The third concept is that of concentration. In the past many churches and organizations have felt the responsibility to reach the whole world and, therefore, approached missions with a “shotgun” mentality. In contrast, the Encounter Model concentrates resources and personnel into one place in order to develop a thriving ministry that will be capable of reproducing itself.

By concentrating our efforts and resources on one church, more people are reached with the message of the Gospel and we are able to discover, challenge and train qualified national leadership to continue the work using the “small step” methodology.

Concentration helps the church achieve maturity more rapidly. While the reproduction of new churches may be slower in the short term, the strength of the churches that are formed enables them to become new fountains for resources and leadership. Over time this leads to exponential growth that quickly outpaces traditional approaches that grow only by addition.