October 4, 2017 TO ALL BODIES OF ELDERS AND MINISTERIAL SERVANTS Re: Kingdom Ministry School for the 2018 Service Year
PROGRAM FOR MINISTERIAL SERVANTS
MINISTERIAL SERVANTS
References needed during the Kingdom Ministry School:
Ministry School book—main points will be taken from pages 118-120, 128-130
Organized book—main points will be taken from chapter 6, paragraphs 3-12
PROGRAM FOR ELDERS
ELDERS
References needed during the Kingdom Ministry School:
Shepherding textbook—main points will be taken from chapter 3, paragraphs 1-10, 22
Ministry School book—main points will be taken from pages 118-120, 128-130
September 1, 2017, letter to all bodies of elders regarding protecting minors from abuse
May 15, 2017, letter to all bodies of elders regarding regular pioneers
July 13, 2014, letter to all bodies of elders regarding appointment and deletion of elders and ministerial servants
The current plan is to have only 6 more public issues of the Watchtower between now and the of 2019, and then reprint those 6 issues as needed starting in 2020.
*** w59 5/1 p. 285 Sharing the Good News by Contributing Personally ***
BACK in August, 1879, this magazine said: “‘Zion’s Watch Tower’ has, we believe, JEHOVAH for its backer, and while this is the case it will never beg nor petition men for support. When He who says: ‘All the gold and silver of the mountains are mine,’ fails to provide necessary funds, we will understand it to be time to suspend the publication.” The Society did not suspend publication, and The Watchtower has never missed an issue. Why? Because during the nearly eighty years since The Watchtower stated this policy of reliance upon Jehovah God, the Society has not deviated from it. How about today? Does the Society still maintain this position?
Even in the early years, the "Watchtower" magazine went from monthly to twice monthly and back a couple of times. Many of the articles were exact reprints of previous articles, and sometimes the entire magazine was merely a reprint of earlier articles. In spite of the claim above that no issue was missed entire monthly issues were missed several times, sometimes replaced with another tract or book. In August 1881 there was no regular issue, and the September issue was a special issue on the Advent. The reason for not being prepared for the end of 1881 seems obvious, since Russell thought he would have already undergone the "change" -- the "rapture" -- by October 1881. Early ssues that were missed (as regular new issues) included:
August 1881
November 1881
February 1882
November 1882
May 1884
August 1885
November 1886, December 1886, January 1887
November 1888
"Millennial Dawn" Volume 1 was sent as a replacement for three missing issues from November 1886, December 1886 and January 1887. The announcement was made in the February 1887 "Tower":
. . . we sent a paper bound edition of Millennial Dawn, Vol. I, as representing three numbers of the TOWER, November and December, '86, and January, '87. [page 1, reprint p. 897]
In 1892 it was announced that the Tower would now be twice monthly, and go from 16 large pages to 28 pages. There was no new issue for April 15, however. And the June 1 and 15 were combined, etc. etc.
All that trivia is just to show that we've gone through things like this before. Increase in size, decrease in size. Increase in regularity, decrease in regularity, and a lot of reprinted articles, which appears to be the plan again.
