As I emerged out of Southern Baptist evangelicalism in 1980–81 John Stott and J. I. Packer were two of the most influential writers in my journey out of Baptist evangelicalism. Hitherto my theological staples had been things on the order of Navigators Bible study materials and Rosalind Rinker's book on hearing voices from God. I am not entirely sure how I found Stott's Basic Christianity and Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Back then we had a Christian bookstore downtown, whe...
