The group disseminates instructions regarding activities and acceptable behavior through The Watchtower magazine and through other official publications, and at conventions and congregation meetings. Since 1976, practices have also been based on decisions made at closed meetings of the group's Governing Body.

1881) of the Bible Student movement, and of successive presidents of the Watch Tower Society, Joseph Franklin Rutherford (from 1917 to 1942) and Nathan Homer Knorr (from 1942 to 1977). Jehovah's Witnesses's practices are based on the biblical interpretations of Charles Taze Russell (1852–1916), founder ( c.