My first encounter with John Stott, who died this week, was back in 1963. I had put my trust in Jesus and in order to help me work out the implications of what I had done I was given the ‘Islington Booklets’. These were written by Stott to help people like me find their way around the Bible and see the great truths of Jesus love for sinners leading to His death in their (and my) place. Stott’s own testimony was characteristically clear; “I was aware of two things about myself. 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. I had high ideals but a weak will… What 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.” The day Stott was converted he heard a sermon on Pilate’s question: “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ?” “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. The preacher, 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.” “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.” During his life he shaped the Lausanne Conference which draws evangelicals together from around the world and set up the Langham Partnership to supply Christian material to pastors in the majority world. He started the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity which encourages believers to introduce others to Christ. He exercised a global preaching ministry from All Souls, Langham Place, London and his books and commentaries have been the foundation of many a pastors library. I last heard John Stott preach 10 years ago on the theme of ‘double listening’, hearing what God says from His Word and listening to what the World is saying. In relating the one to the other he would bear in mind the primacy of salvation encapsulated in St John’s great text; “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And that life started for John Stott at age 17 and continues today in the glory. Hallelujah!