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– 49 –

Learning to Plan and to Mobilize

Referring to the planning process, the Universal House of Justice has stated that “at its core it is a spiritual process in which communities and institutions strive to align their pursuits with the Will of God.”^[1] The Major Plan and Minor Plan of God, it has explained, are “the two known ways in which His purpose for humankind is going forward. The Major Plan is associated with turbulence and calamity and proceeds with an apparent, random disorderliness, but is, in fact, inexorably driving humanity towards unity and maturity. Its agency for the most part is the people who are ignorant of its course and even antagonistic towards its aim.… Unlike His Major Plan, which works mysteriously, God’s Minor Plan is clearly delineated, operates according to orderly and well-known processes, and has been given to us to execute. Its ultimate goal is the Most Great Peace.”^[2] The Minor Plan unfolds in stages, each of which is governed by a global Plan articulated by the Head of the Faith. “It is to the achievement of its purpose,” the House of Justice has indicated, “that we must all devote our attention and energies.”^[3] In its 9 January 2001 message, the House of Justice referred specifically to the role of the institutions in ensuring that this purpose is achieved:

The Major Plan of God is at work and the forces it generates impel humanity towards its destiny. In their own plans of action, the institutions of the Faith must seek to gain insight into the operation of these great forces, explore the potentialities of the people they serve, measure the resources and strengths of their communities, and take practical steps to enlist the unreserved participation of the believers.^[4]

The planning process, in this sense, begins with the global Plans delineated by the Universal House of Justice. These global Plans set the direction for the Bahá’í world and provide the basis for the formulation of national plans by National Spiritual Assemblies in consultation with the Counsellors. Planning then moves down to the regional, cluster and local levels, as explained in “The Institution of the Counsellors”:

With the opening of the fourth epoch of the Formative Age, a procedure was activated whereby national plans are formulated in joint consultation between National Spiritual Assemblies and Continental Counsellors. This development ensures two significant benefits: It enables each institution to draw on the experience and insight particular to the other, thereby making available to the planning process two distinct channels of information from two levels of Bahá’í administration; and it also assures to the Counsellors a necessary familiarity with the background, rationale, and content of national plans, which as a matter of principle they are expected to support.

Creating a national plan involves far more than consultation between the Counsellors and the National Assembly. Excellent results can be achieved, for example, by holding consultative meetings among the various institutions in a country and with the active supporters of the Faith to discuss fully the possible provisions of the plan and their implications. Once the major elements of the national plan have been identified, it is desirable for the planning process to move quickly to the regional level, and subsequently to the level of smaller areas and finally to the local community. The balance that can be achieved in this process between nationally sponsored campaigns and grassroots efforts is a necessary condition for success.

National plans, formulated in the context of the global plans of the Faith, serve as the framework within which the friends can undertake action. Through them, National Assemblies not only set goals to be pursued by themselves and their agencies, but also give direction to the believers, define for them priorities and areas of action, and elicit from them wholehearted response to the directives of the Universal House of Justice. Accordingly, they adopt measures to provide resources—literature, pioneers and traveling teachers, regional and national events, and funds as required—to support the initiatives of the friends.

The plans of action that Regional Councils, Area Teaching Committees and Local Spiritual Assemblies devise in the ensuing process need to go beyond the mere enumeration of goals to include an analysis of approaches to be adopted and lines of action to be followed. Indeed, at this level, planning and implementation must go hand in hand. If learning is to be the primary mode of operation in a community, then visions, strategies, goals and methods have to be reexamined time and again. As tasks are accomplished, obstacles removed, resources multiplied and lessons learned, modifications have to be made in goals and approaches, but in a way that continuity of action is maintained.^[5]

In a letter dated 12 December 2001 written on its behalf to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, the House of Justice described, in the specific context of the Five Year Plan, how the plan formulated at a given level is embedded in the plan above it:

Plans for the growth of the Faith are required at several distinct levels, each embedded in the level above it and each serving a specific purpose. A national plan is elaborated in the context of the global plan, whose features are set forth by the Universal House of Justice. Through it, the National Spiritual Assembly provides an overall vision of the tasks to be accomplished, defines the areas of action to be pursued, and elicits from the believers wholehearted response to the directives of the Universal House of Justice. In its letter to you of 28 June 2001, the House of Justice expressed its pleasure at reading your national plan, which offers a clear framework within which the various components of the community can carry out their activities during the Five Year Plan.

It would, of course, be counterproductive for a Regional Council to design a plan of a similar kind, or to operate outside the context of the national plan. Here what is required is an analysis of the specific approaches to be adopted and a determination of the lines of action to be followed. In the case of the Five Year Plan, a regional plan consists essentially of those provisions needed to help each cluster in the region move from its current stage of growth to the next advanced stage. Such a plan identifies priorities and sets objectives for a given period of time—certain clusters to be opened to the Faith, others to be strengthened, and, in those deemed ready, intensive growth programs to be established. This implies that the Regional Council will base its plan on a categorization of the clusters in the region according to their current stage of development. Such a categorization should not be misconstrued as a judgment on the quality of local communities. It should be regarded, rather, as a means through which realistic strategies for growth can be devised and executed.

Detailed plans of action, with specific goals and the corresponding methods, rightly belong to the level of the cluster. While the institute process will constitute the engine for growth in all clusters, a diversity of action is bound to appear at this level. This diversity will be a natural outcome of plans of action that take into account the particular resources of the believers, the capacity of the local Bahá’í communities, and the strength of the Local Spiritual Assemblies.^[6]

Clearly, plans devised at each level serve different purposes and have different elements. Those closest to the grassroots are concerned as much with implementation and action as they are with planning. Of course, the concept of the cluster was introduced during the Five Year Plan precisely with this in mind. “It should be remembered,” a letter written on behalf of the House of Justice noted, “that ‘clusters’ are only a construct—albeit a highly useful one—that enables the friends to think about the growth of the Faith on a manageable scale and to design and implement plans close to the grassroots of the community.”^[7] At the current stage of development of the Bahá’í world, then, the cluster has proven to be a useful unit, in terms of size, for organizing the work of the Faith and mobilizing the believers so that growth can be realized:

With the division of countries into small geographic areas, clusters have become a new arena of activity, within which the training institutes are enhancing the capacity of an increasing number of believers to promote expansion and consolidation to the point where they are able to launch intensive programs of growth. One of the welcome outcomes of this process has been the sense of ownership exercised by the believers and institutions serving within the cluster. In practical terms, this means that many decisions having to do with the expansion and consolidation of the Faith are now made at that level.^[8]

Plans of action at the level of the cluster, then, are able to take into account conditions on the ground. Central to the success of such plans is, of course, the question of human resources. As indicated in the above passage, the training institute is an important element in mobilizing the friends. A message written by the House of Justice at the start of the Four Year Plan underscored the part the training institute would need to play in this mobilization:

Your past exploits were largely the result of the incessant labors of a comparatively few consecrated believers who devoted their time and resources to the spread of the Cause in locality after locality. If you are to sustain rapid expansion and consolidation in the coming years, it is imperative that far greater numbers of dedicated and committed souls arise to promote these twin processes. Training courses—widespread, regular and well-organized—constitute the most effective means to mobilize believers on the scale required.^[9]

Another message indicated that “plans focusing on these areas of large-scale expansion will necessarily seek to mobilize an appreciable number of believers within each population not only to labor diligently in their own local communities, but also to serve as long- and short-term pioneers and visiting teachers in other localities.” “Training programs,” the message went on to say, “constitute a most potent instrument for the accomplishment of such a vast mobilization.”^[10] It is of course the institutions of the Faith that are charged with directing this mobilization and deploying the human resources developed by the training institute:

As the believers advance through the sequence of courses and their skills and abilities are enhanced, the responsibility will then fall on you and your other agencies to see that their energies and talents are channeled in some form of active service to the Faith. Ample opportunities should be given to them to put into practice what they have learned, and in this connection, you will need to create within your community an encouraging environment, one in which the friends feel empowered to step forward, whatever their capacities may be, and take up the work of the Faith.^[11]

In addition to capitalizing on the capacities and talents of the friends, the institutions must, then, encourage them and help them to maintain clarity of vision if they are to successfully marshal their forces. Several National Spiritual Assemblies were counseled during the Four Year Plan:

What each of you must now ensure is that your community presses onward with clarity of vision and undiminished zeal. You should make every effort to see that, through the operation of your training institutes, the base of the human resources of each of your communities is steadily extended. While the number of those entering your institute programs increases, so too must the number of friends reaching the higher courses in the sequences you each have chosen. Cultivate an atmosphere of love in your communities and help the friends to become a source of encouragement to one another. Take every opportunity to focus the believers on the aim of the Four Year Plan. Do all within your powers to assist them in the field of action.^[12]

Likewise, the institutions need to maintain enthusiasm and help the friends to set goals for themselves:

As a growing number of believers progress through the institute courses, the responsibility will fall on your Assembly, as well as the Local Spiritual Assemblies, to see that their enthusiasm is maintained. They will need to be assisted in setting goals for themselves and be encouraged to persevere in their endeavors until teaching becomes the dominating passion of their lives and they gain confidence in their ability to make a distinctive contribution towards the achievement of the central aim of the Four Year Plan.^[13]

Bringing these elements together to mobilize the friends in the field of service, then, is a capacity that must be developed in the institutions. What has become apparent during the Five Year Plan is that the reflection meeting provides the institutions with the instrument they need to mobilize the friends in this way, as explained in the 17 January 2003 message of the Universal House of Justice:

Meetings of consultation held at the cluster level serve to raise awareness of possibilities and generate enthusiasm. Here, free from the demands of formal decision-making, participants reflect on experience gained, share insights, explore approaches and acquire a better understanding of how each can contribute to achieving the aim of the Plan. In many cases, such interaction leads to consensus on a set of short-term goals, both individual and collective.^[14]

As the above passage suggests, the reflection meeting at the cluster level serves a twofold purpose. Not only does it provide a means for mobilizing the believers, but it also contributes greatly to the planning process. This is true whether the cluster is in an early stage of development or whether it has reached an advanced stage, in which cycles of activities are carried out as part of an intensive program of growth:

… the meetings of reflection called at various intervals during the cycles should serve to reinforce an attitude of learning among the participants in the program so that any fear of failure or criticism gives way to the joy of earnest striving. To achieve this, the friends involved in organizing the meetings should recognize that guided, participatory discussion can prove more instructive than elaborate presentations and prolonged theoretical analyses. A careful review of vital statistics, which highlight weaknesses that require remedial attention and point to strengths that can be built upon in the next cycle of activity, will go far in facilitating the planning process.^[15]

In this way, planning is a flexible process that is able to take advantage of rapidly changing circumstances. With so much organization being done in reflection meetings at the cluster level, one question that has arisen is whether “the plans arrived at through such consultations require ratification by the Local Assemblies before implementation can begin.”^[16] To this question, the House of Justice provided the following answer in a letter dated 9 December 2001:

As a matter of principle, any plans carried out in the jurisdiction of a Local Spiritual Assembly should meet with its approval. That being said, we are asked to point out that the planning process called for during the Five Year Plan, with its emphasis on the development of small geographic areas, allows for a great deal of flexibility. The Universal House of Justice hopes that the consultations which take place in periodic meetings at the level of the cluster will generate such unity of thought about the growth of the Faith that, in those cases where the lines of action affect localities with Local Assemblies, the requirement of receiving their approval will easily be met. It should be remembered that the aim of such consultations, beyond addressing certain practical considerations, is to maintain a high level of enthusiasm and to create a spirit of service and fellowship among those present. Discussions should not become bogged down by undue concern for procedural issues, but should focus on what can be achieved and on the joy of witnessing the fruits of hard work and diligent effort.^[17]

In another letter dated 11 April 2005 written on its behalf, the Universal House of Justice has given this further clarification:

Activity at the level of the cluster is instilling a sense of unity and a spirit of service among the friends within units larger than the local community. Reflection meetings, which are an essential element of this endeavor, should certainly not be seen to exclude Local Spiritual Assemblies or to minimize the role of their designated functions, but, it is hoped, to include them in a highly collective enterprise, developing a more comprehensive sense of movement on a wide scale that is motivated by a greater understanding of the broad vision of the Faith.^[18]

In this light, the work at the cluster level serves to reinforce the efforts of well-functioning, strong Local Spiritual Assemblies:

All of this opens thrilling opportunities for Local Spiritual Assemblies. Theirs is the challenge, in collaboration with the Auxiliary Board members who counsel and assist them, to utilize the energies and talents of the swelling human resources available in their respective areas of jurisdiction both to create a vibrant community life and to begin influencing the society around them.^[19]

Auxiliary Board members are called upon “to work closely with these Assemblies, both in the formulation of plans and in their execution, helping them to shoulder the responsibility of systematic growth in their own communities and in localities adopted as extension goals.”^[20] It is this collaborative relationship that provides inspiration to the friends and elicits from them wholehearted response to plans:

Acting in their respective roles, the two institutions of the Counsellors and the Spiritual Assemblies share responsibility for the protection and propagation of the Faith. The harmonious interaction between them ensures the constant flow of guidance, love and encouragement to the believers and invigorates their individual and collective endeavors to advance the Cause.^[21]

Since Board members also work intimately with the training institute and Area Teaching Committee, they can ensure that the endeavors of such well-functioning Local Spiritual Assemblies are in accordance with plans of action at the level of the cluster. This is especially critical in the case of clusters that have become the focus of intensive programs of growth, through which all the institutions must learn “to support the initiatives of individuals and merge diverse efforts into a powerful collective thrust.”^[22] Of course, in most cases the work of the Board members is “not carried out in the context of communities that enjoy the leadership of a mature Spiritual Assembly.”^[23] Rather they work, with the help of their assistants, in localities where the Assemblies are not yet functioning at the necessary level, as described by the House of Justice in “The Institution of the Counsellors”:

In a community where the Local Assembly is at the very early stages of its development, the role of the assistants in promoting the establishment of study groups, devotional meetings, classes for the spiritual education of children, and the Nineteen Day Feast is even more crucial. Further, the Auxiliary Board members give attention to strengthening the Local Spiritual Assemblies, helping them to master the art of consultation, to gain confidence in making decisions, to adhere courageously to principle, and to learn how to mobilize the friends in unified action.^[24]

Whatever stage of growth the localities in a cluster have reached, the Auxiliary Board members “play a vital part in encouraging the friends”^[25] and “take it upon themselves to ensure that proper attention is devoted to the various components of the community,”^[26] that is, to every man, woman, youth and child. The latter two offer a special challenge. Board members “keep before everyone’s eyes the imperative of the spiritual education of children and do everything in their power to help establish and maintain regular classes for the children. And, with complete confidence in the capacity of youth for heroic service to the Cause, they assist them in realizing their full potential as vital agents for the expansion of the Faith and the transformation of society.”^[27] The Universal House of Justice has repeatedly called upon the institutions to “give consistent attention to involving the youth in the expansion and consolidation work.”^[28] In this connection, it stressed at the start of the Four Year Plan:

Youth will undoubtedly be the most enthusiastic supporters of the programs of your institutes. They are eager to make a significant contribution to the progress of their communities and have shown, time and again, their capacity to respond to the call to service. They can be trained to help shoulder the manifold responsibilities demanded by rapid expansion and consolidation. But it is especially important for large numbers of them to become capable teachers of Bahá’í children’s classes. As you are well aware, without the education of children it is impossible to maintain victories from one generation to the next.^[29]

With this in mind, the House of Justice has advised that “strategies to advance the process of entry by troops cannot ignore children and junior youth.”^[30] Junior youth, of course, “represent a special group with special needs as they are somewhat in between childhood and youth when many changes are occurring within them.”^[31] The Bahá’í world will be focused on the aim of advancing the process of entry by troops until the end of the first century of the Faith’s Formative Age, when today’s children and junior youth will be young adults—the future teachers and administrators of the Faith. Auxiliary Board members have been urged to ensure that the friends raised up by training institutes are mobilized “to meet the spiritual requirements of children and junior youth.”^[32] “The youth, in particular, constitute a vast reservoir of energy and talent,”^[33] the House of Justice has indicated. “Developing and utilizing this immensely valuable resource”^[34] to meet the needs of children and junior youth, specifically, and to further the aim of the global Plans, in general, is surely one of the most pressing challenges ahead.

Part III

Additional Documents

In its message dated 27 December 2005, the Universal House of Justice indicated that, with the launch of the Four Year Plan at Riḍván 1996, the Bahá’í world set out on “a path of intense learning about the sustained, rapid growth of the Faith.” At different points along the way since then, effort has been made at the international level of the community to distill the learning taking place at the grassroots and to diffuse the knowledge thus acquired in documents widely circulated to the friends. Part III includes four documents of this kind. The first, entitled “Training Institutes,” was prepared for and approved by the Universal House of Justice in 1998. The next two, both similar to the first, were written by the International Teaching Centre at the instruction of the House of Justice. “Training Institutes and Systematic Growth” was released in 2000 and “Building Momentum: A Coherent Approach to Growth” in 2003. The final document presents an analysis by the Teaching Centre of the experience of the Bahá’í world in meeting the administrative challenges associated with large-scale expansion. Entitled “Impact of Growth on Administration Processes,” it was prepared in July 2005.