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

n Evangelical preaching was done in the power of the Holy Spirit. © Even in prison in 1921, together with other Christians, they have organised a Bible school, where Prokhanov taught theology and homiletics (Prokhanov, V Kotle Rossii, p 197). © Prokhanov, Kratkoie Ucheniie o Propovedy, Chapter 2. 77 Beseda isn’t a connected speech; it is more of a reflection that does not follow such requirements as consistence or the need to have one defined subject... A /Jecture is a thought through, logically built public speech, that is devoted to one subject from the perspective of an impassionate disengaged observer (who tries to be objective)... Unlike beseda, a sermon must have a clearly defined subject, one clear thought, which is to be logically developed. The sermon’s difference from the lecture and one of the advantages, is in the feeling... which the speaker inputs into it. Often a preacher delivers “Beseda” or reads “Lectures”, which clearly weakens the work of a sermon... Asermon’s main merit is the action that it produces on its listeners...” Prokhanov believed that although the success of preaching depended fully on it conforming to God’s will, its content, style of delivery and the personality of a preacher (including time spent in preparation) also played an important role. He argued that Christian education (and particularly training of preachers) was a necessity, pointing at the Disciples of Jesus, who had spent 3.5 years with the greatest Teacher of all times, thus dismissing a common view that the Apostles were uneducated fishermen. At the same time, Prokhanov recognizes the problem of ‘scholastic preaching,’ irrelevant for the Church due to the preacher’s inability to understand its everyday life. Thus, he believed that seminary training should be linked to the practical church ministry. 7° In his lectures, Prokhanov deals with such questions as sermon preparation, where he insists that apart from the necessary inspiration from the Holy Spirit, a preacher’s input also plays significant role. Moreover, he argues that ‘those who say that the Holy Spirit gives thoughts and words only during the time when a person is in the church service,’ have limited understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit in the process of sermon preparation and delivery.” Further addressing the question of 9” Ibid., Chapter 3. °8 Ibid., Chapter 7. % Ibid., Chapter 8. 78 preparation Prokhanov offers detailed instructions on (1) how to choose a text, and (2) how to explore the Scripture, trying to understand the meaning of the chosen passage better, °° It must be noted that Prokhanov’s recommendation is to use many parallel texts both for preparation to the sermon and for the delivery, thus making a sermon more convincing. Such practice is very common among Russian Baptists even today. Prokhanov argued that preaching should always preserve the spirit of the teaching of Christ as presented