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

study manuals produced by secular authors and later by the AUCECB. Chapter 5 will address the present state of preaching in Russian Baptist churches. | will briefly introduce the stage where preaching takes place, and will answer the question of what preaching in Russian Baptist churches is currently understood and expected to be, as well as introduce the “context of preaching” — where preaching happens, what the structure of the worship’’ service is, and who is allowed to preach. This chapter will include brief analysis of surveys collected in several Baptist communities in Voronezh, Russia, which would clarify a number of conclusions from previous chapters as to how preaching is understood in contemporary churches, and why it is considered important. In my analysis of the origins and current state of Russian baptistic preaching | will highlight an important point: throughout their history, baptistic believers in Russa dealt with preaching solely as ‘ministry of proclamation’, primarily consisting of a preparatory part (rational and spiritual) and a proclamatory part (the delivery of a sermon with all the elements such as the role of the Holy Spirit, the preacher, and the listeners being taken into consideration). Depending on the resources available or the political environment around the Church, the emphasis on the most important elements of preaching changed — the more practical and professional (in terms of knowledge of theology, hermeneutics and rhetoric) approach of the turbulent years at the beginning of the 20" century was replaced by a period of survival, when personal ethics and spirituality of the preachers were emphasised even at the expense of rational preparation of a sermon. However, in essence the approach to preaching remained the same: preaching was seen as mere acts of proclamation, which ” Here and throughout this work | will use the term “worship” in a simple way, referring to a church gathering on Sunday morning (or any other time) with the purpose of praising God and experiencing him through singing, praying and listening to the proclaimed word. Such utilization of the word does not imply that | reject other existing views. Neither is this an attempt to define worship in a limited way. Such usage is a matter of convenience, since | will particularly focus on those practices of the community of believers that, when taken together, are commonly known as a “corporate worship” or a “worship service.” possessed some educational and spiritual power. Various schools and educational programmes that sprung up during 1990-2000s continued this trend. Such a reductionist approach to preaching is bound to create difficulties. Various unsuccessful’> educational projects as well as generally accepted poor quality of preaching, yet surprising lack of critical stance in local churches towards its preaching and preachers proves this point. Therefore | will argue that unless preaching i