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Title: What do the Jehovah’s Witnesses do?
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Published: Nov 10, 2008
Author: Richard -- various
Post Date: 2008-11-10 11:38:48 by richard9151
Keywords: None
Views: 214
Comments: 8
What do the Jehovah’s Witnesses do? I am amazed, and should not be, at the ignorance among people about the Jehovah’s Witnesses and how they operate and teach. After all, until I got involved and actually learned what was going on, I had no idea. Why would I think that it is different for anyone else? Therefore, as one of my goodbye posts as I get ready to leave the internet for good, I thought I would give all of you a little something to think about. (Leave the internet for good; yes, I am close to canceling the internet in the home because I am simply too busy with real work to continue. I now have 5 Bible students, and expect to have 10 within two months. That requires a minimum of 10-15 hours of face-to-face teaching per week, plus at least 2-4 hours of preparation, plus my own Bible studies and the three meetings I attend each week (1 & ½ hours each plus 2 hours of study preparation) plus my commitment for service, which is at least 6 hours a week. Please note that I am what is called an un-baptized publisher. I will be baptized November 30.) What is the organization of the Jehovah’s Witnesses? The Witnesses are organized into congregations. There are roughly 110,000 of these congregations world wide. Each congregation is lead by appointed Elders, who live and were brought up/into in the congregation. There is never a stranger sent into a congregation to be an Elder. Appointed Elders to Shepherd the Flock of God THE theocratic organization of Jehovah’s witnesses does not have paid ministers in its congregations. From the congregation itself mature, spiritually qualified men are appointed as elders and overseers. (Titus 1:5, 7) These men are interested in the welfare of the entire flock under their care. The word “overseer” is the English translation of the Hebrew word pa•qidh´ and the Greek word e•pi´•sko•pos. The Hebrew word is drawn from a term that means “to visit, turn attention to, inspect,” also “to appoint or commission.” The Greek term is related to e•pi•sko•pe´o (oversee), and means to “look or watch over.” So, then, an overseer in a Christian congregation is one who is appointed to watch over the congregation, to visit and upbuild those associated with it. The Christian “overseers” correspond to those recognized as the “older men” of the congregations, all such appointed “older men” or elders having responsibility as overseers of the flock of God. 2 When the apostle Paul, returning from one of his missionary journeys, reached Miletus, he sent a message to Ephesus and “called for the elders of the congregation.” (Acts 20:17, margin) When these elders came to see Paul, he reminded them of how he had expended himself on their behalf and he urged them to do the same for all the flock entrusted to their care He said: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house. . . . Nevertheless, I do not make my soul of any account as dear to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received of the Lord Jesus, to bear thorough witness to the good news of the undeserved kindness of God. And now, look! I know that all of you among whom I went preaching the kingdom will see my face no more. . . . I have not held back from telling you all the counsel of God. Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son.” (Acts 20:16-28) Paul took his work very seriously and he wanted to impress his fellow elders with the seriousness of their responsibility before God as overseers of the flock. 3 Be it noted that no elder was viewed as the principal one, the head of the congregation. That position has been given by God to his own Son, Jesus Christ. (Eph. 1:22, 23; Col. 1:18) The elders as a body served under Christ. They were a group of equals as far as their responsibility was concerned. Paul spoke to them as a “body of elders”; all were required to set the same excellent example for the congregation. (1 Tim. 4:14, margin) How did these men qualify to be elders in the congregation of Ephesus? Surely there must be some organization, some order, some guidance of God’s flock. But why were these particular men appointed to be the shepherds? DEFINITE QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED I am not going to post the qualifications needed. If anyone is curious, please ask. The congregation is the heart of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and all of the organization of the Witnesses is designed around helping the individual congregations carry out the work of proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. Now, how do the congregations operate? First off, there are three general meetings each week. In my case, on Sunday morning, Monday evening, and Thursday evening. Each meeting is about one and a half hours, and the first two are designed to increase the general knowledge of the congregation in the Bible. The third is designed to increase our ability to teach the Word of God. Now, understand something. There is no one up front tickling the ears of the congregation. Everyone participates! Do we have a set piece of information to discuss? Yes, but it is discussed by the entire congregation, and everyone is encouraged to make comments and help others to understand. And they do, including commenting on other verses from the Bible that support and explain what is being discussed. Believe me, until you experience this, you will never understand how the Bible opens up to people who congregate together to discuss the Word of God, correctly. After all, I am congregating with a number of people who have studied the Bible for more than 40 years, while participating in such meetings!! The following is the basic organization, world wide. Their Worldwide Organization and Work THERE are several links used in directing the work of witnessing in the more than 230 lands where it is being done. The overall direction comes from the Governing Body at the world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. The Governing Body sends representatives each year to various regions worldwide to confer with the branch representatives in those regions. In the branch offices, there are Branch Committees of about three to seven members to oversee the work in the lands under their jurisdiction. Some of the branches have facilities for printing, some operating high-speed rotary presses. The country or area served by each branch is divided into districts, and the districts, in turn, are divided into circuits. Each circuit has in it about 20 congregations. A district overseer visits the circuits in his district in rotation. Two assemblies are held annually for each circuit. There is also a circuit overseer, and he visits each congregation in his circuit usually twice a year, assisting the Witnesses in organizing and doing the preaching work in the territory assigned to that congregation. The local congregation with its Kingdom Hall is the center for telling the good news in your community. The areas under each congregation are mapped out in small territories. These are assigned to individual Witnesses who endeavor to visit and speak with the people in each home therein. Each congregation, consisting of from a few to some 200 Witnesses, has elders assigned to look after various duties. The individual proclaimer of the good news is the vital one in the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Every one of the Witnesses, whether serving at the world headquarters, in branches, or in congregations, does this field work of personally telling others about God’s Kingdom. Reports of this activity ultimately reach the world headquarters, and an annual Yearbook is compiled and published. Also, a chart is published each year in the January 1 issue of The Watchtower. These two publications offer detailed reports of each year’s accomplishments in bearing witness to Jehovah and his Kingdom under Christ Jesus. In recent years about 14,000,000 Witnesses and interested people have attended the Memorial of Jesus’ death annually. Jehovah’s Witnesses spend over 1,000,000,000 hours a year proclaiming the good news, and more than 300,000 new ones are baptized. Literature placements total into the hundreds of millions of copies. Pretty simple, right? And note, that there is no tithing to the organization. Also, one of the most important points about this is that EVERYONE in the organization, including the governing body, goes door to door, JUST AS PAUL, JESUS CHRIST, AND ALL OF THE DICIPLES DID (see above in the info about Elders). Only, do you understand what is going on? Please read the following; Acts 15:1; And certain men came down from Ju•de´a and began to teach the brothers: “Unless YOU get circumcised according to the custom of Moses, YOU cannot be saved.” 2 But when there had occurred no little dissension and disputing by Paul and Bar´na•bas with them, they arranged for Paul and Bar´na•bas and some others of them to go up to the apostles and older men in Jerusalem regarding this dispute. Paul was an Overseer, and he and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem to visit the Governing Body to settle an issue, which concerned circumcision. If you read all of Acts 15, you will begin to see how the organization of the Jehovah’s Witnesses operate. The principal behind the congregations is that everyone is versed in the Bible. What does this mean? It means that the governing body has no power to tickle the ears of the faithful. In fact, if the governing body tried to do so, there would be an instant revolt within the body of the organization. This is why the Jehovah’s Witnesses are self regulating, and why, when the organization had errors in their thinking, the errors were found and publicly proclaimed and corrected. Why? Because as the 7,000,000 people study the Word of God, errors become obvious, and this information, about errors or new understandings of the Word, are communicated to the Overseers when they visit, and this information travels down the established chain to the governing body where it is investigated, and if correct, eventually is incorporated into the body of understanding of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is quite interesting how all of this works together, and how well these people understand the world, and what is important. But this only works for people who actually believe in Jehovah God, and, in His Kingdom. And it is also only for those who believe in Jesus Christ, and in His Kingship over the earth. John 18:36; Jesus answered: “My kingdom is no part of this world. … If you have any questions, please ask, privately if you wish. If anyone wishes to see more information about the organization and how it operates, I will gladly post such information or send it to you privately if you prefer. I would be glad, while I am still here, to arrange a Bible study for anyone who wishes to begin to learn what is really in the Bible. After all, there are 168 hours in a week, and this Bible study takes an hour or less per week, so what is the problem? Is Jehovah God worth an hour of your time each week? There is no obligation, and, no one is going to ask you for a dime. We, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, do this work out of our love for Jehovah God, and our fellow man, not for personal gain. Please, since this is your free will choice, chose wisely.
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#1. To: richard9151 (#0)
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Welcome to the Jehovah's Witnesses! Here is your first shipment of reading material: Next week's reading assignment will be delivered shortly...
#3. To: Elliott Jackalope (#1)
I can't wait! Bring it on! LOVE TO READ!!! Always have, and always will. Beats the heck out of the tele! Having read over 3,000 books, easily, what you think of as reading is just a good warm up for me.
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