Would 40 or 50 days be enough? Or too much? Is it time that is needed? First we would need to hear the proclamation ourselves. Many people profitably spend Lent listening to the proclamation (on Wednesday mornings in March we will do just that.). And having listened to believe.
And then understand. And then proclaim. Proclaiming is like tennis – you get better with practice. So a good preparation for proclaiming, is proclaiming.
Of course the proclaiming Paul meant was a group one. It was what the church did when it got together to share the Lord’s Supper. At Corinth it seems they weren’t doing this very well. It had nothing to do with their liturgy but with their relationships. They behaved as though the body of Christ they were part of was not really the body of Christ. As though it was their private family or friendship circle.
Their proclamation was seriously impaired because they treated Christ’s body, the church, with contempt by not treating all the others as equal members of Christ. In their case some preparation might have involved repenting about the way they treated the body.
Preparing for proclaiming the death of Jesus, involves putting ourselves to death first and then proclaiming with the new life of the Spirit.
Dale