Just funny to know: you who have a downloaded copy are well ahead of most elders, most of the non-english congregations in Europe still have not received them yet. Yet another proof that you have to be on a big no-no website to know 1st what is going on the inside, and this months before the official news network of the biggest printing and publishing group in the world informs their workers. How sad for the poor workers.
But to be honest, what to expect of a group of top-shepherds, who, after many years of gathering the expertise of thousands of other shepherds, writes a book about how to take care of the flock, and at least 70% is about procedures whether or not to get rid of a sheep. Not to mention there are extremely few pages discussing the caring bit. This is far away of the advice of THE specialist in shepherding, who said some 2000 years ago: "If a certain man comes to have a hundred sheep and one of them gets strayed, will he not leave the ninety-nine upon the mountains and set out on a search for the one that is straying? 13 And if he happens to find it, I certainly tell YOU, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that have not strayed. 14 Likewise it is not a desirable thing with my Father who is in heaven for one of these little ones to perish." Matt 18:12-14 (NWT with references, published by the WTBS of NY). This shepherd repeated several times and showed he did EVERYTHING to make sure no sheep would get lost, and he provided quite some tips on how to go about it. As a contrast: Many are the congregations where the flock has been decreasing 30% or more, and the elder-shepherds still ask why this is happening...
The new manual explains in great deal that a shepherd should exchange his caring attitude for the battering rod. Shepherding just saw its Industrial Revolution, where sheep are forced to become more effective production units, or else...
