Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

ry recital or a Bible quiz. Attempts to dramatise some Biblical truths - such as “a trial over a weak brother” in 1986 - sometimes provoked severe criticism from the older generation, who worried that God’s holiness was being compro- mised. However, others emphasised the need for the contextualisation of the Christian message. If drama was understood as a parable, it could help young people to reflect upon their role as Christians, the advocates of the “unusual” methods argued.” The tradition of Youth Bible Days is still alive in Estonia. These gatherings, which usually took place in a Baptist church in Tallinn, offered fellowship, spiritual guidance and encouragement. They helped Baptist youth to relate to their context of everyday life as Christians and understand themselves as part of an older but continuing Estonian Baptist community, which shaped their identity as believers. Though in some churches attempts were made to organise children’s work, often under the guise of a birthday party or some other “legal” umbrella, an actual revival of children’s ministry began in the late 1980s. In the 1970s in Estonia, like in other parts of the Soviet Union, much of Christian education for children had to be done by Christian parents at home.” However, the state authorities “looked through their fingers’, as an Estonian saying goes, at some Baptist attempts to live out their convictions. In this situation, the growing youth work turned a new page for Estonian ECB understanding of church dynamics and evangelism. The youth work showed that the rigid atheistic system could not totally shape church life. There was an inner strength in historic Estonian Baptist identity, which was trying to resist, or bypass, atheistic restrictions and suppressive rules. Certainly the atheistic state had not lost its power, and often church leaders, first and foremost the Senior Presbyter, had to “pay for” the attempts of churches to revive their ministries and find the appropriate ways to express their identity. In the process of Estonian ECB churches attempting to live out their convictions in the growing atmosphere of political “suffocation’, Senior Presbyter Robert Vésu's role was significant. He “softened” the first attacks *! Logos, no. 3 (1984), pp. 30-31. *2 Minutes of the presbyters’ council meeting, no. 122 (12 May 1986). Archive of the UECBE. ~ °° Samuel Nesdoly, Among the Soviet Evangelicals: a Goodly Heritage (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1986), p. 43. 162 of the authorities and tried to present information in a way that enabled churches to operate as smoothly as possible in an officially atheistic state.” An introvert by temperament, Vosu buried much of his emotions within himself. In 1984 V6su suggested to his co-workers, “Take everything peacefully, one needs to force oneself to be calm.”” In his relationships with the government authorities he followed a simple Estonian rule: better a sparrow in the