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Preaching & Teaching Kit available

When Theology Outpaces Intimacy

Why Knowing About God Is Not the Same as Knowing God

Read it. Preach it. Take your team through it.

A thoughtful examination of how biblical knowledge can grow faster than personal friendship with God, and how churches can recover both.

$12Read online and download as PDF
  • 9 chapters
  • 63-page PDF
  • About 50 minutes to read

By Kraig Kleeman, founder of The Zoé Life

The Core Premise

Theology should deepen friendship with God. It should never replace it.

Why This Matters

Many churches produce believers who can explain God well and walk with Him rarely. This book traces how information outpaces formation and shows how Jesus formed disciples through truth and relationship together.

What You'll Discover

  • Knowing about God vs. knowing God
  • The Pharisee problem
  • Why some theologically informed believers remain spiritually immature
  • How churches accidentally produce informed but unformed Christians
  • How Jesus formed disciples

From the Book

Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God.
Information can describe transformation. It cannot replace transformation.
Truth without relationship becomes cold. Relationship without truth becomes unstable.

Preaching & Teaching Kit

Free during preview

A sermon series that brands itself for your church

Upload your church logo and "Knowing God, Not Just Knowing About Him" rebuilds itself in your colors: the guide, the slides and every handout, in seconds. No designer, no reformatting. Add it for $39 and take the book from your study to your pulpit, your leaders and your small groups.

  • Auto-branded: upload your logo and every piece takes on your church's colors
  • 5-week preaching guide, with one-message and class versions
  • 68-slide series deck, with your logo on the title slide
  • 4 team handouts, ready to print in your colors
  • Free team link for your staff and group leaders
  • The whole kit as one ZIP download
  1. Week 1About Him, or Him?
  2. Week 2When Truth Stops at the Mind
  3. Week 3Informed but Not Formed
  4. Week 4Truth and Relationship Together
  5. Week 5A Return to Friendship

Try your church colors

Pick a pair, or your own main color. The slides on this page recolor right away.

Title slide
Series arc
Week opener
Big idea

In the kit, you upload your logo and we pull your real colors for the slides, guide and handouts. See how it works

The slides

Four of the 68 slides in the deck, from Week 1. Pick a color above and they change with it.

See all 68 slides
  • Title slide. Your church logo sits in the corner.

  • Week opener, with the sermon title and Scripture.

  • Key line, the book's own words, quoted exactly.

  • Small-group questions to close the week.

Free sample deck

See it with your own logo

Upload your church logo and we'll build a 6-slide sample of "Knowing God, Not Just Knowing About Him" in PowerPoint: the title slide, the series overview and Week 1's opener, book line and group questions. Your logo is on every slide, in your colors.

No purchase or sign-up. Your logo is not saved.

Colors: the book's own. Upload a logo to use its colors, or pick a pair above.

Every handout, ready to print

Real first pages from the kit. One for the preacher, two for your leaders, one for everyone.

  • First page of Preaching & Teaching Guide
    For the preacherPreaching guide: Preaching & Teaching GuideA five-week sermon series from the book plus series slides, with a one-message version and a class version.
  • First page of Team Discussion Guide
    For your leadership teamTeam Discussion GuideFive sessions that match the five weeks, for staff, elders and group leaders reading the book together.
  • First page of Six Practices for Leaders
    For your leadership teamSix Practices for LeadersThe book's six Chapter 9 practices as a team sheet: where your church is now, and one next step for each.
  • First page of Two Ways of Knowing
    For your congregation and groupsTwo Ways of KnowingThe book's Chapter 1 columns as a self-check: mark where you are on each row, with space to write.
  • First page of Yet Still Struggle
    For your congregation and groupsYet Still StruggleThe book's “A believer can… yet still struggle to…” pairs, with the book's own reflection questions.

Free sample

See the quality for yourself: download the Two Ways of Knowing free.

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Download the sample (PDF)

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