The Work of Community Building

As one Plan succeeded another, and engagement with the work of community building ¹ became more broadly based, advances at the level of culture ² became more pronounced. For instance, the importance of educating the younger generations became more widely appreciated, as did the extraordinary potential represented by junior youth ³ in particular. Souls assisting and accompanying one another along a shared path, constantly widening the circle of mutual support,⁴ became the pattern to which all efforts aimed at developing capacity for service ⁵ aspired. Even the interactions of the friends among themselves and with those around them underwent a change, as awareness was raised of the power of meaningful conversations ⁶ to kindle and fan spiritual susceptibilities. And significantly, Bahá’í communities adopted an increasingly outward-looking orientation. ⁷ Any soul responsive to the vision of the Faith could become an active participant ⁸—even a promoter and facilitator ⁹—of educational activities, meetings for worship and other elements of the community-building work; from among such souls, many would also declare their faith in Bahá’u’lláh. Thus, a conception of the process of entry by troops emerged that relied less on theories and assumptions and more on actual experience of how large numbers of people could find the Faith, become familiar with it, identify with its aims, join in its activities and deliberations, and in many cases embrace it. Indeed, as the institute process ¹⁰ was strengthened in region after region, the number of individuals taking a share in the work of the Plan, extending even to those recently acquainted with the Faith, grew by leaps and bounds. But this was not being driven by a mere concern for numbers. A vision of personal and collective transformation ¹¹ occurring simultaneously, founded on study of the Word of God and an appreciation of each person’s capacity to become a protagonist ^{12 13} in a profound spiritual drama,¹⁴ had given rise to a sense of common endeavour. ¹⁵