MMRC: Four reasons for failure

Four reasons for failure:
a forecast from 1991
by Justin D. Long

In the "Commentary" section of issue no. 6, the following projection was made:

If world evangelization is not achieved by the year 2000, we can offer four current reasons for such failure:

Evangelical agencies are concentrating resources on largely evangelized or Christianized countries, peoples and cities.
Ecumenical agencies are preoccupied with international partnership and consistently overlook sharing resources for the frontiers where countries and religions do not want to be evangelized.
Roman Catholic agencies have two large a job mobilizing their one billion members to become renewed evangelizers.
Pentecostal/Charismatic agencies see a worldwide field of non-Spirit-field Christians as the priority target.

Evangelicals have the most rapidly deployable mission resources, but are jealously guarding an agenda that distracts them from the hardest work. Pentecostal/Charismatics are the most open to change, but it may take several years to set up global resource structures and by then, they may have discovered mission among other Christians to be a more rewarding primary focus.

Apart from a major change in how resources are managed, Christianity organized as at present will not make year 2000 goals related to reaching the unreached in World A.

Does it sound familiar, 5 years later? Each segment of organized Christianity is faced with numerous problems, but unfortunately our energy to date has been focused more on new visions, new possibilities, new opportunities, and new potential rather than on dealing with obstacles, sticking points, structures of sin and the like. Yet, every new possibility carries with it new potential for failure.

Many secular entreprenurial books published in the past decade have hammered home the urgent need for businesses to improve quality controls. Tom Peter's books are a case in point, as he emphasizes employee suggestion boxes, rewards for quashing problems, simplification, and an emphasis on the consumer.

These serve as a challenge to us as world Christians. Until we allocate a significant amount of our resources to identifying the unevangelized, understanding who they are, and smashing all "quality-control" problems in reaching them, all new plans are doomed to fall to the same problems that destroyed past ones.

Steps to take

Does your agency have a program established for identifying ineffiencies and employee suggestions for improvements?
Do you have a program of regular review which incorporates your employees, donors, and research into your target audience?
Do you have a clear picture of your target - either World C, B or A - and a clear rationale for the target?
Do you reward employees who identify problems and move swiftly to correct the problems?