Supported 84 students from 44 Majority World countries in theological doctoral programmes, celebrated the graduation of 19 scholars, and shepherded the ongoing ministries of more than 300 Langham Scholars around the world.
The vision that God gave to John Stott in 1969 has grown under God’s blessing and through the generosity of many people around the world. They are committed, like John Stott, to the centrality of the Bible in the life of the church, and the need to be equipped and growing to maturity in Christ through the ministry of pastors who believe, teach and live by the Word of God. All three programmes have seen remarkable expansion. Langham Preaching grew from the initial two countries in 2001 to having launched indigenously led movements for biblical preaching in some 70 countries around the world. Langham Literature, not only continued distributing evangelical books to hundreds of seminaries and thousands of pastors, but also fostered the development of indigenous publishers and launched plans for one-volume commentaries on the whole Bible in every major continental region. And Langham Scholars are not only multiplying their influence in biblically faithful theological education in the majority world, but are spearheading increased visibility for majority world evangelical scholarship in the western theological academic circles.
For more information and resources about John Stott, visit johnstott.org. On that site, you can also subscribe to John Stott Daily Thoughts and Bible Studies by email.
“Mission arises from the heart of God Himself and is communicated from His heart to ours. Mission is the global outreach of the global people of a global God.”
John Stott founded the Langham Trust to fund scholarships for young evangelical leaders from the Majority World. Recipients would study at British universities, working toward doctorates in biblical and theological fields and then returning to teach in seminaries in their home countries. John Stott’s aim was to strengthen evangelical theological education around the world by enabling seminaries to have highly qualified teachers who were academically able and committed to the truth of the Bible and the gospel.
The name Langham was taken from All Souls Church, Langham Place, London—the church where John Stott was rector (senior pastor) at the time.
Those who received scholarship funding from the Trust became known as Langham Scholars, a worldwide family that has now grown to well over 300. The programme is now known simply as Langham Scholars.
John Stott founded the Evangelical Literature Trust (ELT), into which he assigned all the royalties from his extensive writings in order to provide books for students, pastors and theological libraries in the Majority World. Royalties from John Stott’s books still form a substantial portion of the funds deployed by Langham Literature (as the Evangelical Literature Trust is now known). Many hundreds of seminaries around the world have been able to develop adequate libraries only through decades of assistance from ELT.
In the United States a group of friends launched the Langham Foundation in which later took upon itself the name of John Stott Ministries (JSM). Similar groups were started in Canada and Australia. All of them provided funds for literature (ELT) and scholarships (Langham Trust).
The Evangelical Literature Trust and the Langham Trust were joined as a single charity: the Langham Partnership in the UK and Ireland.
The national organisations in the UK, United States, Canada and Australia (later joined by Hong Kong), decided to work together as a network with common statements of faith, vision, mission, and values. So the Langham Partnership International (LPI) was formed. In the same year, Chris Wright was appointed as International Ministries Director to take over leadership of the overall combined vision and ministry from John Stott.
After John Stott and Chris Wright conducted some biblical preaching training seminars in Latin America, a third Langham programme was added to Scholars and Literature, namely Langham Preaching.
After a wide-ranging survey, the decision was taken to support Langham Scholars doing their PhDs in high quality doctoral programmes not only in the west but also in the majority world itself.
Langham Partnership New Zealand was launched through collaboration with Leadership Development International, New Zealand. The combined organisation is known as LeaDev-Langham.
John Stott went to be with the Lord. Before his death, he had requested that John Stott Ministries - the then constituent national member of Langham Partnership in the United States - should cease to use his name beyond his death, but rather revert to their original Langham name. The JSM Board made this change to Langham Partnership (USA), with the result that all Langham entities around the world now share the same name.
The International Council, recognising the growth of the organisation, authorised an increase in its management and leadership. Chris Wright’s job was split with the appointment of Mark Hunt as Executive Director, while Chris continued in his more ambassadorial and writing role.
Langham set about developing a rolling Five-Year Strategic Plan, with ambitious goals and detailed and costed plans for all three programmes and national members.
The ongoing plan strategic plan was synchronised with a global capital growth campaign, aimed not only at seeking to double Langham’s operations over the coming five years, but to build in sustainability for all three programmes over the next ten after that.
Around the world, Langham is walking with the global church to help believers grow to maturity and mission. Between July 2020 and June 2021, Langham Partnership, by God’s grace, has:
Supported 84 students from 44 Majority World countries in theological doctoral programmes, celebrated the graduation of 19 scholars, and shepherded the ongoing ministries of more than 300 Langham Scholars around the world.
Equipped more than 8,909 pastors and lay leaders to teach God’s Word, through 204 in-person and virtual training events and more than 1,100 preaching clubs.
Distributed 36,064 Bible-centred books to Majority World colleges, pastors and publishers, and supported 22 indigenous publishers, in 17 different countries, in the production of 55 local language titles.
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