Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

e congregational singing that follows, the elder walks over to one of the preachers and asks him to preach. After this preacher has completed his sermon, there is a call to prayer with everyone praying on his knees. During this time, some of the members speak in tongues. The preacher closes the prayer session. Then follow several more songs, during which the elder, again moved by the Spirit, asks another preacher for the next sermon. The cycle is repeated up to three times.” Mennonites also have an elder (like a bishop) as their leader, plus nu- merous preachers. Even more so than in Mennonite Brethren circles, the Mennonite elder is accorded great esteem and his word is final at congrega- tional meetings. Mennonites are accustomed to respecting the wisdom of Children and Youth 325 i ss aes ae it bs rare to find a younger man in a leadership position neral problem among evangelicals who, b theological education, tend t Sei ke edt ; o rely on the accumulated wisd men ve will in all likelihood also be more conservative ia ek oe fase Sea ahaa oes in registered city congregations are ime to their ministry. These receive a sal voluntary donations from the c i sree een ongregation. The presbyter t proximately twenty-five percent incom i fe edn e tax but his work for the ch i not be entered into his workin ecibediete g logbook. That means he will igi for a state pension but ho i iiMsoeehec Ht Fe pefully his church union will look im i old age.48 Many full-time aoe ee - presbyters are individuals wh rked i industry, enabling them to retire ifty-fi panacea istry, | at age fifty-five or even fift receive a pension from the state while working for the church are ae eu The Life of a Presbyter oe oe a ar leader of a large urban church Sunday he ay in church because it took too long t acai eee ng to travel home by bus in ices. True, he preached onl i he allowed his assistant 5 eae to lead one of the services, b i , but he still had to b nee because soe he was still responsible. In addition there were i ing services during the week, each of the i ; m two hours long, H started preaching a series of sermons on the Book of Mice aad i priiads Hekeoteoe time because it was equivalent to a Bible stud q ; eae : pod sy at oe corps of preachers to discuss spiritual peat : e church council or executive commi ttee also aaah oh he was present, although legally he had no voice in its ine ia anks to the revival at New Year, there were again twenty youn sera rien He had started weekly classes with them and as o revise the material he had used previo ishi us] the book on doctrine he had seen in nite. ape 7 Pete: aia he had called on the plenipotentiary for the Council is mien eV twice, ai to see whether the decision on approving al candidates could not be speeded up and th i tain permission to undertake sli i hl Eo ght repairs on the building. Each ti meetings were becoming more strai nee rained because