Richard Foster on SermonCentral.com

Nathan
Originally uploaded by joshaidan.

Here's a great quote from Richard Foster on preparing to preach for spiritual formation.

Studying with our head. Studying with our heart. Studying with our life. All three are essential approaches to Scripture if we are to preach the Bible for spiritual formation.

For my preaching, I ususally begin meditating on the scripture passage. I quiet myself with a Taize style service, listening to music from Taize and John Michael Talbot. After quieting myself, I practice Lectio Divina with the text that I will be preaching from. I have found that this time often is the best time for me in my sermon preparation. There have been numerous times the Spirit has spoken to me through the word as I meditate on the text I am preaching. Sadly, I did not learn this in seminary. After this meaningful time, I turn to the mind and studying commentaries and asking further questions of the text. Following this, I create a mindmap of what I am going to say. For those of you who preach how do you prepare your sermons?