Towards Understanding of the Practice of Proclamation: The Core Element of Russian Baptist Worship, Timofey Cheprasov, 2015

to be won by personal qualities and recognition by church leaders. Although the title of “minister” was not a legal term in the Statutes of the AUCECB it can be found in many official documents." The concept of s/uzhiteli, most of whom are involved in the ministry of the Word, brings up a notion of authority and its connection to preaching. Yuri Sipko, who served as a president of Russian Baptist Union from 2002 until 2010, addresses the problems of ministerial authority in his article “Zhit’ po Biblii ili po “pon’iatiiam”?” [“To Live According to the Bible or According to ‘unwritten laws’?”]. Although he maintains a positive image of s/uzhiteli, saying that they are ‘entrusted with the building up of the saints,’ nonetheless, he indicates that various abuses (“spiritual accidents”) do happen. Answering the question ‘Why ‘unwritten laws of 722 “the brothers are sometimes more important than the Holy Scripture in Baptist churches?’ Sipko points out several important elements of the problem. First is the 0 The word “sluzhitel” derives its meaning from the verb “to serve.” However, in Baptist churches, this concept has a much more complex connotation, with many shades and facets of meaning, making it difficult to explain to the “outsiders” of the Russian Baptist sub-culture. This difficulty points to an important issue of “language barrier,” which is one of the negative consequences of the enforced separation of the church from social life during communistic oppression. (Pavlyuk, “Destructivnoie Nasiediie Sovetskogo Proshlogo,” p 41). 21 A. Popov, “The Evangelical Christians-Baptists...”, pp 259-260. 2 “Brothers” is another term used in Russian Baptist communities in the same meaning as the term “s/uzhiteli.” 119 lack of critical engagement with the Bible, both among the preachers and the listeners. He argues that once a church has formed its theological position on various biblical and moral principles, it became intolerant to anyone questioning these views. The second contributing factor is the threatening and oppressive environment in which Baptist churches existed and developed (during the Soviet era), which resulted in the withdrawal of Christian communities from the Soviet society, and subsequently developed sense of mistrust or even hostility to the outsiders. Finally, Sipko refers to a culturally accepted authoritarian form of leadership among Russian Baptists, ‘Tsarist style in the state [leadership], in society, in churches, results in formation of leaders’ holy immunity. The leader does not err!’ According to Sipko, such style of leadership is both imposed “from above,” being taught by church leaders, and supported “from below,” with lay people treating pastors as “God’s anointed servants.” All of it brings about a serious problem: for a church leader to accept that he might be mistaken, means ‘to accept his inadequacy and to lose face.’ Inevitably, these pastors/preachers