The longer I'm a pastor the more I try and ask "What's behind this person's attitude?" There's so much hurt, pain, struggle, and insecurity in the world that people notice when you don't react to their behavior and instead seek to understand them more. And usually, like you stated, their attitude becomes understandable though not acceptable.

I stepped into a church that was a prime candidate to check off your entire "times of difficulty" list. It had been in decline for over a decade and without a pastor for over a year. The denomination had pretty much given up hope for the church.

But here's the good news. I'm finishing up my first year this weekend and things are so much better than when I first arrived. It takes hard work. A lot of relationship building (my wife and I invited every person in the church to our house for dinner). Tons of reminding everyone why we exist. More patience than you'll think is possible. And a desire to love all of the people that God has placed in your care.

Great post. My addition would be something implied in your "five". Give a young leader some of your time.

To start off a sermon on "unity in our diversity" I asked a couple of audience participation questions. One set of questions were, "Who in the past has voted for a democrat" and "Who has voted for a republican?" Yup. Decided to just go for it. Since there are people in the church, might as well let them in on the secret too. We won't ever find unity in diversity if we don't acknowledge the diversity.