early Years

Winner of the 2001 John Pollock Award for Christian Biography! John Stott stands as one of the towering figures of Christianity in the twentieth century. He was a key framer of the historic Lausanne Covenant (1974). And he wrote Basic Christianity which has sold over three million copies in more than fifty languages. From his home base of All Souls Church in London's West End, he has shaped the face of evangelicalism around the world. But what has shaped John Stott? How did he become what Christianity Today calls "evangelicalism's premier teacher and preacher?" Timothy Dudley-Smith, a longtime friend and co-worker, offers in this book the beginning of a monumental study of Stott's life--tracking the early influences, challenges and achievements that set the course for a lifetime of Christian ministry. Dudley-Smith traces the growth of young Stott, who even as a child attended church and Sunday school at All Souls. He shows us Stott's conversion as a teenager and the subsequent influence upon his growth of Scripture Union's E. J. H. Nash. Here and in the British Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Cambridge, Stott's leadership abilities and concern for evangelism were already apparent. But strain between Stott and his father was pronounced as Stott began to follow his call to ministry while World War II embroiled his country. After his ordination at the close of the war, he renewed his association with All Souls, and he launched creative and energetic evangelism campaigns while providing leadership for the emerging evangelical movement within the Anglican Church and around the world. Covering Stott's first forty years, this volume reveals his lighthearted humanity and his resolute focus on God's Word and God's work in the world. Here you'll discover the fascinating detail and rewarding overview of a life that is at once instructive and inspiring.

Dudley-Smith, formerly Bishop of Thetford in the Anglican Church, is widely known as the writer of many hymns. A longtime friend and co-worker of John Stott, Dudley-Smith has edited an anthology of Stott's writings and compiled a bibliography of his works in addition to his current work on a multi-volume biography of the evangelical leader.