The most important preparation you can make— throughout the process, but especially at the point of getting ready for an interview visit/weekend— is spiritual preparation. Because of the nature of the interview process, there are two dimensions to this: ministry preparation, and personal/candidacy preparation.
First, remember that you will be in-residence as a minister to the people you are with during your interview weekend. They are sinners in need of God’s grace, broken and wounded, growing in their faith and knowledge of God, and being increasingly bound together as His body. Therefore, you must begin beforehand to pray for them— by name, as much as possible. You must prepare well for whatever lessons, sermons, or other preaching/teaching opportunities you will have. You should consider what you know of their circumstances and recent history, and marshall the pastoral knowledge and wisdom that you have for that context.
You also have preparation to do personally, and in terms of your candidacy. Here again, pray for your own discernment and for theirs: that your ministry among them would demonstrate accurately to everyone in what ways He could use you among them; that God would reveal to all whether there is a good “fit;” and that He would begin to bind you together if so. Ask Him to give you the endurance and fortitude to carry you through the whole interview time. Pray that they would also be both aware of and sensitive to the trials that an interview can be.
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