Charlie Wear’s Notes

From Warren Buffet’s annual letter to shareholders:

“We tend to let our many subsidiaries operate on their own, without our supervising and monitoring them to any degree. That means we are sometimes late in spotting management problems and that both operating and capital decisions are occasionally made with which Charlie and I would have disagreed had we been consulted. Most of our managers, however, use the independence we grant them magnificently, rewarding our confidence by maintaining an owner- oriented attitude that is invaluable and too seldom found in huge organizations. We would rather suffer the visible costs of a few bad decisions than incur the many invisible costs that come from decisions made too slowly – or not at all – because of a stifling bureaucracy.

With our acquisition of BNSF, we now have about 257,000 employees and literally hundreds of different operating units. We hope to have many more of each. But we will never allow Berkshire to become some monolith that is overrun with committees, budget presentations and multiple layers of management. Instead, we plan to operate as a collection of separately-managed medium- sized and large businesses, most of whose decision-making occurs at the operating level. Charlie and I will limit ourselves to allocating capital, controlling enterprise risk, choosing managers and setting their compensation.”

How can this possibly work?

9th and Figueroa

I was in LA yesterday for an appearance. I’ve made this trip enough times now, that I am used to it. I arrived early and decided to have lunch at The Original Pantry, former LA mayor Riordan’s restaurant at the corner of 9th and Figueroa. I had plenty of time to walk the two blocks to my meeting.

It was a beautiful day yesterday and there were plenty of people out around 12.30-1 p.m. Film crews and street vendors were there. And a big guy with a cup of money in his hand offering to sing to passersby. Over the last ten years I have hardened my heart to giving money in cases like these. I usually just say “No, Thank You!” and walk briskly by. I did the same yesterday, but felt a prick of conscience as I did. I promised the still small voice that if the “singer” was still there when I came back I would stop, notice and be open to giving.

About an hour and a half later as I crossed the street to my paid parking lot, the “singer” was on the corner, having given up on vocalizing and merely asking for money from pedestrians. I stopped and asked, “Are you still singing?” “Yes, I am,” he said. “What kind of songs do you sing?” “I sing Christian songs.” “Well, go ahead, sing one,” I said.

And there on the corner of 9th and Figueroa in LA, he started to sing, “Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee…” And to my amazement, I joined in, “How Great Thou Art, How Great Thou Art.” Then I took the tenor harmony! “How Great Thou Art, How Great Thou Art!” I opened my wallet and gave him a blessing. He told me he was a “saved man.” And that the Lord had told him that a blessings was coming his way on that street corner.

I thanked him for letting me sing with him and headed to my car. Nice!

I’m giving up fasting for Lent. Okay, I’m just kidding, but I am kind of serious. It’s only been a few weeks now since I’ve been born again, again. I have an entirely new understanding of the good news of Jesus Christ. I have renounced sin management in favor of something I am calling “Real Life.”

In my real life I realize that I am not capable of managing my sinful nature. I am completely lacking in “will power.” On my own, I can’t do much. However, in my real life I am walking in and with the Spirit of God, living in an awareness of the Spirit’s presence. I am free from religious performance, duty and ritual!

If I am fasting from anything, it is giving up on trying to be a good person! This activity hasn’t worked out very well for me over the years. I have decided I would rather just BE a person. Rather than denying the parts of my personality that others may find prickly and unacceptable, I am embracing the way that God has made me. The self that I am denying daily is the self that is guilty, ashamed and somehow less than. The self I am embracing is the self that is a child of God, loved and loving!

If I am wearing ashes on my forehead, they are the ashes of the death of my old self and they are there for only a fleeting moment as they are washed by the baptism of the Spirit!

My 7 yr. old son has asthma. Every once in a while this leads to prolonged periods of coughing. We don’t have a primary care doctor following his condition, so when it gets bad enough, we go to the urgent care. And that’s where we were about 8.30 last night. It actually was a pretty good experience, no waiting, efficient staff, nice young doctor, prescription for advair, and on our way to the 24 hour pharmacy for a $200.00 puffer full of medication.

So far, so good. An hour later we are at home and ready to give the med to our sleepy boy. Now if Ben was an experienced asthma person he would be experienced with puffing in nasty tasting stuff in order to feel better, but he isn’t. For whatever reason, the entire process went way south. Screaming ensued. Tears abounded. Meltdown after meltdown and no medicine reached Ben’s lungs.

Upset and very sad the entire family gave up and went to bed. I really wish that Ben had just accepted that nasty tasting stuff is the path to better breathing. He didn’t last night and I don’t expect much change this morning. Maybe when he is a little older he will be willing to puff some nasty stuff in order to calm the symptoms of his condition.

There is a lesson in here somewhere I think. From a father’s viewpoint, all I want is for Ben to be healthy and not in distress. The medicine for that is available, only a simple breath away. But one whiff of a nasty taste has put him off the path to health. “I’ll never take that medicine,” he shouted, and at that point I was at a complete loss. I did my best to calm him down. I tried to explain how the medicine worked and how important it was for him to experience just a moment of discomfort in order to be better. These rational explanations did not work. I held him and told him I loved him. I prayed with him. Still, no dose of medicine.

All I could do finally, was be there with him, and love him.

A bootleg copy of the opening Alan Hirsch video at the Verge Conference: Jesus is Lord…via David Park

I think the most important thing a follower of Jesus can learn is to hear from God. Walking in the Spirit in our daily lives requires a cultivation of this ability. However, when you hear God about the big things, that is always overwhelming and very re-assuring.

The last time I got clear “orders from headquarters” was in 1999. I had closed my “normal” church the year before and was attending a pastor’s conference. Even though the church had closed I had started Next-Wave and a ministry to skateboarders in Moreno Valley. On the second night of the conference I got a clear message from God that he wanted me to continue in both of those ministries and that they would be very fruitful and so they were.

Now, more than ten years I have recently attended the Verge 2010 National Missional Community Conference, and I think I may have just gotten fresh “orders.” I didn’t come expecting it, but still some of my struggle to understand what has been happening over the last ten years clicked into place and I think I have some clear direction for at least the next ten years! You don’t know how great that is.

Having listened to the many challenging speakers on the topic of the DNA of Gospel Movements, I can sense that God is on the move here in the U.S. I am excited to be around to see it and look forward to what is going to happen in the years to come.

By the way, I got to interview Neil Cole, author of Church 3.0, and Tony and Felicity Dale, authors of The Rabbit and the Elephant. It seems that planting churches may be simpler than I ever thought!

I interviewed Church 3.0 author Neil Cole at Verge Conference in the lounge expo area.

 

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This is part 2 of an excerpt from Ed Stetzer’s message on Disciple-making at Verge 2010 Missional Community Conference:

This is part 1 of an excerpt from Ed Stetzer’s message on Disciple-making at Verge 2010 Missional Community Conference:

Francis Chan speaking during first main session at Verge.

 

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