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

eaching event with much prayer and ‘all seriousness, since believers expect to hear from him spiritual word, as from the Lord...’"7 Bratskii Vestnik, Vol. 2, 1958, features an article written by Charles H. Spurgeon “Rabota Presvitera | Propovednika Nad Soboi” [The Work of the Pastor and the Preacher on Himself]. The author’s main idea is to stress the need for a preacher to have the right heart and relationship with God, and for the preacher’s life to fully reflect the message he is proclaiming. Accorgind to Spurgeon, all the hard work in such areas as rhetoric, logic, and knowledge ‘are secondary tools of [a preacher’s] holy calling’ since ‘the main tools are my inner man, my reason, and my body. My spiritual abilities and my inner spiritual life — these are my true tool in this high calling.’”” The notion of preaching being primarily a result of the work of the Holy Spirit is further developed in the instructions to pastors. E. Masin in “Presviter Dolzhen Bit Osviashchen Gospodom” [A Presbyter Must Be Sanctified by God], apart from addressing the qualities of a pastor as a person who is guided, sanctified and anointed by the Holy Spirit (thus indicating that pastors have a special position in churches, different from the lay members), speaks on the subject of preaching. The ministry of proclamation is compared to the ministry of the prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament. The prophetic word is ‘God speaking to the people of God,’ also it is ‘the direction to the church, the light that shines in the darkness.’ The ministry of a pastor is explicitly identified with the ministry of the prophets, “ Zhidkov, “Poriadok Propovedi Na Nashikh Sluzheniiakh.” “ CH. Spurgeon “Rabota Presvitera i Propovednika Nad Soboi” [“The Work of the Pastor and the Preacher on Himself”], in Bratskii Vestnik, Vol. 2 (1958), p 30. (Originally published in C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to my Students: A Selection From Addresses Delivered to the Students of The Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Chapter 1, “The Minister’s self-watch,” (London, Passmore and Alabaster, 1876). 102 The Lord puts people to serve churches, people who have fiery testimony about Jesus, whose inspired words are filled with testimony about Christ (Rev. 19.10), just like the Old Testament prophets were teachers for the nation of Israel, in a similar way the pastors’ ministry is to care about spiritual well-being of the members.” Such a high view of preaching is reinforced by Mitskevich in “Vseobshcheie Sviashchenstvo i Sluzhiteli Tserkvi’ [Priesthood of All Believers and Church Ministers]. The instructions on how church members should listen to sermons are worth an extensive quote, because this message has become a regular theme for sermons in churches across the Soviet Union (and even today’s Russia), first of all emphasising the responsibility of the listeners in discerning the message of the preacher.“