Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Andrew Alexander, The Significance of the Four Year Plan, bahai-library.com.
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The Significance of the Four Year Plan by Andrew
Alexander

Abstract
Developing a capacity to appreciate the significance of the series of
International Plans, periodically launched by the Bahá’í World Centre, is
an important activity for a Bahá’í in modern times. As the Bahá’í
community and its institutions continue to evolve, the importance for its
institutions and individuals to increase their familiarity with the vision
outlined in this series of Plans has never been greater. The Four Year
Plan (1996-2000) is often considered by individual Bahá’ís and their
institutions as being one of the most significant of modern times: it
simultaneously draws on past experience and reaches out to the future.
The vision of the Plan is one that will influence, and be a key reference
point for, the Bahá’í world community for a significant portion of the
Twenty-First Century. It is for this reason that the author chose to have
another look at the central documents which launched the Four Year
Plan, seven years after first encountering them, at the Irish National
Bahá’í Convention in 1996.

Introduction
International Plans are a series of campaigns periodically launched
for the expansion and consolidation of the Bahá’í Faith and play a
major part in modern Bahá’í activity. The origin of the
contemporary sequence of International Plans stems primarily
from initiatives undertaken by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and His letters
known as the Tablets of the Divine Plan (1916-17). These Tablets
were addressed to the relatively fledgling communities of the
United States of America and Canada and their goals included a
call for Bahá’ís to move or pioneer to a number of specified
territories, expand the scope of Bahá’í literature and learn the
languages of the communities to which they pioneered.
The following decades saw a slow if steady evolution of the
planning concept under the auspices of the Guardian of the Bahá’í
Faith, Shoghi Effendi. Gaining a degree of momentum with the
North American Seven Year Plan (1937-44), among the goals of
which were included the formation of at least one Local Spiritual
Assembly in each of the North American States and Canadian
Provinces and the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the
Bahá’í Temple in Wilmette, Illinois, other nations and regions of
the world followed suit; national plans were adopted by the Bahá’í
communities of India and Burma, the British Isles, Iran, Australia
and New Zealand and Central America. While varying in
duration, all of the national plans of this period were focused on
the domestic development of national Bahá’í communities. One
plan which differed somewhat in the nature of its goals was the
two-year Africa Campaign (1951-3), which called for collaboration
between a number of National Spiritual Assemblies, thereby
heralding to some extent the age of the international Plan.
The Four Year Plan (1996-2000) belongs to this international
‘family’ of plans and forms part of a sequence, initiated under
Shoghi Effendi and continued by the Universal House of Justice,
which was first elected in 1963. The first international Plan was
known as the Ten Year Crusade (1953-63), in which all of the
twelve existing National Spiritual Assemblies in 1953 took part.
The central aim of the Crusade was the establishment of Bahá’í
communities in every significant territory and island group
throughout the world. Since its election in 1963, the Universal
House of Justice has initiated six international Plans up to the
launch of the Four Year Plan (1996-2000) at the Festival of Ridván
in 1996. These were known as the Nine (1964-73), Five (1974-9),
Seven (1979-86), Six (1986-92) and Three Year Plans (1993-6). The
year 1992-1993 was deemed a Holy Year, the one hundredth
anniversary of the passing of Bahá’u’lláh, and was marked by
commemorative ceremonies throughout the Bahá’í international
community.1
International Plans are typically launched through the
medium of the Ridván Message, although not exclusively so. The
Four Year Plan (1996-2000) is a case in point, where the Bahá’í
world community was primed by a letter early in 1996 announcing
that the next Plan would be four years in duration. Ridván
constitutes the major Festival of the Bahá’í Calendar,
commemorating Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration as a Manifestation of
God and marking the beginning of the Bahá’í administrative year,
when annual elections take place for the Local and National
Spiritual Assemblies. The goals of the international Plans are
reflected and acted upon by local individuals and communities of
the Faith under the auspices of the national and local

administrative bodies in their jurisdiction. The series of
international Plans have included goals related to the numerical
and qualitative expansion of the community, the production of
literature, the translation of sacred texts, the search for greater
public recognition, the enhancement of Bahá’í family life and the
construction of building projects of international significance, for
example, the construction of Continental Houses of Worship and
the development of the administrative buildings at the Bahá’í
World Centre on Mount Carmel, Israel.
Shoghi Effendi envisaged that the evolution of the Bahá’í
community would be distinguished by a series of plans stretching
far into the future to ‘the fringes of the Golden Age’ – a span of
time whose length can only be speculated; it may extend to several
hundred years.2

The Four Year Plan Documents
The methodology employed in this brief re-visit to the Four Year
Plan (1996-2000) was to read the series of introductory messages
that launched the Plan in the winter of 1995 and the spring of 1996.
These messages were compiled in a booklet entitled The Four Year
Plan – Messages of the Universal House of Justice (Palabra
Publications, 1996). The messages contained therein consisted of a
message dated 26 December 1995 to the Conference of the
Continental Boards of Counsellors, a message dated 31 December
1995 to the Bahá’ís of the World, the Ridván 153 message to the
Bahá’ís of the World and a series of messages (eight in all)
addressed to Bahá’í national communities in different regions of
the world. The messages to the Bahá’ís in these different regions
were issued along with the Ridván 153 message and were
referenced in consultations at the various National Conventions
which were then taking place world-wide. In the context of the
actual execution of the aims of the Four Year Plan, the above
messages served merely to launch it. A large part, some would say
a major part, of the Plan are or were the activities launched by
national and local institutions in response to the introductory
messages; the latter have not been reviewed in this paper. It has
been decided that the most appropriate way to begin the process
of identifying the significance of the Four Year Plan is to re-visit
the original introductory documents:

Our work is intended not only to increase the size and
consolidate the foundations of our community, but more
particularly to exert a positive influence on the affairs of the
entire human race. 3

The Four Year Plan and a Leap in Consciousness
From the outset, the Four Year Plan was singled out by the
Universal House of Justice as a plan of special significance. It is for
this reason that the author considers its introductory messages
worthy of review, almost eight years since the Plan was originally
launched. In advance of this launch, in the letter to the Continental
Boards of Counsellors (December 1995) care was taken to reiterate
the seven objectives of the preceding Six and Three Year Plans:

carrying the healing Message of Bahá’u’lláh to the generality
of humankind;
greater involvement of the Faith in the life of human society;
a world-wide increase in the translation, production,
distribution and use of Bahá’í Literature;
further acceleration in the process of the maturation of local
and national Bahá’í communities;
greater attention to universal participation and the spiritual
enrichment of individual believers;
a wider extension of Bahá’í family life;
the pursuit of projects of social and economic development
in well-established Bahá’í communities.4

The Universal House of Justice wrote that these seven objectives
‘describe interacting processes that must advance simultaneously
over many decades.’5 One sentence later, the House of Justice
moved from the theme of goals to the theme of action and then
beyond action itself to how that action should be undertaken:

National plans, however, will go beyond the mere
enumeration of goals to include an analysis of approaches to
be adopted and lines of action to be followed, so that the
friends will be able to set out on their endeavours with
clarity of mind and decisiveness.6

In other words, beyond any analysis of what should and should
not be done to further the aims of the Four Year Plan, just as
important is the state of mind, ‘the clarity of mind and
decisiveness’ with which any action should be undertaken. In this
context, the Four Year Plan concerns a ‘leap in consciousness’ on
the part of what are identified as the three essential components of
the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh – the individual, the institutions and the
community.
Central to this ‘leap of consciousness’ is a call for the
participants of the Plan to take decisive steps in taking ownership
of the Plan and assuming responsibility for their own spiritual
evolution, both as a community and as individuals. In launching
the Plan, the House of Justice announced that the plan should have
one major accomplishment: ‘a significant advance in the process of
entry by troops.’ ‘Entry by troops’ is a term signifying sustained
growth of the Bahá’í community on a large scale. In attempting
this accomplishment, the first task to be undertaken was deemed
to be a change in mindset, a revolution in the head: ‘the individual,
the institutions, and the community – can foster such growth first
by spiritually and mentally accepting the possibility of it ... ‘7
In the section of the Ridván 153 message addressing
individual Bahá’ís, the House of Justice draws attention to the fact
that the individual has an important role to play in the evolution
of the community:

at the crux of any progress to be made is the individual
believer, who possesses the power of execution which only
he can release through his own initiative and sustained
action.8

For the institutions of the Bahá’í community, and those who
elect them, the Ridván 153 message calls explicitly for ‘a new state
of mind’:

The evolution of local and national Bahá’í Assemblies at this
time calls for a new state of mind on the part their members
as well as on the part of those who elect them, for the Bahá’í
community is engaged in an immense historical process that
is entering a critical stage.9

For Bahá’í communities this theme is reflected in two
paragraphs in particular. One of these paragraphs defines what ‘a
community’ is deemed to be and the second clarifies the activities
that need to be enacted in order for a community to flourish:

A community is of course more than the sum of its
membership; it is a comprehensive unit of civilization
composed of individuals, families and institutions that are
originators and encouragers of systems, agencies and
organisations working together with a common purpose for
the welfare of people both within and beyond its own
borders: it is a composition of diverse, interacting
participants that are achieving unity in an unremitting quest
for spiritual and social progress.10
The flourishing of the community, especially at the local
level, demands a significant enhancement in patterns of
behaviour: those patterns by which the collective expression
of the virtues of the individual members and the functioning
of the Spiritual Assembly is manifest in the unity and
fellowship of the community and the dynamism of its
activity and growth.11

In the concluding paragraph of the Ridván 153 message, the
House of Justice returns to the theme of individual initiative:

May you all arise to seize the tasks of this crucial moment.
May each inscribe his or her own mark on a brief span of
time so charged with potentialities and hope for all humanity
... 12

The Development of Human Resources
In addition to a change of mindset, the Four Year Plan was
significant in introducing to the Bahá’í community the
phenomenon of world-wide human resource development. If the

Four Year Plan could be said to have two wings, then the ‘cerebral
wing’ could be said to be a change of mindset which embraced the
possibility of large-scale sustained growth and its implications,
while its practical wing was that of world-wide endeavours in the
field of developing human resources. The theme of human
resource development is conspicuous in all of the introductory
documents of the Four Year Plan. In the message of December
addressed to the Continental Boards of Counsellors, it is related
that:

During the Nine Year Plan , the Universal House of Justice
called upon National Spiritual Assemblies in countries where
large-scale expansion was taking place to establish teaching
institutes to meet the deepening needs of the thousands who
were entering the Faith ... Over the years, in conjunction with
these institutes, and often independent of them, a number of
courses ... were developed for the purpose of helping the
friends gain an understanding of the fundamental verities of
the Faith and arise to serve it.13
it has become apparent that such occasional courses of
instruction ... are not sufficient as a means of human resource
development ... 14
The development of human resources on a large scale
requires that the establishment of institutes be viewed in a
new light ... This purpose can best be achieved through well-
organised, formal programmes consisting of courses that
follow appropriately designed curricula.15

In the message of Ridván 153, the theme of ‘institutes’ is
outlined in a way which places human resource development at
the centre of Bahá’í community life – and in particular, local Bahá’í
community life. The paragraphs of the Ridván 153 message which
deal with the theme of the development of human resources
outline the pivotal role this process is intended to play in the
aforementioned ‘central aim’ of the Four Year Plan, namely, ‘a
significant advance in the process of entry by troops.’ In order for
the process of human resource development to contribute to the
‘central aim’ of the Plan, Bahá’í institutions had a pivotal role to

play in engaging with the associated ‘institute’ process. In
addition, there was a requirement that both individual Bahá’ís and
Bahá’í institutions appreciate the significance and the importance
of this process in the light of humanity’s needs and the prevailing
condition of world affairs:

To effect the possibilities of expansion and consolidation
implied by entry by troops, a determined, world-wide effort
to develop human resources must be made.16
There should be no delay in establishing permanent
institutes designed to provide well-organised, formally
conducted programmes of training on a regular schedule.17

To sum up the on the subject of the need to develop human
resources, and emphasise the significance this process has at the
centre of the Plan, the Ridván 153 message contains the following
dramatic paragraph:

The next four years will represent an extraordinary period in
the history of our Faith, a turning point of epochal
magnitude. What the friends throughout the world are now
being asked to do is commit themselves, their material
resources, abilities and their time to the development of a
network of training institutes on a scale never before
attempted. These centres of Bahá’í learning will have as their
goal one very practical outcome, namely, the raising of large
numbers of believers who are trained to foster and facilitate
the process of entry by troops with efficiency and love.18

Conclusion
It has now been almost eight years since the launch of the Four
Year Plan. The Universal House of Justice has always stipulated
that the Four Year Plan has a special place in the grand scheme of
Bahá’í history. In writing this paper, I am reinforced in the belief
that individual Bahá’ís and Bahá’í institutions would do well to
study this Plan again. In doing so, they could ‘touch base’ with the
original intent behind some of the most conspicuous activities in
contemporary Bahá’í community life. In the period since the

launch of the Four Year Plan in 1996 and its conclusion in the year
2000, a number of documents exist which reflect upon the
effectiveness of the Plan, and how it was implemented by Bahá’í
communities throughout the world, the study of which was not
included in this paper. However, it is safe to say that the Bahá’í
community found the implementation an immensely challenging
enterprise. As the above final quotation indicates, the process of
entry by troops is to be facilitated not only with love, but with
efficiency – a contradiction in terms, one might say.
The rate of the development of a flourishing and expanding
local community life will be the litmus test as to how quickly the
individuals, the institutions and the communities are successful in
achieving the long-term goals of the Four Year Plan. Despite being
international, the Plan, at its heart, was and is about enriching the
life of local communities. Human resource development was a
goal born of local needs. If there is a central ‘canon’ to be found at
the heart of the Four Year Plan, it is that the three constituent
elements of Bahá’í society – the individual, the institutions and the
community - must realise that their destinies and well-being are
intertwined and interdependent. They must learn to rise to a ‘new
state of mind’ which allows them to embrace and facilitate
sustainable growth, on a large scale, over a long period.

References
1. Smith, Peter A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá’í Faith (Oneworld,
2000) pp. 271-272.
2. The Universal House of Justice The Four Year Plan: Messages of the
Universal House of Justice (Palabra) p. iii.
3. Ibid. paragraph 2.13
4. The Universal House of Justice, from a letter dated September
30, 1992 to all the National Spiritual Assemblies introducing the
Three Year Plan.
5. The Four Year Plan (Palabra) paragraph 1.5.
6. Ibid. para. 1.5.
7. Ibid. para. 3.18.
8. Ibid. para. 3.22.
9. Ibid. para. 3.23.
10. Ibid. para. 3.25.
11. Ibid. para. 3.26.

12. Ibid. para. 3.42.
13. Ibid. para. 1.13.
14. Ibid. para. 1.14.
15. Ibid. para. 1.15.
16. Ibid. para. 3.27.
17. Ibid. para. 3.27.
18. Ibid. para. 3.29.

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