I have been looking around the internet. Mainly in reddit. /r/lds /r/exmormon /r/mormon . There seems to be a theory that they are pushing the time spent in church down so as to eliminate burnout. The reason being people-formerly-known-as-mormon (pfkam) are just trying so hard that they get tired of church due to being burned out from so many callings. A 2 hour block will allow for less people necessary to run a ward and many pfkam with callings will get a chance to take a week off from their callings or callings can be shared with other members.

Secondary benefits would be reduced Operational costs for chapels.

But...

I remember back in the day. That it was highly emphasized that if you want to activate someone, you give them a calling. If they have a responsibility they have a reason to show up. Examples were give of converts who would join up and then not be given a responsibility. They'd get bored and leave (that was the theory).

I also noticed that everytime my spouse would have a calling, church attendence and showing up on time, etc. etc. automatically became more important. Without a calling there was about 1 missed Sunday a month due to sleeping in.

Well, now they have even less of that pressure on the pfkam. I predict even more lack of attendance and attrition.

I agree with this.

When mormon myself, I observed this throughout the Wards and Stakes.

No calling = less attendance.

The reality is that in a lot of wards people have more than one calling. That is especially true in the mission field. And the new rule is two adults need to be in each primary class to keep an eye on each other. So I don't see this causing inactivity to rise. And if they create smaller wards to fill fewer buildings members will still have a couple of callings.

This change wasn't done out of concern for the membership - it is almost certainly a reaction to slowing growth, declining participation, low-retention, etc. The 2-hour block might temporarily slow those trends - but I think ultimately they are inevitable and irreversible.

If your religious sect exhibits the problems that TSCC is experiencing, temporarily slowing the loss of vitality might look positively miraculous. A clever leadership might resign sometime before the decline continues at its previous rate.

PFKAM

LOL Love it!

Whomever guards the Glossary and Abbreviations list needs to add this one right away.

I get from my Mormons that this is nothing more than less time at church and nothing more. They can't even come up with anything better. Relief from meetings is all they got.

Now if Rusty reduces "work for the dead" to only watching a 90 minute movie for them over and over and over again. That would be something.