Watch Tower Society Expands Education

ONE of the expressed purposes of the Watch Tower Society is “to improve men, women and children mentally and morally by Christian missionary work and by charitable and benevolent instruction of the people on the Bible and incidental, scientific, historical and literary subjects; to establish and maintain private Bible schools and classes for gratuitous instruction of men and women in the Bible, Bible literature and Bible history.”

Even before the Society was founded, the Bible Students in Pittsburgh had set a pattern for such instruction at Christian meetings. The first national convention outside of Pittsburgh, namely the one in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893, included a special school for full-time colporteur ministers. Many times readers of The Watchtower were encouraged to qualify themselves for giving public talks and Bible instruction to larger groups.

One effort was made through what was called the V. D. M. arrangement. These initials represented Verbi Dei Minister, or Minister of the Word of God. The program consisted of a questionnaire made available to all males associated with the congregation as an encouragement and assistance to them to study and train themselves to be qualified to represent the Society as public speakers. Later, in 1919, groups all over the country formed “Schools of the Prophets,” with a small textbook by that title, in an effort to provide specialized training in speaking.

In February 1942 the third president of the Watch Tower Society, Nathan H. Knorr, started an advanced course in theocratic ministry for the brothers of the Brooklyn Bethel family. This provided a course of training in improving one’s ability as a speaker both on the platform and from house to house. There was also instruction in the use of various Bible translations, Bible concordances and dictionaries, and a study of Bible history. This Theocratic Ministry School was put into operation in all congregations in June 1943 and continues to this time, training ministers worldwide.

Then, on February 1, 1943, Brother Knorr, as president of the Society, inaugurated the first class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead in a building located on Kingdom  Farm, near South Lansing, New York. This was a school for the special training of full-time ministers to qualify them to travel to foreign countries as missionaries and expand Bible education in those countries. Two classes of about a hundred students completed the course each year. In 1960 the school was moved to facilities at the Society’s Brooklyn world headquarters.

During the past 41 years the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead has conducted 77 classes and sent out more than 6,000 missionaries trained to teach people the Bible. Under the supervision of the Watch Tower Society, these missionaries have spearheaded the expansion of Bible education throughout Central and South America, the Orient, the South Pacific and Africa, and have accomplished much in Europe. Some examples of the results of their work can be seen below:

When Gilead School started in 1943 there were 126,329 publishers in 54 lands. Today there are over 2,600,000 publishers in 205 lands.

When Gilead graduates were first sent to Mexico in 1944 there were 2,545 publishers. Today there are over 150,000.

Gilead missionaries were sent to Brazil in 1945, when there were 394 publishers reporting in that land. Today there are more than 159,000.

In Argentina there were 790 publishers back in 1947 when Gilead missionaries first arrived. Today there are over 49,000.

So as to equip overseers to provide better spiritual supervision in congregations, the Watch Tower Society in 1959 prepared and supervised the conducting of Kingdom Ministry Schools in all countries. Updated refresher courses are provided from time to time.

Following the pattern of the instruction for colporteurs that was arranged back in 1893, the Watch Tower Society operates around the world Pioneer Service Schools for the training of full-time pioneer ministers.

In order to help many illiterate people to take in Bible knowledge effectively, the Society has set up reading classes in a number of countries and taught thousands upon thousands to read and write.

In harmony with the charter of the Watch Tower Society, all this instruction has been given without charge.

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Principal textbooks used in Theocratic Ministry School, 1943-1984

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Gilead campus, South Lansing, New York, 1943-1959

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First Gilead graduating class, July 1943

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Gilead classroom, Brooklyn, New York, 1984

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Kingdom Ministry School

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Pioneer Service School

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Gilead graduate giving Bible instruction, Papua New Guinea

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Gilead missionary, Dominican Republic