Timekeepers no more, rank-and-file Jehovah’s Witnesses say goodbye to tracking proselytizing hours
The group was formerly headquartered in Brooklyn
Jehovah’s Witnesses are well-known for proselytizing door-to-door and handing out their literature on city streets. Less known to the general public, their adherents have been required for the past century to make regular reports to their congregation’s leaders on how many hours they put into such ministry.
Those hourly reports were a key metric for a congregation’s spiritual vitality and a factor in deciding who rose to leadership. Former adherents tell of pressure to meet these quotas and guilt when they didn’t.
But in a historic shift, that practice ended this month.