Who leads the Jehovah's witnesses?

Answer 1

a Governing Body located at Watchtower headquaters. No SINGLE person leads them but a group made up of 7 people.

The Governing Body basically helps us understand The Bible, although we are encouraged to do our own personal study. They also organize the conventions, assemblies, and other meetings, take care of other basic things, and so on and son forth, all with the help of spiritual brothers and sisters. We worship Jehovah God though, and strive to live by His word in the Bible.

answer by an ex-JW:

The answer above is entirely correct. The JW's follow the teachings and direction of the governing body. What very few JW's realize is that this contradicts what they will hear at almost every meeting, where the earthly leadership is declared to be the 'faithful and discrete slave' class. However, in fact that group of a few thousand has no authority whatsoever, it is all decided by a group of self-appointed men who exercise the authority said to belong to the annointed ones in Matt 24:45 without seeking their consent. And, if any claiming to be of the 14, 0000 do not agree with the governing body, they are expelled as an apostate. The contradiction is so acute that many JW's conclude the governing body is the faithful and discrete slave, which is not what they teach, or that they in some way are directed by that group, which is also not true. Also, JW's are only encouraged to perform 'personal study' if they use literature produced by the governing body. Study using independent external sources is not allowed.

In response to the above:

I have never encountered the above contradiction. The governing body and the scriptural 'faithful and discreet slave' are not the same thing, and are not taught as such (slips of the tongue excepted). The early Christian congregation was also looked after by a small governing body. Study using external sources is allowed, although we are told to exercise caution given the amount of misinformation out there.

Answer 2

Jesus. We also refer to him as "Lord".

Jehovah's Witnesses view no human as their leader and all members of their organisation are referred to as "brother" or "sister". They do recognise a group of brothers that make major decisions on an organisational level, as their 'governing body'; while they are respected for the work they do, most witnesses would be hard pushed to name any of these individuals. They are neither treated or called 'leaders', they do not receive a salary for their ministry and they enjoy no special priveleges.

Organisational Structure

On congregational level we have those who serve the spiritual needs f the congregation. These ones are called elders. They are assisted by another group called ministerial servants. Their work is voluntary. These ones are not distinguishable from the rest of the congregation by titles or special garb. No one refers to anyone as "Elder so and so," or "Ministerial Servant (deacon) so and so." They are simply "Brother so and so," just like anybody else in the congregation. There will be several elders and ministerial servants in each congregation. They are appointed through the organizational arrangement that is directed by the governing body as mentioned in the previous answer, who we believe is in turn directed by Jesus Christ through holy spirit.

To keep all 100,000 plus congregations of over 7 million Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide in 236 countries in unity without divisions, there are traveling brothers that we refer to as circuit overseers, who travel among a circuit of about 20 congregations, and visit each congregation aproximately every six months. Over several circuit overseers, will be a district overseer, who will be under the direction of a zone overseer, who will be overseeing a branch office. There are several branch offices throughout the world. The branches are under the direction of the governing body who's primary function is to care for the spiritual needs of the worldwide brotherhood.

Since the Watchtower Society is a legal corporation, law requires that it have a president, secretary, and treasurerer. We have a group of men who are separate from the governing body who serve in these roles. A few decades ago, the president of the Watchtower Society was also a member of the governing body and may have been viewed by some on the outside as a spiritual leader. There was a revision in 200 as to this. The governing body is now a completely separate entity from the Watchtower Society Corporation. The governing body serves the spiritual teaching interests of the worldwide brotherhood. No member of the governing body is considered a leader over the others. They serve as a united body. The Watchtower Society serves the legal interests, including legally establishing and defending the preaching activities in countries all over the world.

No member of the governing body is the president, secretary, or otherwise. No member of the Watchtower Society is on the governing body. All of the services of these brothers is done voluntarily. We have no paid leader, preacher, clergy, or otherwise.

At one time though, the President of the Watchtower Society had enormous power. This has changed through the years to bring the structure in line with the biblical teaching that only Christ is the head of the congregation.

Answer 3

Jesus Christ. (Colossians 1:18).

Unlike most other religions Jehovah's Witnesses have no Pope, Bishop, Dali lama or any other charismatic individual they look to as their spiritual leader, instead they follow the direction of the seven members of the Governing Body based in Brooklyn New York.

They are

Samuel Herd

Geoffrey Jackson

Stephen Lett

Gerrit Lösch

Anthony Morris

Guy Pierce

David Splane

In the past the primary individual leaders were Charles Taze Russell, followed by Joseph Rutherford.

Answer 4

First of all, it is "Jehovah's Witnesses." (Jehovah is the English translation of the Name of God. - Exodus 6:3; Psalm 83:18 - KJV. Our leader is Jesus Christ. (Matthew 23:10) We follow him at the direction of his head, Jehovah God who appointed him as head over the Congregation. (1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 1:22, 23)

Answer 5

Jesus Christ. He said Call no man your leader. Your leader is one the Christ.

Matthew 23:10