The Challenge of Internal Barriers
Since the Pattaya consultation of 1980, the Lausanne Strategy Working Group has sponsored urban evgangelization consultations in more than seventy cities on six continents. Participants who are church or mission leaders are usually asked to identify the ten most significant barriers to be overcome if their city is to be evangelized.
Responses fall generally into two categories:
1. Barriers in the city or environment
2. Barriers in the church
The results of these studies have stunned this observer. It does not seem to matter whether we are talking about Copenhagen (First World), Belgrade (Second World), or Cairo (Thrid World); the results are similar. Eight of the most often-named barriers are inside the church:
1. The politics of our denominations
2. The egos of leaders
3. The competition between pastors, congregations, or mission agencies
4. The acculturized, traditionalized ministry training of the seminary
5. The rural mentality of pastors, denominational executives, and lay leaders
6. The failure to take advantage of opportunities
7. The lack of organized prayer for the city
8. The lack of convincing ethics among Christians
