Organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses
The Governing Body, along with other "helpers", is organized into six committees responsible for various administrative functions within the global Witness community, including publication, assembly programs, and evangelizing activity.
Each branch office oversees the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in a particular country or region and may include facilities for the publication and distribution of Watch Tower Society literature.
Each congregation is served by a group of locally recommended male elders and ministerial servants, appointed by the circuit overseer.
Elders take responsibility for congregational governance, pastoral work, setting meeting times, selecting speakers, conducting meetings, directing the public preaching work, and forming committees to investigate and decide disciplinary action in cases where members are believed to have committed serious sins.
[2] The organization is directed by the Governing Body—an all-male group that varies in size, but since October 2024 has had eleven members,[3]—based in the Watchtower Society's Warwick, New York headquarters.
In practice, it sought neither advice nor approval from other "anointed" Witnesses when formulating policies and doctrines, or when producing material for publications and conventions.
[12][13] At the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Watch Tower Society, the "faithful and discreet slave" was re-defined as referring to the Governing Body only.
[16] In October 1971, four additional men joined the seven members of the society's board of directors on what became known as a separate, expanded Governing Body.
The Governing Body was then for the first time formally defined, indicating that it provided Jehovah's Witnesses with direction, guidance, and regulation.
The six committees are responsible for various administrative functions including personnel, publishing, evangelizing activity, school, and assembly programs, writing, and coordination.
In the last decade, the Governing Body has reiterated its overall oversight role but has delegated other Witnesses, typically branch committee members, to serve as corporate executives and directors of Watch Tower and other incorporated entities.
Branch offices, operated by Witness volunteers known as Bethel families, produce and distribute Bible-based literature and communicate with congregations within their jurisdiction.
Jehovah's Witnesses are instructed to "participate in a joyful interchange of encouragement" with traveling overseers,[39] and to render them "double honor", a biblical term[40] they believe includes cooperation and hospitality.
[41][42] Traveling overseers are generally members of a religious order who have taken a vow of poverty; they are provided with vehicles, healthcare, and lodging, and their basic expenses are reimbursed by the congregations they visit.
[46] Members also meet in smaller "field service groups", often at private homes, prior to engaging in organized door-to-door preaching.
Elders are considered "overseers" based on the biblical Greek term, ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos, typically translated "bishop").
[63] Prior to baptism, they are required to respond to a series of questions to assess their suitability and to make a personal dedication to serve God.
[70] The terms irregular and inactive are used to identify members in need of 'spiritual assistance' from congregation elders; those who are habitually 'irregular' or 'inactive' are usually restricted from serving in any special capacity.
[73] Children of Witness parents may be asked to participate in demonstrations at congregation meetings and assemblies or as models and actors in materials published by the Watch Tower Society.
[75] To qualify as an unbaptized publisher, an individual must already be "an active associate of Jehovah's Witnesses", regularly attending congregation meetings.
Interested individuals initially contacted by a member of the opposite sex are typically assigned a study conductor of their own gender.
