Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses are members of an international denomination who identify themselves as Christian and number over six million. Their headquarters are in New York, USA. It is an international organization known for its extensive preaching and publishing activities, distribution of the Watchtower and Awake! religious magazines being the most prominent.

Organizational structure

Main article: Organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses

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Jehovah's Witnesses are currently led by a small, ecclesiastical Governing Body. The Governing Body (indirectly through the departments of its various legal organizations) directs the operation of the 111 branches spread throughout the world {{ref|JWStats}}. Each branch has appointed overseers who travel among the various local congregations, spending a week with each congregation and giving spiritual encouragement through talks and one-on-one time spent with congregation members in their public ministry. Within each local congregation, appointed elders organize the congregation's public ministry, and the content and schedule of their five weekly meetings, based on publications and precedents set by the Governing Body. They also recommend via a vote of the elder body "spiritually mature" baptized male members of the congregation for the positions of elder or ministerial servant, requiring the approval of higher levels of leadership. These positions are not obtained via congregational voting, but rather via "theocratic" top-down leadership.

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Elders take the lead in congregational matters particularly in religious instruction and spiritual counseling, whereas the ministerial servants assist elders in a limited administrative capacity, and they and other Witnesses 'in good standing' often perform the majority of operational tasks for congregation meetings and routine.

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The Witnesses do not consider elders to be clergy, though their service includes pastoral activity that clergy provide in other Christian denominations. All baptized Witnesses are considered ordained ministers by the Witness brotherhood and obligated to provide religious instruction to others. Spiritually mature Witnesses who are not elders are encouraged to reach out for 'privileges of service' such as becoming elders. They (men and women alike) are likewise exhorted to the counseling of less mature Witnesses. They may be assigned a newer publisher to assist in ministry, and may be asked to conduct a personal Bible study with another Witness who is spiritually troubled or weak. Elders are said to be worthy of "double honor," but are held to a higher standard of "irreprehensibility" as overseers than obtains for other baptized "publishers" and are subject to additional discipline including removal.

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Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the role of the Governing Body corresponds to that of those who met in the Council of Jerusalem, guided by Holy Spirit and directed by Jesus. The description of the Council of Jerusalem in the Acts of the Apostles is often used as an example of how God had a "visible organization" in the first century. From this they reason that God therefore has an organization today.

Related Topics:
Holy Spirit - Council of Jerusalem - Acts of the Apostles

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All members of the Governing Body profess to be of the "anointed class" (see Doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses) and constitute a small minority of all Jehovah's Witnesses today. Others of the remaining "anointed class" (over 99.99%, circa 8500) have no formal role in the leadership or doctrines of the organization unless appointed into one of the various roles described above.

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