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

s Lost Reformation. 30 society had never experienced before, was triggered by the availability of the Bible in contemporary Russian la nguage.° Despite the fact that the Bible was available to the wide masses of people, education was not common in Russian society; hence not many were able to read it. Ona positive side, the number of schools and, therefore, of educated people was growing. Still by the end of the 19" century the vast majority of the population could neither read nor write. Therefore preaching became a major way of spreading the biblical message amongst the people. This brings me back to the subject of my study, the role of preaching in Russian baptist communities, and focuses the following chapters on the practice of preaching, its context and development in the baptistic communities in the Russian Empire, later the USSR, and finally in contemporary Russia. Every baptistic community develops in unique historical, socio-political and theological settings, which brings about the ultimate diversity of baptistic believers across the globe. Today, preaching in Russian Baptist churches (and a number of other practices and convictions) differs significantly from preaching in churches in Germany, England or North America. Most of the existing differences are due to the unique context in which Russian baptistic communities developed. Thus, an insight into a number of major influences is crucial for an understanding of preaching in Russia, and how it was shaped. Chapter 2 will address the prevalent theological context of the Russian Empire. Then, an analysis of major baptistic publications will provide an inroad into the complex relationships between the church and the oppressive state regimes (Chapter 3 and 4). This will shed light onto some peculiarities of preaching in Russia. And finally, (Chapter 5) using a number of surveys from contemporary Baptist churches, | will try to answer the question, “What is the meaning of preaching in Russian Baptist churches?” In my article “Back to the Future: The Discovery of the Future of Russian Baptist nA Social Involvement through the Narratives of the Past” | have argued that since Russian baptistic communities developed in a particular cultural and theological context, which 3 E.g. Johannes A. Hebly, Protestants in Russia (Belfast, Christian Journals Limited, 1976), pp 41-49. “ Timofey Cheprasov, “Back to the Future: The Discovery of the Future of Russian Baptist Social Involvement through the Narratives of the Past,” in Baptistic Theologies, Vol. 3, No 2 (IBTS, Prague, 2011), p 88. 31 inevitably influenced their theology and practice, they needed to look into their past, into the convictions regarding charitable work which have always been highly regarded in Russian culture, and to develop a paradigm for their future social involvement. Apart from the ministry of the Word, social work has always played an important role on the ba