"Truth is truth no matter where you find it."

Perhaps you've heard this said before? I certainly believe this statement to be true. In my opinion, only religiosity can get in the way of truth speaking to us in many varied forms and through many varied sources. Not only can irreligious and therefore, unconventional, sources speak truth to us, but often, because of the very fact that they lack a religious veneer, they can do so by seeing straight to the heart of a matter in a new and un-obscured way. We would do well to pay attention when we see examples of this in effect. We would do even better to consciously look for examples where the Kingdom message is being furthered by these unconventional sources. After all, as another oft-quotes saying goes:

"A rose, by any other name, is still a rose."

Recently I had the chance to catch a Charlie Rose interview with Howard Shultz, chairman of the board for Starbucks. I find Shultz' Starbucks story a compelling one; and one that many North American Evangelicals could learn much from. In my mind, Shultz's approach to both life and business is a prime example of the kind of unconventional Christian wisdom I'm speaking of.

That is not to say that Shultz is some sort of 21st century prophet, or that Starbucks is an ideal Kingdom version of corporate identity. I know, for instance, that some question Starbucks' aggressive approach towards expansion and market share. Some go as far as to call the approach "predatory". Others wonder why Starbucks hasn't done more to partner with the Fair Trade movement- of which the coffee industry is front and center. These are important concerns.

But, as another saying suggests, there's no need to "throw the baby out with the bathwater." In other words, I believe there still exist nuggets of wisdom to be discovered in the Starbucks story- that is, if we have the eyes to see them.

What strikes me about Shultz is that he's not only a corporate visionary, but a humanitarian one as well. Yes, he has built a mammoth coffee company that now exists in half the world, in places like China and India- as well as North America and Europe, but he's also instilled a value system that is in many ways, in my humble opinion, very pro-Kingdom. This value system simultaneously seeks to benefit employees, the environment, the global network involved with coffee production, as well as all of humanity.

Shultz talks about feeling passionate, from the get-go, about creating a culture where everyone shares responsibility and success. Shultz expressed this belief early on in Starbucks' history by granting full health benefits to employees who worked 20 hours a week or more. In corporate America, then and now, this was almost unheard of. Even bolder was his decision to grant stock options to employees. When he began with this M.O. in mind, it flew in the face of predominant management philosophies of the time. And remember, he really had to fight for these beliefs early on- because this was long before Starbucks was making any money.

American retail, at the time Shultz was starting Starbucks, actually took advantage of what he calls "churn". Simply put, "churn" refers to the practice of relying on high turnover rates to reduce health care costs. If employees leave while still in a probationary period, the company avoids having to offer health care benefits. Another common practice was to over-hire part-time employees simply because they fall below the hours-per-week worked threshold that would grant them health care benefits. Shultz had the foresight to see that this was no way to be fair, nor to build an enduring, sustainable, positive company fabric.

Speaking of health care in America, Shultz has some interesting statistics to banty about. Apparently nearly 50 million Americans currently lack any kind of health insurance. Shultz made two important points about this:

1.) It is morally unacceptable for a nation as blessed as America to allow 50 million of its people go without basic health coverage.

2.) This lack of coverage is not without a price. The cost is merely passed on through the perpetual raising of rates for those individuals with health insurance and to corporate America. Surprising to me was the statement that Starbucks now spends more on health care coverage than they do on coffee. And according to Shultz, this figure increases by about 5% every year.

Shultz perspective is refreshing because he sounds equally unlike a naïve hippie or a corporate vulture. Pragmatism and idealism seem to join hands in Shultz' suggestion that the way to overcome the health care crisis is through a three-way commitment between politicians, corporate America, and the health care industry. In Shultz perspective, any thing less than a three-way joint effort will turn this crisis into a full-blown catastrophe- given enough time. Of course, I'll add my two cents and suggest that the Church could do much to make this issue a politically credible one. The fact that we haven't stepped to the plate thus far is a shame.

Shultz's approach is a good example for Evangelical America because it targets a happy medium between visionary idealism and real-world pragmatism. Frankly, amongst fellow Evangelicals, I too often see this middle road left untraveled. Instead I see examples of one of two extremes:

1.) A poverty mentality: where we live with less and strive for less merely because we operate on some dualistic plane where only the "spiritual life" matters.

2.) The privatization of the gospel: where we reduce faith to an intellectual belief about the afterlife that has no real-world effect on how we live our lives as consumers, as citizens, etc.

In my opinion, neither one of these is an apt response because both represent selfishness- which of course flies in the very face of the Gospel message. A middle ground, or a third option, is what we need to explore. I just hope we're not so religious as to think that only Christian individuals and Christian organizations can offer helpful and hopeful examples of how to make the Kingdom message a dynamic and growing reality in our world.