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

ore, | have argued that instead of being perceived as an act, which possesses some spiritual or educational value, preaching has to be seen as a powerful practice. Churches and theological schools need to recognise its constructive and destructive potential in order to preserve and maintain baptistic identity, which would enable a more constructive relationship between the Church and the University, thus leading to the much needed transformation of the contemporary Russian Baptist movement. This brings me to the important question of baptistic identity.2 What are the characteristics of a church that can be called baptistic? What defines the borders of * Douglas P. Sharp says that the main purpose of a theological school is to form church leaders, ‘personally and spiritually mature, well versed in sacred literature of our Christian tradition and enough qualified to lead pastoral, prophetic and evangelical ministry in Christian community.’ Obviously, such a task required a clear understanding of the denominational Christian identity and character (“Kto Takiie Baptisty Segodnia? Razmishleniia o Vosstanovlenii Baptistskoi Identichnosti i Kharaktera: Bogoslovskoie Obrazovaniie kak Akt Protivostoianiia Gospodstvuyuschei Kulture” [Who are Baptists Today? Reflections on Rebuilding of Baptist Identity and Character: Theological Education as an Act of Resistance to Culture”], in Put Bogopoznaniia, Vol. 4 (Moscow, MTSECB, 1998), p 110). ? As | have stated earlier, when | speak about identity, | refer to something that makes a person or a community part of one culture (in this case, a baptistic culture), something that makes them distinct from others, that allows them to refer to themselves as one whole, something that sets the direction for their existence and defines their practices — the set of their core convictions. 134 this ecclesial culture?? How is it possible to set the parameters by which a church can be called baptist or baptistic? What justifies placing different churches under one umbrella, viewing them as one cultural or one ecclesial type? Thus, the subject of this chapter would be to define a target culture by focusing on a vision that makes baptistic believers distinct from other Christian types,’ the vision that impacts their convictions and practices allowing them to be studied as one ecclesial type. Chapter 6 transitions from description and analysis of the development of preaching to the question of baptistic identity. As it was already said, | follow the view of N. G. Wright, who argued that it is necessary to understanding ‘who | am,’ to be able to answer the question ‘how | should live.’ In order to answer the first question, it is necessary to define the constants or marks of identity that constitute and define a person or a group of people (Russian Baptist Church in my case).” | will employ the concept of the baptist vision as developed in McClendon’s works, as the most helpful app