Paul Washer on personal discipleship

This is the reason for all the noise about personal, one-on-one discipleship:  back in the late 70s and early 80s, there was this just, birth of personal discipleship; and, if you talked to many people about the reasons for personal discipleship, they would say this, ‘There’s just as many people walking out the back door of our church as walking in the front door of our church. They’re coming in; they’re not staying; and the reason is they’re not being discipled personally.’ Well, first of all, I believe that personal discipleship can be of great benefit. But, here’s something that I want you to know, the history of the Church knows very little about that sort of thing. Most men were discipled through the preaching of the Word of God. So maybe we need all this discipleship because the pulpit is so weak.

Paul Washer, “The Gift Nobody Wants”