Learning the lingo

Uncharacteristically for me, I faithfully read from beginning to end the paper by Paul Lample, "Learning and the Evolution of the Baha'i Community", which formed the basis of his plenary talk at the recent North American Baha'i Studies Conference. In the past, I have ignored the writings of administrators about their theories for growing the community. But recently I have had reason to take an interest in it and began with this paper because it promised to explain the jargon that Baha'is use these days. After I was disenrolled in March 2000, I lost touch due to the many changes the community underwent since then. In my day, it was just local assemblies, national assemblies, and their officers and committees. Now, it appears that local assemblies are no longer flavour of the month and a new set of institutions are the focus of attention. I decided it was time to get my head around this fascinating new landscape.

It seems that fundamental change took place in the decade between 1996 and 2006. In this decade, the following plans were carried out:

• Four Year Plan, 1996-2000
• Twelve Month Plan, 2000-2001
• Five Year Plan, 2001-2006.

We are now in another Five Year Plan, 2006-2011.

On page 2, Paul Lample explains that "For decades, the Baha'i world struggled with the problem of sustaining large-scale expansion." This appears to be the key issue that motivated the House of Justice to do what it did since 1996. Accordingly, Mr Lample tells us, the House of Justice focused in the Four Year Plan on "consciously cultivating a capacity for learning about growth."(p3) This seems to be the source of the idea that the community needed to develop a "culture of learning". He goes on to say that, by the end of the Four Year Plan, the House of Justice believed this capacity for learning about growth was present in the community.

On page 6, Mr Lample tells us that during the Four Year Plan, the House of Justice said that "institutes must offer courses both at a central location and in the villages and towns so that an appreciable number of believers can enter its program." In 1998, due to good results in one area of the globe, the idea of study circles was born. A study circle is "six to ten believers in the towns and villages throughout the country, who will go through a series of basic courses together with a tutor."(p6) Apparently, study circles worked so well that they became a part of institutes across the globe. Although Paul Lample doesn't mention Ruhi, I guess this is where Ruhi comes in. Ruhi became the course that people took because it was promoted by the institutions.

In 2001, the House of Justice started talking about "stages of community building"(p6). Communities were told that the first thing to do was to establish study circles, children's classes and devotional meetings. These are the core activities and what excited the institutions was that these activities could be attended, and were attended, by seekers, which lead to enrollments. They became seen as the key to teaching and, as such, became known as portals to entry by troops. The core activities were then brought within the framework of clusters. I haven't yet found a definition of 'cluster'. If the cluster in my area is anything to go by, they appear to be areas of LSAs, groups and individuals that are adjacent geographically, which have been grouped together by the NSA to work together on the teaching activities. In line with the idea of community building, as I understand it, clusters move up a scale from C cluster, to B cluster to A cluster.

Mr Lample tells us that during the Twelve Month Plan, 25 area growth programs "contributed directly to the specification of propitious conditions for the establishment of intensive programs of growth"(p6). I'm not sure what that means, but my guess is that these 25 area growth programs did very well at growing and became the model for the new intensive programs of growth that were a feature of the first Five Year Plan. However, in 2001, the institutions had nutted out only the general principles and not the details. But by 2006, the House was able to explain that an intensive program of growth

'"consists of cycles of activity, in general of three months’ duration each, which proceed according to distinct phases of expansion, consolidation, reflection and planning." "The expansion phase," the House of Justice added, "often a period of two weeks, demands the highest level of intensity. Its objective is to widen the circle of those interested in the Faith, to find receptive souls and to teach them." Further, it became clear that institute courses should proceed uninterrupted from cycle to cycle because "When human resources increase in a manner proportionate to the rise in the overall Bahá’í population from cycle to cycle, it is possible not only to sustain but to accelerate growth."'(p7)

I understand Paul Lample to say that a goal for the second Five Year Plan is to establish 1,500 intensive programs of growth worldwide.

So an intensive program of growth is a pre-determined pattern of development for a cluster. That pattern consists of cycles about three months long. Each cycle has four phases: expansion, consolidation, reflection and planning. The explansion phase should take about two weeks. In this time, the cluster members concentrate on finding seekers and teaching them. The paper gives no details on the other phases of a cycle. As I understand it, intensive programs of growth are undertaken only in clusters that are sufficiently developed to sustain them; in other words, in A clusters.

It seems that intensive programs of growth are viewed as the way forward for the community. Paul Lample quotes the House of Justice:

'"The elements required for a concerted effort to infuse the diverse regions of the world with the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation," it stated, "have crystallized into a framework for action that now needs only to be exploited." "The way forward is clear, and at Ridván 2006 we will call upon the believers to steel their resolve and to proceed with the full force of their energies on the course that has been so decidedly set."'(pp4-5)

But the way forward isn't entirely mapped out; the intensive programs of growth are raising new issues:

"These achievements in turn produced new questions and challenges, such as how to ensure the balance between expansion and consolidation in clusters with very rapid enrollments, determining when and where a door-to-door approach to teaching is appropriate, and learning about the next stages of community development in clusters with large numbers of new believers."(p10)

So we can look forward to seeing how the institutions navigate their way through these knotty problems. For my part, I am looking foward to hearing the knock at my door, and it will be a Baha'i come to teach me about progressive revelation, and not a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness come to tell me that Armageddon is at hand.