5 BARRIERS TO

CHURCH GROWTH
Discover why your church isn’t growing
 1. YOU KNOW HOW TO
‘DO’, BUT DON’T KNOW
HOW TO SCALE
Here’s the reality: Most leaders know how to do; few leaders know how to scale.

I want to give you the opposite of scaling. If you want to make sure that you can
never grow as a leader fast enough to keep pace with what God is doing, here is what
you should do:

1. Run everything

2. Lead everything

3. Control everything

4. Attend everything

5. Know everything

Every single pastor who starts out in a small church, a start-up church or a church
plant— and even myself years ago—does this.
 2. YOU DON’T DELEGATE
PASTORAL CARE
As your church grows, doing all of the pastoral care becomes more and more difficult.
Not only do you have more ministry, more programs, and more responsibility to attend
to, but you have more people.

If you’re well-organized and you’re a good pastoral caregiver, it’s possible to do that
for about 100 to 150 people with some predictability and some sustainability. When
attendance begins to push 150, however, it becomes very difficult. When you push past
200, it becomes unsustainable.

Something I’ve learned in my years of developing as a leader and studying churches is

there are two pitfalls a pastor can fall into under the pressure of pastoral care.

1. Your church stops growing

2. You burnout

The solution? 98% of pastoral care is having someone who cares. It doesn’t have to be the
pastor.

This idea might be met with resistance initially, as many new ideas are. But it all comes
back to casting vision. Recalibrate expectations. Begin with why.

When you explain to people that not only will they receive prompt, personal care from
people who already know and love them but that your church will also be well-equipped
to reach more people and care for their needs effectively, the outcome is remarkable.
 3. YOU FIND IT DIFFICULT
TO RECRUIT GREAT
VOLUNTEERS
One key to an effective church is having great volunteers.

Let’s start with the reasons why you don’t have high-capacity volunteers:

• The challenge isn’t big enough. People want to give their lives to something
that is bigger than themselves.

• You’re disorganized. High-capacity people are almost always organized and

prepared. If you aren’t giving them what they need on time and holding up
your end of the relationship, they won’t stick around for long.

• There aren’t enough other great leaders around. If a high-capacity leader gets
onto a team with a bunch of people who show up late, are disorganized, and
don’t really care about the mission, then this leader is probably not going to
stick around. The best thing you can do once you find a high-capacity leader is
to find the next one right away and make them friends.
 4. YOUR MISSION,
VISION AND STRATEGY
ARE FUZZY
Try this: Sit down and ask your key staff and key volunteers “What is our mission? What
is our vision?”

If you do not get the same answer from four different people, you have a problem. Even
worse, if it’s fuzzy in your own head, it’s fuzzy to the people you are trying to serve.

People are attracted to clarity—to a clear, compelling mission, vision and strategy.

5. YOU’RE MORE FOCUSED ON

GROWTH THAN GOD
This one is a real challenge for those of us who are driven. Growth can become an idol
very easily. It’s easy to constantly push the message of, “We have to grow. We have to
grow. We have to grow.” But what we really need is to focus on God.

Yes, you need to grow and make changes, but don’t focus more on growth than you are
on God.
 BONUS - YOU CAN’T MAKE
A DECISION & YOU TALK
MORE THAN YOU ACT
Often, you read books, listen to podcasts, go to conferences and you know you should
do something with what you’re learning, but you don’t know where to start— so you
don’t do anything.

• Do you struggle with analysis paralysis?

• Do you have complex bureaucracy or require congregational approval for every

major change?

It’s knowing the problem and just not acting on the solution.

I’ve been in churches where people say we have to reach more people or baptize more
people. But unfortunately, week after week, it’s the same thing again and again. If you
are talking more than acting, this could be a reason why your church isn’t growing faster
than it is or as fast as it should be.

If you struggle with this, just remember that action gets you traction. Once you make
a decision, act on it. Even if it turns out that it wasn’t the ‘best’ decision, you’ve learned
from it and can correct your course.