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Why plans fail
In a 1988 survey of 788 global plans since AD 30 by David Barrett (GEM) and James Reapsome (EMQ/World Pulse), the following was found:
297 fizzled out, dead, forgotten (37.7%)
41 defunct because no interest
14 defunct because completion claimed
49 implemented but not achieved
31 alive but fizzling out
38 alive but in decline
39 alive but static
25 alive but redefined
134 alive and making progress
120 alive and being massively implemented.
Here's a selection of some of the reasons why these plans failed. These reasons are related to resources, needs, surveys, finances, personnel, planning, logistics and administration. Future MMRCs will deal with other reasons.
absence of followup; absence of forethought; absence of laborers; absence of strategy; absence of tactics; administrative fiascos; appealing to human sensuality; avoidance of monitoring actual progress; believing own unfounded progress reports; big-business mentality; bottlenecks in the flow of resources; cash prizes or rewards; collapses of funding; committee-oriented mind-set; conference-oriented mentality; constant redefinitions of the task; corruption; depersonalizing the Gospel; duplication and waste; ecclesiastical crime; ecclesiastical gangsterism; embezzlements; escalating cost of missions; ethnocentrism; facile eschatology; excessive fund-raising appeals; expediency; exploitation of natural calamities; facile eschatology; failure to assess time and energy required; failure to commission essential research; failure to complete research goals; failure to gasp the true magnitude of the world; failure to network; failure to understand the population explosion; failure to visualize the finished plan; failures of communication; false optimism; false reports of success; falsified balance sheets; fear of implications of research; financial mismanagement; financial scandals; free offers; giving false assurances; giving free Bibles, TV sets, buildings; ignorance of logistical realities; ignorance of other global plans; inadequate attention to detail; inadequate giving; inadequate logistics; inadequate outlays of men and money; inadequate planning; inadequate publicity; inadequate use of traditional media; inadequate use of visual media; incorrect computations; lack of support from sister agencies; lay resistance to regimentation; letting wnidows of opportunity close shut; logistical snags; making things appear too easy; management fiascos; misinformation; mismanagement; muddling through; nonexistent or inadequate research; nonexistent planning; objections to segmentization; offering tempting inducements; ongoing massive gaps in coverage; opposition to master global planning; opposition to surveys, data and computers; organizational isolation; overambitious goals and deadlines; overemphasis on verbal gospel; overintellectual approach; overreliance on technology; parochial mindset; placing all eggs in one basket; poor administration; procrastination; protracted delays; rash decision-making; refusal to employ comity or networking; regional mind-set in lieu of global thinking; reluctance to heed secular research; satisfying immediate needs; setting artificial deadlines; shortages of resources; shortfall in personnel; sloganeering without logistics; solving transient dilemmas at expense of ultimate goal; standalone use of computers and all resources; swallowing own propaganda; teaching a prosperity gospel; thefts of resources; ultrabroad definition of 'evangelization'; underestimating the complexity of the task; undue economic involvement; unexpected attrition of resources; unexpected deaths of key administrators; unrealistic expectations; unrelated economic inducements; unwillingness to adopt new strategies; unwillingness to take unpopular decisions; unwise business methods; unwise deadline-settling; use of tainted or laundered money; wrong factual information for planners; wrong mathematics.