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

“the History of the Baptist Movement” discipline. Theological schools always perceived preaching as a tool, an instrument to achieve certain goals, whether educational or motivational. However, as was shown in Chapters "* Ibid “| have already mentioned Kuznetsova’s PhD dissertation “Early Russian Evangelicals (1974- 1929): Historical Background and Hermeneutical Tendencies Based on |. V. Kargel’s Written Heritage”; Puzynin’s book The Tradition of the Gospel Christians: A Study of Their Identity and Theology During the Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Periods; A. Popov’s PhD dissertation “The Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the Soviet Union as Hermeneutical Community: Examining the Identity of the All-Union Council of the ECB (AUCECB) Through the Way the Bible Was Used in its Publications”; Nichols, The Development of Russian Evangelical Spirituality: A Study of Ivan V Kargel (1849-1937). 233 6 and 7, preaching has to be seen as more than a tool. From the example of Russian baptistic history, it is clear that proclamation has developed and evolved together with the Church. Various pressures that the Church had to cope with affected its preaching. Yet the way preaching was practiced produced far greater and lasting results in churches. One such change is the shift in the understanding of who can, and should be, the interpreter of the Word. At the beginning of the baptistic movement in Russia, entire congregations were involved in the process of spiritual discernment regarding both the meaning of the biblical text, and the appointment of their leaders. Gradually, the pastor became the only person who had the power to make such decisions. The preaching office was something that attributed this power. Therefore, to approach preaching as a mere rhetorical exercise is to miss something very significant for both preachers-in- training and the receiving churches. From conflict to partnership: the way to mutual understanding Let me offer a brief summary of the argument of this section of my work. An overview of the contemporary relationships between the Church and the University, the communities of faith and their educational institutions shows the inevitability of conflict. The existing inability to understand the mutually exclusive cornerstones of their ministries — the supernatural work of God in the Church, over against the academic reasoning, research and critical analysis in the University, results in a clash of paradigms, sometimes leading to a mistaken conclusion that free thinking of the University is rejected by the irrational and conservative Church. The review of two courses on homiletics, which are offered by two major theological educational institutions, shows that the way preaching is taught further widens the divide between churches and theological schools. While seminaries teach their students the art of homiletics, which is inseparable from thorough exegesis, and the use of rhe