Milestones of growth

Clusters with a certain level of community activity may be said to have reached a certain milestone in their growth.

The Universal House of Justice, in its letters to the Bahá’í world and its institutions, uses the term milestones to mark identifying points along the process of growth in the Bahá’í community. In this context, "growth" is generally taken to mean growth in numbers: not only of active collaborators (whether Bahá’ís or people of other backgrounds), but also of core activities taking place on a regular basis. Essentially, each milestone describes the overall state of a community based on how much capacity has been built for systematically applying the revelation and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh in practice.

A cluster is said to have reached or passed a certain milestone in growth if the criteria associated with that milestone have been met. A simple formula can be applied which gives a crude, but useful, measure of the current situation of any cluster:

Although by no means definitive, it is now understood that a cluster with about five or more activities can be seen to have established a programme of growth and passed the first milestone. Clusters with twenty or more activities are usually working at a level of intensity that they can be considered to have passed the second milestone and thus have an intensive programme of growth. Those with a hundred or more activities normally have sufficient elements in place to have passed the third milestone.

First milestone

In a letter to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, dated 28th December, 2010, the Universal House of Justice described a possible sequence of events which was summed up as follows:

That is to say, in whatever combination and however small in number, devotional gatherings, children's classes and junior youth groups are being maintained by those progressing through the sequence of institute courses and committed to the vision of individual and collective transformation they foster. This initial flow of human resources into the field of systematic action marks the first of several milestones in a process of sustainable growth.

A document, "Insights From the Frontiers of Learning", published in April, 2013 by the International Teaching Centre, adds the following observations:

A new progamme of growth begins as two nascent capacities develop. First, one or more friends in a cluster must be able to help individuals study the institute's sequence of courses and accompany them as they initiate core activities. Then, these individuals must be able to attract others to participate in the core activities. As efforts along these lines have borne fruit in various parts of the world, the institutions concerned set aside exaggerated expectations of what must be achieved before a new programme of growth can be said to have emerged.

The 2018 Annual Report of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United Kingdom states:

Although by no means definitive, it is now understood that a cluster with about five or more (core) activities can be seen to have established a programme of growth and passed the first milestone.

Second milestone

In the letter to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, dated 28th December, 2010, the Universal House of Justice described a combination of events which was summed up as follows:

a steady stream of friends is proceeding through the courses of the training institute and engaging in the corresponding activities, which serves, in turn, to increase the number of fresh recruits into the Faith, a significant percentage of whom invariably enters the institute process, guaranteeing the expansion of the system. This constitutes another milestone that the friends labouring in every cluster must, in time, reach.

The 2018 Annual Report of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United Kingdom states:

Clusters with 20 or more (core) activities are usually working at a level of intensity that they can be considered to have passed the second milestone and thus have an intensive programme of growth.

Third milestone

The letter from the Universal House of Justice to the conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, dated 29th December, 2015, gives a very full description of what a cluster which has reached the third milestone would look like. Successive paragraphs deal with different aspects: "the believers encounter receptivity within distinct populations"; "greater demands are being placed on the organisational scheme of the training institute"; "the Area Teaching Committee is rising to a new level of functioning"; "the Local Spiritual Assembly is enhancing its capacity"; "a mode of learning ... permeates the whole community"; and there are "the stirrings of social action". The House of Justice continues:

For the movement of a population to have come this far demonstrates that the process which brought it about is strong enough to achieve and sustain a high degree of participation in all aspects of the capacity-building endeavour and manage the complexity entailed. This is another milestone for the friends to pass, the third in succession since the process of growth in a cluster was begun.

The 2018 Annual Report of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United Kingdom states:

Those with a hundred or more (core) activities normally have sufficient elements in place to have passed the third milestone.