Update 8/15/07 - Click here for a transcript of John Stott's final address.
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John Stott, under whom I had the privilege of sitting at one time, has apparently given his last public sermon. According to a July 23, 2007 news report.
Walking slowly and clutching a sturdy wooden cane, 86-year-old Rev. Dr. Stott looks every bit the statesman that, in 2005, Time magazine called “One of the 100 most influential people on the planet today.” Echoing that accolade he also
received a CBE in 2006 shortly before completing his 50th–and possibly his last–book “The Living Church” launched in 2007.
According to the report,
Stott clearly explained that the essence of what God is doing in the church today is the work of transforming His people into the image of His Son. In vintage Stott style, John took the Keswick Convention along a clear and well-crafted journey through the evidence for this central purpose of God – to turn the world upside down by transforming His people into the image of His Son. But, he added, it’s the church’s lack of cooperation with this central purpose of God for His people that has been so damaging to our world.
Incarnational evangelism or entering into other people’s worlds with Christ-likeness, Stott noted, is essential to the church’s walk in the 21st century. However, our evangelistic efforts often lead to failure simply because we fail to look like the Christ we are proclaiming.
A transcript will be available in August at www.johnstott.org