It can be demonstrated that the authentic definition and approach to the content of Christian Spiritual formation for every generation has always been shaped through the public proclamation of the texts of the Holy Scriptures. Preaching can be seen throughout the panorama of the entire story of God’s redemptive history, recorded in the Scriptures, as the greatest work of the shepherds of God’s flock. Authentic Christian preaching, in every generation, has always been the act of God’s representative messenger, paying attention to logos of God’s revealed Word and proclaiming the meaning of that Word to the people in their contemporary context.
The leaders of Christian communities must give precedence to the text of God’s Word, and defer to it for the authority and context of their messages. They must preach the Word. They must not begin with themselves. They must read the text, exegete it, understand it, and proclaim it to their gathered audience, in their language, history, and culture. They must then apply it to their existential reality.
God wants to form us, reform us and transform us. He formed all that is. He has been reforming a people for himself through all of history. He is transforming individuals to fit them into his reformed humanity. This is a Spiritual formation, and it comes through his revealed Word.
