God’s Word for God’s World

In the 1960s, our founder John Stott was visiting various countries around the world and continually heard familiar requests from church and community leaders:

“Can you help us train our pastors to preach the Bible more effectively?”
“Can you provide our churches and schools with books to help us learn?”
“Can you help us train the leaders and seminary teachers who will guide the growth of the church in our country?”

John Stott observed first hand the rapid growth in numbers of believers, but also the lack of biblical resources needed for believers to grow in Christlikeness. Troubled by such need, he articulated what he called the Langham Logic, which led to the humble start of what has become a worldwide ministry. John Stott said that the Langham Logic contained three biblical convictions and one clear conclusion.

God wants his church to grow in maturity (not just in numbers).

Throughout the Scriptures we see that God longs for his people to grow in their knowledge and faith and godly living. Paul wanted all believers to:

“… reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Eph 4:13, NIV

But how does this happen?

The church grows through God’s Word.

The Bible teaches and guides us in what we are to believe and how we are to live. It equips us for every good work. (Romans 12:2).

“Churches live, grow and flourish by the Word of God, and they languish and die without it…whenever the Word of God is faithfully expounded and applied, congregations grow in both size and depth.” John Stott

The Word of God comes to people primarily through preaching.

Of course, people can read the Bible for themselves. If they are literate. If the Bible exists in their languages. If they can afford a Bible. For millions of Christians, the only chance they have to be fed by the Bible is when it is taught during worship.

“We can hardly exaggerate the importance of pastor-preachers for the health and maturity of the church.” John Stott

All the Langham ministries work towards this vision and goal.

So, if we are concerned for the maturity and mission of the global church, and if the above three convictions are true, then the logical question to ask is, “What can we do to raise the standards of biblical preaching?”