Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

hasise the role of church leaders, acknowledging their responsibility in the fields of instruction and exhortation. Taking the “Rules” as an example of giving directions, we observe that a large part of the document consists of full-text Scripture quotations with short explana- tions. On the one hand, this method gives the reader the impression of a solid biblical foundation. On the other hand, this approach corresponds to the readers’ understanding of Scripture and fits their needs exactly. Even if this straightforward approach is sometimes regarded as “primitive’,* it was effective in providing additional strength to the young Baptist movement. The “Rules” and practices of the churches did not include any special rights or privileges for leaders. Neither were there formal requirements for leader- ship other than spiritual criteria. This made the transition into the status of leader open to almost every man skilled in preaching and explaining the Word. The only way the authority of a leader was enforced was through his personal integrity and pastoral abilities, combined with simplicity of proc- lamation and quality of exhortation and fellowship. This made the church structure very flexible and adaptable to severe circumstances. With the shift from Stundism to Baptism, the congregations became characterised by a kind of “institutionalised Pietism”’ combined with baptism by immersion and an established leadership structure. This stage in the formation of congregational structure was entirely complete by 1884. The next steps of building centralised vertical church structures were made by Wieler’s successor as president, Dei I. Mazaev” and discussion of this falls outside the framework of this paper. Nevertheless, the role of a local church as the main point of missionary activity and spiritual nurturing, as well as the autonomy of the local churches, remained untouched. * Klippenstein (transl and ed), “Johann Wieler (1839-1889)”, p. 55. * Klippenstein (transl and ed), “Johann Wieler (1839-1889), pp. 45, 48-49. See also Oksana V. Beznosova, “Pozdnee protestantskoe sektantstvo luga Ukrainy (1850-1905)” [Late Protes- tant sectarianism of southern Ukraine (1850-1905)] (Dissertation, Dnepropetrovskii gosu- darstvennyi universitet, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, 1997), pp. 88-89, 212. * See Littell, The Anabaptist View of the Church, p. XVI. *° See Walter Sawatsky, Soviet Evangelicals since World War II (Kitchener: Herald, 1981), p. 79. 47 THE LONG-TERM ImPaAcT OF CHURCH STRUCTURE Church Structure has a Long Life Church structure is usually a very stable factor and changes slowly, a tendency confirmed by Russian Baptist history. Attempts to establish a congregational superstructure in the form of a union with a strong central leadership, made by people like Dei Mazaev or Ivan Prokhanov,” did not touch the structure of the local congregations in the Russian evangelical movement. The turmoil of the Revoluti