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Role of the LSA in the Institute and Cluster Process

"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. In localities where Spiritual Assemblies do not exist or are not yet functioning at the necessary level, a step-by-step approach to the development of communities and Local Spiritual Assemblies is showing excellent promise." (Letters of The Universal House of Justice, 17 January 2003UHJ)

"Ultimately, the responsibility for ensuring that their own community arises to the challenge must rest with the elected representatives of the believers, at local and national levels. The advancement of the Cause is an evolutionary process which takes place through trial and error, through reflection on experience and through wholehearted commitment to the teaching Plans and strategies devised by the House of Justice. Believers, like yourself, who appreciate the opportunities thus provided, can be of great assistance by encouraging their respective countries and assemblies to similarly invest themselves in the process." Universal House of Justice, letter of 22 August 2002

Local Assembly as

- facilitator of individual planning

Expanding and intensifying lines of action in well-developed clusters require a shift in thinking on the part of many national communities, such as Canada, where well-functioning Local Spiritual Assemblies have traditionally focused on implementing one highly successful children's class, devotional gathering, and study circle, for its community or in cooperation with neighboring communities. Multiplying these lines of action so that their number grows in relation to the number of believers arising to serve and desiring to offer these services is a new concept and may meet with some resistance. The idea of having several study circles, children's classes, and devotional gatherings in one cluster, or even one community, challenges customary approaches to planning, placing individual initiative at the heart of the process with the Local Assembly acting as facilitator of that process. This change in mindset may be a greater challenge than producing the needed human resources for these tasks and will require your constant encouragement and support. (24 Sept 2001, International Teaching Centre to Counsellors D.Smith and A.Ghadirian)

• Local Assemblies -
  mobilize resources
  drawing upon human resources trained by the Institutes for teaching and consolidation
  collaborating with the Institute in supporting the study circles
  fostering personal teaching
  nurturing members of study circles
  encouraging personal acts of service

Rigid criteria are obviously counterproductive, but a well-defined scheme to carry out evaluation is essential. Two criteria seem especially important: the strength of the human resources raised up by the training institute for the expansion and consolidation of the Faith in the cluster, and the ability of the institutions to mobilize these resources in the field of service. (Letters of The Universal House of Justice, 17 January 2003UHJ)

Since a key purpose of the study circle is to raise human resources that are to be utilized in the community, the Local Spiritual Assemblies, the area teaching committees, and the Auxiliary Board members will need to know where they are located and draw on their members for the tasks of teaching and consolidation. Several letters written on behalf of the House of Justice address the importance of collaboration in supporting the friends in their teaching endeavors:

... in a locality where the Local Spiritual Assembly is functioning, it would collaborate with the national institute or its branch in supporting the work of the study circles, while pursuing its own plans for the expansion and consolidation of the Cause.

Personal teaching requires stimulation from the institutions; it must be fostered by National and Local Spiritual Assemblies, on the one hand, and the Counsellors and their auxiliaries, on the other. The institutions should also nurture and support the members of study circles and other individuals in the community in acts of service that come about through personal initiative. (February 2000 "Training Institutes and Systematic Growth")

• Local Assemblies:
  Stimulating personal initiative
  Providing opportunities for collective learning and
  encouragement

One of the primary forces that propels growth is teaching undertaken by the friends on their own initiative. To properly flourish, however, personal teaching requires stimulation from the institutions; it must be fostered by National and Local Spiritual Assemblies, on the one hand, and the Counsellors and their auxiliaries, on the other. The friends everywhere need encouragement. Regular gatherings, at various levels, need to be held to maintain and heighten their enthusiasm for teaching. Opportunities have to be created for them to share stories of the successes they have achieved and the methods they have used, so that they can learn from one another. Literature and teaching materials must be made available to them in abundance. Without concerted efforts of this kind, it is difficult to increase continually the number of believers arising to discharge their sacred duty to teach. (April 1998 Training Institutes, International Teaching Centre)

• designing and executing plans using the talents of the friends

Working in close collaboration with the Counsellors, you will need to consider how you can consistently increase the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies that can design and execute plans which utilize the diverse talents of the friends, thus multiplying their powers as they unite in collective action. (April 1998 Training Institutes International Teaching Centre)

• execute teaching plans

The tasks before the Counsellors and the National Spiritual Assemblies are multiple and urgent. On the one hand, they will continue to strengthen the institutes and ensure that an increasing number of believers benefit from their programmes. On the other, they will support and encourage the friends in their individual teaching endeavours, assist Local Spiritual Assemblies in executing teaching plans, and establish long-term teaching projects in region after region. All the necessary elements are in place. The stage is set. There is every reason to believe that the combined effect of all these efforts will lead to the fulfilment of the major thrust of the Four Year Plan. (April 1998 Training Institutes ITC)

• formulate plans of expansion and consolidation

Institute participants, as well as other local believers, will take part in area-wide seminars and conferences, regional teaching campaigns, and small socio-economic development projects. Gradually, local collective endeavors will emerge, area committees and Local Spiritual Assemblies will formulate their own plans for expansion and consolidation, and the friends will begin to shoulder the responsibilities of systematic growth in their communities. (Feb 2000 Training Institutes and Systematic Growth)

• preoccupied with personal initiative not administration of cluster

It would be preferable that the friends and Assemblies not become preoccupied with the question of administrative arrangements for the cluster before their real work has even begun. We believe you would be wise to gently but insistently focus them on what they need to do to promote growth: increasing personal initiative in teaching, and making systematic progress with establishing study circles, devotional gatherings and children's classes in more and more areas of each cluster as the human resources become available to do so. (National Spiritual Assembly, 21 December 2001, Aspects of the Five Year Plan)

• coordinate children's classes
  encourage children's class teachers to attend institute courses
  mobilize and co-ordinate the service of the believers

Children's education is the concern primarily of the Local Spiritual Assemblies who will be co-ordinating children's classes and encouraging children's class teachers to participate in training institute courses.

It is our understanding that in countries where Local Assemblies are not functioning at a level where children's classes are taking place under their auspices, the training institute, as an interim measure, can arrange programs for the children themselves. In countries such as Canada most Assemblies have developed the capacity to arrange such classes. The institute's role, then, should focus on training an ever increasing number of children's class teachers at least up to Book 3 of the Ruhi courses, so that Assemblies, with the collaborative help of the Auxiliary Board members and their assistants, can mobilize and co-ordinate these believers' service. (National Spiritual Assembly, 21 December 2001, Aspects of the Five Year Plan)

• guide the endeavours of the friends

In the increased capacity of individuals to teach the Faith, as shown in the thrust of individual initiatives; in the improved ability of Spiritual Assemblies, Councils and committees to guide the endeavours of the friends; in the introduction of new patterns of thought and action which influenced the collective behaviour of the local community - in all such respects the system of training institutes demonstrated its indispensability as an engine of the process of entry by troops.... Concurrent with these kinds of developments, the members of our worldwide community also gave more attention to drawing on the power of prayer, to meditating on the sacred Word, and to deriving the spiritual benefits of participation in devotional gatherings. It is through the workings of these elements of an intensified individual and collective transformation that the size of the community is increasing. Although the number of new believers has as yet only slightly surpassed those of recent years, it is immensely gratifying to see that this increase is now geographically widespread, is engaging ever-larger segments of the community, and is successful in integrating new declarants into the life of the Cause.... The use of the arts became an important feature in the proclamation, teaching, deepening and devotional activities of the worldwide community. (Ridvan 2000, from the Universal House of Justice to the Baha'is of the World) Letters of The Universal House of Justice, 2001 Sep 19, Definition and Scope of 'Devotional Meetings'

• welcome, encourage and accommodate the initiatives of individual responsible for increasing number of lines of action

Fundamental to any effective response to the immediate challenges facing the community are these requisites which are especially addressed to the individual and the Local Spiritual Assembly: On the one hand is the initiative that it is the duty and privilege of the individual to take in teaching the Cause and in obtaining a deeper understanding of the purpose and requirements of the Faith. Parallel with the exercise of such initiative is the necessity of the individual's participation in collective endeavours, such as community functions and projects. On the other hand is the role of the Local Spiritual Assembly to welcome, encourage and accommodate the initiatives of the individual believers to the maximum extent possible; and there is, too, the responsibility of the Assembly to devise or promote plans that will employ the talents and abilities of the individual members of its community, and that will involve individuals in collective action... The effects of conscientious attempts at realizing these inseparable requisites will be to expand and consolidate the community and to foster a climate of unified action. (Ridvan Messages of the Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 152, 1995, p. 2 )