Farkel,
There is much truth expressed here.
There are elders, of course, who try to be shepherds.
I'm not certain that Jehovah's Witnesses' total thrust
is book selling, but certainly there is a tremendous overemphasis
on preaching statistics.
Individual publishers, congregations, circuits, countries are
measured by hourly averages, placements, etc. This is such
an arbitrary, illogical, irrelevant way of measuring
human worth.
You mention the circuit overseer's visit. It always seemed
that his overall impression of a congregation was largely influenced
by his perusal of the congregation "records" on Monday
or Tuesday. When it came time to recommend an individual
for congregation responsibility, meeting the "national
average" or falling below it could override any genuine
merit or lack of it.
It becomes so very difficult to deal with real human
issues in such a CPA-style environment.
TMS