To ensure the successful unfoldment of the process of action and reflection that should run throughout the successive cycles, the friends will want to keep at least two points in mind. First, having dedicated an enormous amount of time and energy towards studying a sequence of courses aimed at helping them carry out certain acts of service, they should now strive to apply what they have learned in the teaching field. Specifically, if the content of the courses explores fundamental concepts related to direct teaching, it is only natural that they would seek to translate these into action. If a home visit, to take another example, is defined in the courses as an opportunity to enter into a deep conversation on spiritual matters, then it should not be reduced to a mere social call in which the Faith may not even be mentioned. In short, the educational process in which the friends have engaged over so many weeks and months should give shape to the individual and collective activities they now undertake. (Universal House of Justice 18 Aug 2005)

What a close examination of clusters at this threshold confirms is that the coherence thus achieved extends to various aspects of community life. The study and application of the teachings become a pervasive habit, and the spirit of communal worship generated by devotional meetings begins to permeate the community's collective endeavours. A graceful integration of the arts into diverse activities enhances the surge of energy that mobilizes the believers. Classes for the spiritual education of children and junior youth serve to strengthen the roots of the Faith in the local population. Even an act of service as simple as visiting the home of a new believer, whether in a village in the Pacific Islands or in a vast metropolitan area like London, reinforces ties of fellowship that bind the members of the community together. Conceived as a means for exposing believers to the fundamentals of the Faith, "home visits" are giving rise to an array of deepening efforts, both individual and collective, in which the friends are delving into the Writings and exploring their implications for their lives...

As the spiritual foundations of the community are fortified in this way, the level of collective discourse is raised, social relations among the friends take on new meaning, and a sense of common purpose inspires their interactions...

Plans being devised for this phase invariably involve the implementation of carefully designed teaching projects and campaigns of home visits and firesides, often through the mobilization of teaching teams. The pattern of expansion that unfolds, however, varies from cluster to cluster. Where the population has traditionally shown a high degree of receptivity to the Faith, a rapid influx of new believers is to be expected. In one cluster of this kind, for example, the goal of enrolling fifty souls over a three-week period in a locality was surpassed by the second day, and the team wisely decided to end the expansion phase in anticipation of activities related to consolidation. One of the primary objectives of this next phase is to bring a percentage of the new believers into the institute process so that an adequate pool of human resources will be available in future cycles to sustain growth. Those not participating in study circles are nurtured through a series of home visits, and all are invited to devotional meetings, to the celebration of the Nineteen Day Feast and to Holy Day observances and are gradually introduced to the patterns of community life. Not infrequently, the consolidation phase gives rise to further enrolments as the family members and friends of new declarants accept the Faith.(The Universal House of Justice, 27 Dec 2005 - Next Five Year Plan)

One can well envision how over 40 intensive programmes of growth, each yielding dozens of new enrolments in a year, would transform the Canadian Baha'i community.  Such a bold objective cannot be achieved merely by adopting the outer form of the activities of the Five Year Plan.  Rather, a true change in culture is required.  An eager embrace of the approaches explored in the institute courses, a diligent cultivation of community life through the multiplication of core activities, and an audacious outreach and effective teaching among receptive populations are some of the many elements of the Plan described in the 27 December 2005 message that must be integrated into a single, coherent pattern of action through the determined efforts of the friends.

 “At this moment in the fortunes of the Faith, no believer can regard passive acceptance of the activities of the Plan as an adequate response to the needs of the hour.  All can find some part to play in the multifaceted requirements of their clusters.  Perhaps most critical is the need for those who, having acquired the capacity to serve as tutors, will arise to accompany participants in the institute courses "in their initial attempts to perform acts of service until they, too, are ready to start their own study circles and help others do the same", thereby serving "to multiply the number of active supporters of the Faith in a self-perpetuating manner"…” (Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Canada, 1 May 2006)

Why,then, with all the necessary components in place, have we not yet experienced more accelerated growth? Understanding has dawned that the answer is embedded in the institute courses themselves. In seeking to assist large numbers of believers to proceed through the sequence of courses, essential aspects designed to build capacity in teachers of the Cause were often underemphasized. This means that we need to revisit the practice components of the institute courses designed to systematically develop skills of service and build on these skills, book by book. As these capacities and the ability to accompany others in learning them are developed, the teaching work gains momentum…

Individuals, communities and institutions must become instruments of growth, a change in orientation that is already well underway. To accelerate this process, the practice components of the institute courses, far from being regarded as temporary homework, must now be understood to be developing capacities necessary to a Bahá’í community growing in size. A mighty contingent of tutors, teachers of the Cause, must arise and accompany the participants of a study circle in their initial acts of service until they, in turn, arise in service. Special attention must be paid to learning how to apply the framework for action to the development of the Faith among Canada’s aboriginal peoples, a trust given especially to the Canadian Bahá'í community. (National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, Annual Report Ridvan 2006/163)