Taken from a WayForward devotional in 2025.
WayForward holds the belief that training disciples should be biblical, contextual, simple, and reproducible. At the core, we want to practice being disciples of Jesus and pass it on. So what does it mean to “train disciples” at WayForward.
For starters, we look to Matthew 28:18-20 in the Bible. In the Great Commission, Jesus commands his followers to make disciples of all nations. One simple way to train believers to be equipped in this command is with a reproducible tool called the 4-1-1. This training answers four core questions on one-sheet of paper in one-hour or less. The questions are:
Why do we make disciples?
Who do we reach?
What do we say?
When do we start?
Why do we make disciples? We make disciples because it’s part of our identity in Christ—not just a command. According to 2 Corinthians 5:17–21, we are both new creations and ambassadors for Jesus, called to share His message with others. You can’t become new without becoming an ambassador, and you can’t be an ambassador without being made new.
Who do we reach? To identify who to reach, we begin by using anOikos Map, listing people in our lives who are far from God. (Oikos is greek for family, household, sphere, or relational network). This becomes a prayer and outreach strategy, with a vision for spiritual multiplication to see the people in our lives who are far from God come close to him.
What do we say? We learn what to say through Our Story and God’s Story. We train on the 15-Second Testimony, which shares your story in four parts (before Jesus, how you met Him, life after, and an invitation), and the Three Circles, a visual gospel presentation that explains God’s design, sin, brokenness, and the way back through Jesus. This is just a starting point and we seek to be authentically flexible with these conversation. We simply share what God did for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves,
When do we start? Finally, we set real goals: we should pray daily for names on the Oikos Map, share the gospel with someone soon, practice the 4-1-1 training with a friend, and begin learning Jesus’ commands in a Discovery Bible Study (DBS).
The 4-1-1 Training concludes with encouragement to practice each part and to pass it on. It’s intended to be used both for training existing believers and as an immediate follow-up after someone comes to faith in Christ. So, WayForward tracks “disciples trained” as a metric anytime a believer (new or old) is trained on the 4-1-1 which is an effective tool for making disciples who make disciples.
D o m i n i c R o s a t o 