There are twelve factors that contribute to the disorientation of modern city dwellers:

1. They feel powerless. Authority is distant and impersonal.
2. They feel alone The great majority of people are total strangers to the individual.
3. They feel vulnerable -Culture, race and language are so diverse that these factors are no longer a basis for security or identity.
4. They feel lost -Superimposed on the diversity is a universal commercial culture of identical chain restaurants, businesses, malls, theaters and architecture, producing a nationwide urban uniformity that dwarfs regional culture.
5. They feel controlled - Urban people have their senses continually bombarded by powerful media.
6. They feel rejected - Functional specialization is to the point where family members lead completely different lives in different environments with different schedules. Family proximity comes only as the result of conscious effort.
7. They feel bewildered - So many options are available in life-style, products and entertainments that the promise of happiness through affluence has been swallowed up in anxiety over decision making.
8. They feel foolish - An information overload has dulled the appetite for true understanding.
9. They feel insecure -The rapid pace of change in vocations and housing has undermined all forms of covenantal relationship. Nearly all friendships are short-term.
10. They feel stress and anxiety They are surrounded by relentless activity day and night, suggesting that others are busy achieving wealth and success. It is difficult to rest.
11. They feel used - The marketplace values them only for their skills and their labor; if they fail they are rejected like cast-off machinery.
12. They feel void of meaning - Public values are reduced to the promotion of production and consumption. All other values are considered private.

Because of the disorientation they experience, urban dwellers are extremely vulnerable to both sweeping revival and mass deception through some false hope. The city dweller is often an idolater. The city intensifies everything, and this includes devotion to false gods.
To practice idolatry is to substitute something man-made for God. All three persons of the trinity have their function imitated by idols:

• The counterfeit of the work of the Holy Spirit is false religion.
• The Son is replaced in the form of human heroes and deliverers.
• The Father is replaced by institutions.

From the Father we receive identity, security, provision, protection and direction. The moment we turn to an institution as the prime object of our faith, we have become an idolater.