Planning ahead

Story has the power to stir imagination and endeavours and to resonate deep inside each of us. For me, this occurred recently when I heard a story about New College at Oxford University.

New College, Oxford, was founded in the late 1300’s and is one of the oldest colleges in the UK. It has an extremely grand dining hall with a high ceiling containing ornately carved massive oak beams. Over a century ago, an entomologist discovered that the beams were infested with beetles and would need replacing. The College Council agonised over where they might find oaks of sufficient size and quality to make new beams, given that oaks are slow growing.

The story recounts that it was decided to see if there might be some worthy oaks on lands scattered across the UK owned by the College. To do that it was necessary to reach out to the College Forester for his advice. The College Forester replied to the Council, “Well sirs, we was wonderin’ when you’d be askin’.”

You see, it is understood that oak beams are notorious for eventually succumbing to beetles and so when the College was founded, a grove of oaks was planted to replace the beams in the dining hall when needed. Apparently, this plan had been passed down from one College Forester to the next for over five hundred years saying, “You don’t cut them oaks. Them’s for the College Hall.”

Now I should say, it is widely understood that the story is better understood as ‘legend’ rather than ‘fact’. Yet for me it stirs my imagination and resonates deep inside, the need to plan for the future now.

Those who established BCA and served in those early years did indeed ‘plant oaks’ for the future that we draw upon now. For example, having a national Society that is able to work across numerous dioceses and Christian organisations, with clear evangelical convictions, are examples of ‘planted oaks’.

I am about to finish my fifth year as National Director, and it is my intention to work with the BCA Community to implement a strategic direction in which we aim to Reimagine BCA. By ‘reimagine’ I do not mean changing BCA beliefs, convictions, or mission. Rather in the same way that beetles will eventually have their way with old oak beams, there are BCA processes and means that need to adapt as generations adapt and as governance and leadership expectations change. This is what I mean by ‘planting oaks’ for the future.

I hope that in my time as National Director I will see some fruit from these endeavours, but as another old adage reminds me – “vision is about planting trees under which I will never swing, but under which my children and my children’s children will.”

Will you join me in prayer as we Reimagine BCA so that we can continue to go the distance?