How to stop gospel growth

I assume that everyone wants to see gospel growth in their own lives and in their gospel community (church) if our automatic response isn't "Yes!" there are clearly questions that need to be asked. But growth doesn't automatically happen and there are lots of ways to stop growth:

Remove the nutrients necessary for growth to occur
With plants one of the quickest ways to ensure there is no growth is to not water or provide food for the plant. It is also one of the quickest ways to stifle growth in the gospel. Not exposing ourselves to the gospel being taught, not reading it, or reading it unthinkingly without applying it, without allowing it to search us and find us out. Or perhaps its by absenting ourselves from relationships in which this can happen.

We may go to church we may listen to the bible taught but we never apply it to ourselves and certainly don't engage in relationships where others would do that to us. The result is no growth, in fact the result is a slow death.

Allow it to be stifled
Plants need weeding so that they are able to grow, without it they will be stifled. So it is with our gospel growth, the parable of the sower warns of cares and anxieties which grow up and choke the gospel in our lives.

Being in church is a start but again doesn't ensure that this is happening we need to be engaging in relationships which allow others to weed and feed us (to continue the plant analogy). Often my friends see more clearly where I am being stifled by sin or by an idol than I do, their insight helps me see where I need to weed and apply the gospel.

There are lots of other ways to stop gospel growth but I've been struck by these two because they are so easy to drift into, they just happen, in fact our society encourages them by its flexibility and fear of commitment to relationships. Sadly I wonder if gospel relationships of the sort we glimpse in 1 Thessalonians 1 are so amazing because they are so rare today, when the reality is they ought to be the model we adopt.