The Russellites have a very complex organization. Overall, the Russellites are run out of their world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. They have under them the 100+ branches world-wide. Within these branches there are over 57,000 congregations and 150,000 special full-time representatives. Every congregation is assigned specific boundaries of operation. Each year the President of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, if he cannot visit, sends one of his zone servants. The circuit servant visits each congregation three times a year. Each circuit servant is responsible for up to 16 congregations. All the congregations in that specific circuit assemble twice a year, at which time they are visited by the District servant. The District servant reaches some 10-12 circuits yearly. The District servant reports to the branch office which reports to the international headquarters at Brooklyn. None of their hierarchy report to God! One has to recognize you must peddle a lot of books, literature, and keep the “servants” making their personal calls to make up the money needed for this massive organization!!
Each congregation has a “presiding minister” or sometimes referred to as the “congregation servant or overseer”. His duties are to see that all those living in the territory assigned to the congregation are aided to “fulfill their dedication” in the “manner acceptable to God”, that is they had better be ringing those door-bells!! They usually prey on the ignorant and unread during the hours most people are in some form of worship. They have “ministerial servants” who are the assistants. They keep individual records on each “fulfillment of dedication” each member makes, how many books they sell, and how many they “cause to be a child of Hell worse than before”. All Russellites are ministers and to train their “prospects”, they take them with them to conduct home Bible(?) studies (this is why when they run into someone who can handle the scriptures, they immediately flee). They use printed sermons which are ordered by the “literature servant”. Anyone who has entered into a discussion on Bible truths with a Russellite will recognize they are “programmed” to come up with stock answers that follow a set pattern. When asked a question that deviates from their patterned program, they stop talking or leave. I always like to ask them if they have the latest doctrine from Brooklyn when they stop at my house!
It is mandatory that those who “fulfill their dedication” cover their area of distribution each issue of The Watchtower and Awake magazines. You guessed it, the “Magazine-Territory Servant” assigns each who “fulfill their dedication” their area. Neither presiding Ministers nor his assistants are paid. The Accounts Servant (are you getting confused with all these “servants”) is responsible for paying expenses entailed with maintaining Kingdom Halls and or paying for the literature ordered from Brooklyn headquarters. Each congregation has “pioneers”. These are they who spend at least 150 hours or more “fulfilling their dedication”. Every Russellite MUST go to a one hour indoctrination study each week and the “fully dedicated” must “go to school for life” as they enroll in the Theocratic Ministry School which meets one night a week (usually it is the same night). A monthly pamphlet issued from Brooklyn headquarters guides their “study” for the week and is really like a “sales tip sheet” to help them meet their quota in sales and door-to-door lying. If you stacked all the books the Russellites make each year one on top of the other, it would stack over 450 times the height of the Empire State Building in New York City!!
