I know that some have said that they aren't seeing it in their local congregations. But I have been in two congregations in the past 2 years and they are both struggling to keep elders and ministerial servants. One much worse than the other, though.
Some elders have been forced to step down because their children have acted in ways that indicate that the elder was not presiding over his household well. I can think of two situations where the elders' daughters were lesbians or bisexual. So two elders sat down because of that (one left the congregation). One elder disappeared because he owed too much money to fellow elders and, in the end, he abandoned his wife. A couple of them just quit specifically because of elder burnout. The load became too much to bear because of the elder/servant shortage.
In my current congregation, I was told a couple of weeks ago that they desperately needed more book studies (the few that they had were too large) but they didn't have the number of qualified brothers to handle them. Many times the elders have to conduct the bible studies deathly ill because there are no brothers to replace them. People are not reaching out for servant-ship and few of the servants actually want to be elders. They asked a servant I know twice in the last twelve months and he said he doesn't have time for it.
If these are problems that are happening worldwide (or at least nationwide), it seems logical that the Society would want to keep the few elders that they have left--especially since they can't convince any more to sign up. So dumping the book study seems like the necessary move, though desperate. This might also explain the shortening of the public talk to 30 minutes instead of 45. Ostensibly, these things are being done for the benefit of everyone but really it is the Society reacting to negativity and apathy by the elder bodies.
I wonder what else they are going to do to retain elders or even encourage more to "reach out."
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