To receive a copy of the message please contact us. Below is a summary of the content of the message.
The opening section of this message provides a summary of the learning gained about advancing the process of entry by troops since the start of the Five Year Plan in 2001. It looks at the categorisation and prioritisation of clusters. It then examines the experience of the friends progressing through the sequence of courses and the consequent rise in individual initiative: “[f]or the most part th[e] proliferation of community activities was the expression of individual initiative by believers who translated into action what they had internalized from their training institute courses.”
Clarification is given about the correct attitude of the friends towards the training process.
The second section details the strategies that can be used by clusters to advance from one stage of development to the next. The main way forward for each kind of cluster is to focus on establishing an ever-stronger institute process. The other measures for the progress of each kind of cluster, such as the multiplication of core activities, are elaborated on, including the requirements for accelerated growth.
The third section emphasises the importance of institutions at every level - the local, cluster, regional and national - to learn how to achieve and sustain intensive growth effectively. The Teaching Centre makes it clear that this demands of institutions “a variety of capabilities and new approaches” and requires members of institutions to “have had first-hand experience with the dynamics of cluster development and the processes that contribute to growth.”
The fourth section expands on the “change in the culture” taking place in the Baha’i community. This comprises four aspects. First, the development of an attitude of learning on the part of the friends and a shift in planning to the grassroots, both witnessed at reflection meetings.
Second, the maintaining of focus by the friends - that is, a focus on the Supreme Body’s “explicit framework for… action” for advancing the process of entry by troops, together with a systematic approach to growth. Third, the empowerment of the rank and file of the believers through the training institute, leading to active participation
in the core activities, thereby increasing the numbers of those involved in “meaningful and vital serviceto the Cause”. Fourth, the development of an “outward-looking orientation” among Baha’is which involves an exerted effort to reach out, achieved through the reordering of their lives to expand their social circles and friendships.
The concluding section gives us a clear sense of our actions: that underlying our teaching work should be the premis that “all humanity is moving toward Baha’u'llah” and that “[a]dopting an attitude of openness and inclusion will help diminish the sharp line that believers have sometimes tended to draw between themselves and the public at large.” “Above all”, we are told, “the friends should be encouraged to remember Baha’u'llah’s call ‘This is the day in which to speak’”.