What Can Youth Workers Learn from John Stott?
I once read that John Piper had been challenged to “choose one great theologian and apply [himself] throughout life to understanding and mastering his thought”. I took this advice to heart and chose John Stott. John Stott was one of the most influential preachers of the 20th century. He helped shape the ministries of numerous contemporary, evangelical, theologically-minded leaders, including Tim Keller, John Piper, Rick Warren, Ajith Fernando, and Jeremy Treat.
His ministry at All Souls Church, London, combined excellence in expository preaching with unique innovations in local evangelism and leadership training. He was also deeply committed to student ministry, particularly at universities, having been converted in his teens through the bold ministry of a youth worker. What made John Stott so impactful, and what can youth workers learn from him? Here are four principles to take note of:
A Servant Lifestyle
First and foremost, John Stott modeled a servant lifestyle. For all his expository precision and theological thoughtfulness, he is fondly remembered by those close to him as a dear friend and a humble servant. The recorded examples of his humility are many. He lived most of his adult life in small flats in central London (despite his global stature as an evangelical leader) and funneled most of the royalties from his many books “irrevocably” to the cause of pastoral training and literature distribution in Africa, Asia, and South America. Ajith Fernando relates how, at an international gathering of young leaders, “We were happy to hear that he was coming, but could allot him only one talk. To me, this seemed like an embarrassing act of disrespect to an elder statesman. But he became the hero of the conference by not speaking!”
Stott’s Christlike ambition, not to be served but to serve, reminds us that theological ministry leads to godly impact when exercised in a spirit of humble service. Students need robust doctrine and biblical teaching. They also long to see examples of integrity and selflessness. Many are disillusioned by seeing Christian leaders fall into scandal, and because of this, many mentally link strong doctrinal preaching with negative qualities like spiritual pride and abuse. As youth workers, we have the incomparable privilege of being humble examples to our students, modeling servanthood as we proclaim the riches of Christ (2 Cor 4:5). Like Stott, we can leverage our influence not for personal gain, but in selfless service, and exercise it for the sake of the gospel in the lives of teenagers.
An Engaged Mind
Stott was in many ways the quintessential pastor-theologian. Renowned for his incisive thinking, his approach to theological engagement in pastoral ministry is a second aspect of his example youth pastors can learn from. Concerned by the evangelical tendency to shy away from critical engagement with science and the humanities, he was deeply committed to the cultivation of a “Christian mind,” calling Christians to a more robust understanding of the nature of discipleship. A natural outgrowth of this was a commitment to engaging contemporary issues in his preaching and teaching, bringing the Scripture to bear on the culture he inhabited. His book The Contemporary Christian is a masterclass in this kind of faithful, engaged contextualization. Particularly helpful for the theologically-minded youth worker is his concept of double listening: “the faculty of listening to two voices at the same time, the voice of God through Scripture and the voices of men and women [and teenagers!] around us. These voices will often contradict one another, but our purpose in listening to them is to discover how they relate to each other.”
Having done the work of listening, Stott embodied how the preacher can act as a bridge builder between the unchanging world of the text and the ever-changing world of our listeners. The goal is to present Christ in all His fullness to the real needs of listeners, maintaining faithfulness to the gospel while applying it carefully in various contexts. Stott’s balanced approach to contextualization and communication offers a helpful starting point for the youth worker desiring to connect Scripture to the world of teenagers. It helps us to avoid sacrificing faithfulness to the text in pursuit of a phony “relevance,” while also freeing us to robustly apply the Word of God to the questions, hurts, and circumstances our students face.
A Radical Balance
Stott advocated a “radical balance” in Christian idea-spaces that (like today) were often polarized. As an Anglican pastor for most of his career, Stott held to his conservative evangelical convictions amid a denomination that was rapidly descending into liberalism. He loved his church and remained a committed Anglican to the day he died, yet he consistently declared that his first loyalty was to the gospel itself. His unique placement as an evangelical leader in a liberal denomination shaped much of his thinking and was the catalyst for this “radical balance.”
Refusing to compromise where Scripture spoke, he was willing to concede to differences in interpretation at secondary issues (even changing his mind on certain key issues), while also insisting that the application of Scriptural principles could vary widely. “Every Christian,” he said in his wonderful little booklet Balanced Christianity, “should be both conservative and radical; conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it.” This way of thinking brought him criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
One example of this “radical balance” was his approach to social justice: Stott rejected the social gospel of the World Council of Churches, but also insisted on the social implications of the gospel which for so long had been disregarded by conservative evangelicals. A fruit of this radical balance was his crafting of the Lausanne Covenant and the ongoing work of the Lausanne Movement. In a day of polarization, Stott’s radical balance is something that youth need to be taught and see exemplified, to speak with clarity when Scripture does, and to exercise charity when it does not.
Deep Capacity for Friendship
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, youth workers can learn from John Stott’s capacity for building relationships. A lifelong bachelor (like his hero Charles Simeon), he had “family” all over the world who were deeply impacted not only by his incisive biblical preaching, but also the depth of friendship he offered. In the second half of his life, this became a more central element of his ministry, as he gave time to mentoring a long line of study assistants, gave attention teaching to smaller groups through the London Institute of Christianity, and traveled to remote areas of the world to train preachers and pastors.
His humility and love were what left the deepest impact. His generosity in giving his individualized attention, his wide capacity for building relationships, and his intentionality in maintaining a network of friends is, I believe, the foundation upon which his legacy has continued. Take that away, and I do not believe his impact would have been as great and global as it was. For aspiring youth pastor theologians, Stott reminds us that our attempts at theological ministry are nothing if they are not shaped and fueled by love and channeled through rich, responsible relationships.
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