Developing Your Teaching Skills for Meaningful and Distinctive Conversations

Dale Eng

In its messages guiding Bahá'í teaching efforts in our current Five Year Plan, the Universal House of Justice explains that "meaningful and distinctive conversations" with "local residents dictate how the process of growth begins in a cluster." Ideally such conversations lead to an "exploration of reality that gives rise to a shared understanding of the exigencies of this period in human history" and "the means for addressing them" given by Bahá'u'lláh. The House of Justice beautifully describes teaching the Faith as "a basic requirement of a life of generous giving." To fulfill this basic requirement,  believers new or veteran, young or older, will surely want to continuously develop, as the Supreme Body says, "necessary skills to effectively teach the Faith." In this workshop participants study essential teaching principles given by the Central Figures, the Guardian, and the House of Justice, and then interactively endeavor to apply them in order to more skillfully, directly, and readily "converse with others on spiritual matters and to speak with ease about the Person of Bahá'u'lláh and His Revelation," even as they practice ways to more effectively "respond to challenging or skeptical questions while unfolding the purposes" of Bahá'u'lláh's universal Teachings.

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Extraordinary Days: 'Abdu'l-Bahá in New York

Hillary Chapman

Through stories of the early New York believers and 'Abdu'l-Bahá's interactions with them, background information on the situation in New York City and the world at that time, and photos and films, we will relive the Master's visit to New York. We will see how the Master engaged in social action and contributed to public discourse; specifically, we will look at his support of the peace efforts by Quakers and the American President at the Lake Mohonk Conference to prevent the devastation of World War I and his concern for poverty in New York City. We will examine how and what he taught local believers and seekers as he fearlessly "expounded the teachings in every social space." We will gain a deeper appreciation of how he "imparted love, wisdom, comfort" to all according to their needs while still challenging their assumptions, reorienting their perspectives and expanding their consciousness. It is hoped that attendees will be inspired and fortified as they "arise to follow in His path of service during the next stage in the unfoldment of the Divine Plan" by experiencing these extraordinary days of the Master.