There are psychological, comfort zone, space, and worship style barriers that we spoke of in a preceeding article.  I would like to mention a couple more.

Leadership without a growth mindset is an insurmountable barrier to growth.  After four to five years, the congregation is a reflection of the mindset of the pastor and other leaders.  Those in leadership must be convinced that God desires that the church grow, and they must have made a purposeful decison to do the things that God can use to make it grow. 

The overall focus of the church will either be a catapult, or a barrier, to church growth.  Growing churches have an outward focus, that is, they just seem to look at things in the light of how it is going to help, or not help, in the goal of reaching people.  Churches that always focus inwardly, asking the questions of what those that have already been reached want, will almost always be in decline.