News letter REFLECTION ON GROWTH Number 14, October 2006 

“The importance of home visits in the current framework for growth reaches to the heart of what it means to build a Bahá’í community and a new civilization. Although raising up a new world order is concerned with governance and other social principles, it is fundamentally about building a global society based on justice and love. Is it sufficient to call people to a center for meetings and expect them to come, or do we need to visit one another and talk about spiritual matters and aspirations? Home visits have proven effective because they lend themselves to promoting a Bahá’í conversation—discussions on spiritual concerns that strengthen bonds of fellowship, love, and unity. 

Visiting the friends is a long-established practice in the Faith, but during the previous Plan it took on added dimensions and became a more systematic process. In an account of the services of a believer in Memorials of the Faithful, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote, “As he traveled along with his two sons…he paused on every hilltop, in every plain, village and hamlet to visit with the friends.” 

Shoghi Effendi repeatedly referred to “visits” as an element of consolidation and the systematic development of a community:”

Tanzania

A Bahá’í family of Hindu background, who became Bahá’ís fairly recently, were studying Book 2 and wanted to carry out an act of service in support of the intensive program of growth in their cluster. They sat down and made a list of friends that they could go and visit to share some themes about the Faith. The names were of individuals they had invited to devotional meetings and who had shown some interest. Before undertaking the visits, the family came together and prayed for divine assistance. Out of the three families they visited, one family—the husband, wife, and son—were very attracted to the beauty of the teachings and had many questions. They discussed the themes of “The Covenant of God” and “God and His Manifestations.” Since the family they were visiting was also of Indian background, they took with them pictures of the Lotus Temple in India. 

On the next visit, the Bahá’ís invited some other believers to join them in the home visit. The entire family, including the 14-year-old son, became Bahá’ís. The parents have joined a Book 1 course and the son is in a youth class. Now that the consolidation phase of the intensive program of growth has begun, the family studying Book 2 is making another home visit to this newly enrolled family and sharing additional spiritual themes with them. 

The following accounts about two intensive programs of growth are examples of when home visits were used as part of the consolidation phase after a teaching campaign. In this approach the friends shared the deepening themes presented in Book 2 with new believers, who often were then inspired to join an institute course.

India

In the Tamil Nadu state of India, friends who had completed Book 2 were systematically deployed to carry out home visits and excellent results were achieved: 

During the recent cycle of growth in the Sivakasi and Thiruvannamalai clusters, it was found that there still remained a good number of new believers who had to be enrolled for the institute courses and we felt the need to systematize the home visit campaigns. The following measures were therefore undertaken: (1) Compiling village-wise lists of the new believers who were yet to be enrolled for the institute courses; (2) Compiling a list of the graduates of Ruhi Institute Book 2 in the areas where the new believers were enrolled; and (3) Organizing a program to study the seven deepening themes once again with these graduates, followed by detailed planning on who would visit which new believers, the dates for the visit, and the sharing of each deepening theme. 

In Ramalingapuram (Sivakasi), one believer who was conducting a study circle on Book 2 in a nearby village, took the participants along with him to visit four new believers and they shared with them the deepening theme on the Covenant and part of the second theme on the Life of Bahá’u’lláh. This resulted in all the four believers joining the institute course on Book 1. Similarly two other friends took three graduates of Book 2 to visit eight believers and shared with them the first deepening theme. All eight believers have expressed eagerness to study Book 1 and these friends will soon establish a study circle for them. In another part of Sivakasi, Alamarathupatti, three friends have shared the first deepening theme on the Covenant with 12 new believers, who became very happy and interested. While seven of them have been enrolled for the study of Book 1, five others have started attending devotional meetings. 

A similar program for home visits was organized in the Thiruvannamalai cluster during the recent consolidation phase of its intensive program of growth. Following a refresher course on the first three deepening themes of Book 2, eight graduates of Book 2 devised a plan to visit the 60 new believers in Pandithapattu village, each of them planning to visit four to nine new believers with whom they would share the first three deepening themes during three visits. So far they have met 40 new believers and have shared with them the deepening themes. Twenty-five of these new believers are now ready to study Book 1 and their names have been given to the institute coordinator. Similarly, in Nallavanpalayam village, five graduates of Book 2 met 25 believers and have so far shared with them three deepening themes. Fifteen of these new believers are now ready to study Book 1.

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