# The Significance of the Four Year Plan

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> 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.
>
> — *The Significance of the Four Year Plan (Used by permission of the curator)*