John Stott, 1921–2011

John Stott believed in simple pleasures. The British evangelist spent three months of every year for 50 years straight in a remote Welsh cottage, writing books by the light of an antique lantern. It was there that he produced the 50 books that have cemented his reputation as one of the most popular religious teachers of the 20th century.

The man who would go on to become “the most influential evangelist most people have never heard of” was born in London to an agnostic father and a Lutheran mother, said the Los Angeles Times. He embraced Christianity in 1938 while a student at Rugby School, after hearing a sermon by the Rev. Eric Nash, an Anglican evangelist. Stott went on to study theology at Trinity College Cambridge and was ordained as a minister in London in 1945.

Stott “revived evangelicalism in England” in the 1950s, said BBCnews.com, when Christians were routinely dismissed as uneducated. As the rector of All Souls Church in London, he attracted large crowds with rousing, populist sermons. He began writing books that explained complex theological ideas in “a way laypeople could easily understand.” After his best-known book, Basic Christianity, was published in 1958, Queen Elizabeth appointed him a chaplain to the throne.

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Stott’s influence was secured in 1974, said The Christian Post, when he was the chief drafter of the Lausanne Covenant, the defining “manifesto on evangelicalism and theology.” The covenant commits evangelicals to spreading Christianity throughout the world, and has since been adopted by Christian religious leaders in over 150 countries.

Stott was ahead of his time in many ways, said ReligiousDispatches.org. He was one of the first evangelicals to support the ordination of women and controversially preached that the torments of hell might not be eternal. Stott remained humble despite his global fame, said the Rev. Chris Wright, director of the Langham Partnership, a nonprofit group that Stott founded to train ministers from developing countries. “He once said we should not get used to adulation,” said Wright. “I think he would want to be remembered as a disciple of Jesus.”