Sounds pretty Biblical, huh?
"My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you" (Galatians 4.19).
Last night, I was reading in George Barna's work The Habits of Highly Effective Chuches. In the book, he quotes a pastor of a highly effective church and its movement from education for education sake to a more relational theology with the intention of spiritual formation.
"For years my personal focus as a pastor was to make sure people understood Christianity. My energy was devoted to my sermons, an in meetings with church leaders I was the champion of Christian education. Over time I realized that what I had created was a group of sinners with head knowledge. I'm not knocking Bible knowledge - that's very important. But over the last decade my philosophy (of ministry) has changed dramatically. Today, I'm more concerned about who we are than about what we know...Our church is much more tuned in to living the faith together than to memorizing the faith in isolation" (p. 74).
