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

gh various stages in their development, these Christians maintained a very high view of the ministry of the Word, which they perceived as a direct work of God in their midst. Preachers’ spirituality came to the forefront as the main prerequisite for a successful ministry of interpretation and proclamation of God’s message. The years of persecution and oppression under communistic regime, when churches were forcefully separated from all the aspects of social life including education, resulted in distortions both in how churches perceived their role and place in the society (from seeing themselves as a transformative force in culture in the time of Prokhanov to an inward looking idea of spiritual survival) and in how leaders were perceived and treated. Preachers were seen as people with a special anointing from God, as chosen disciples called to be in God’s presence to receive His message, which was to be given to other less spiritual Christians. Inevitably, such separation into classes, the re-appearance of “priests” and “lay members,” brought numerous problems, affecting various aspects of the life of the Church, including relationships between members within the congregations, as well as the teaching and witness of the local churches. Newly gained freedom after the collapse of the USSR and almost immediate spread of educational institutions that produced thousands of graduates in theology, revealed the discrepancy between the need of more educated Christians and trained pastors and preachers, which was proclaimed by the leadership of the Baptist Unions in Russia, and the reality, when churches were not willing to accept and use people with qualifications in theology. The pneumotological approach to ministry appropriated by churches, the space attributed to the role of the Holy Spirit effectively excluded the need for education, which was perceived as a threat to authentic spirituality. 133 The ministry of the Word was rather central to the church-seminary struggle. Churches saw preaching as paving the way for authentic Baptist spirituality (although no one knew what either spirituality or “baptist” meant, in practice, preaching was often turning into obscure reflections of various “brothers” with a call to repentance at the end), and opening the doors for the work of the Holy Spirit. Yet, this perception of preaching as an act of proclamation, which allows the Holy Spirit to work (in a mysterious way) in the hearts and minds of the listeners during the event, does not account for potential abuses of power and lack of pastoral accountability that is common in Russian Baptist churches. Equally sterile were the various attempts of educational institutions, which had not contextualised their methods (effectively neglecting questions of Baptist identity), yet attempted to reform churches and preaching by teaching homiletics, thus reducing preaching to the areas of hermeneutics and rhetoric.’ Theref