Caleb Tseng > Caleb's Quotes

“There is a word that comes to my mind when I think about our company and our people. That word is 'love.' I love Starbucks because everything we've tried to do is steeped in humanity.

Respect and dignity.
Passion and laughter.
Compassion, community, and responsibility.
Authenticity.

These are Starbucks' touchstones, the source of our pride.

Valuing personal connections at a time when so many people sit alone in front of screens; aspiring to build human relationships in an age when so many issues polarize so many; and acting ethically, even if it costs more, when corners are routinely cut--these are honorable pursuits, at the core of what we set out to be.”
― Howard Schultz, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul

“Grow with discipline. Balance intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core. Don't embrace the status quo. Find new ways to see. Never expect a silver bullet. Get your hands dirty. Listen with empathy and overcommunicate with transparency. Tell your story, refusing to let others define you. Use authentic experiences to inspire. Stick to your values, they are your foundation. Hold people accountable, but give them the tools to succeed. Make the tough choices; it's how you execute that counts. Be decisive in times of crisis. Be nimble. Find truth in trials and lessons in mistakes. Be responsible for what you see, hear, and do. Believe.”
― Howard Schultz, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul

“He said to me, “You don’t need to give anything up. Your whole life is Lent right now.” He told me to take up the practice of pleasure: to intentionally embrace enjoyment as discipline.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“As I lay in bed the night after Larry abused me, I remembered the time I’d found out why we’d lost our church and had begun to recognize how too many churches treat sexual abuse. The unwillingness to believe. The refusal to engage with experts. The denigration of those who do. Hushed secrecy to preserve the image of “the gospel,” when justice would demonstrate the love of Christ so much better.”
― Rachael Denhollander, What Is a Girl Worth?: My Story of Breaking the Silence and Exposing the Truth about Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics

“Our culture of restlessness and limitlessness has not only affected our bodies, it has shaped our faith. As Americans and as evangelicals, the subtle idea that our relationship with God relies on our own efforts and energy is part of our DNA.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“The church has a reputation for being antipleasure. Many characterize Christians in general the way H. L. Mencken wryly described Puritans: people with a “haunting fear that someone, somewhere might be happy.”3 In reality, the church has led the way in the art of enjoyment and pleasure. New Testament scholar Ben Witherington points out that it was the church, not Starbucks, that created coffee culture.4 Coffee was first invented by Ethiopian monks—the term cappuccino refers to the shade of brown used for the habits of the Capuchin monks of Italy. Coffee is born of extravagance, an extravagant God who formed an extravagant people, who formed a craft out of the pleasures of roasted beans and frothed milk.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“Fifty years ago, if you were asked to describe a typical Christian in the world, you could confidently assert that person to be an upper middle-class, white male, living in an affluent and comfortable Midwest suburb. If you were to ask the same question today, that answer would more likely be a young Nigerian mother on the outskirts of Lagos, a university student in Seoul, South Korea, or a teenage boy in Mexico City. European and North American Christianity continue to decline, while African, Asian, and Latin-American Christianity continue to increase dramatically. In the year 1900, Europe and North America comprised 82 percent of the world's Christian population. In 2005, Europe and North America comprised 39% of the world's Christian population with African, Asian, and Latin American Christians making up 60 percent of the world's Christian population. By 2050, African, Asian, and Latin American Christians will constitute 71 percent of the world's Christian population. These numbers do not account for the fact that the majority of Christians in North America will be nonwhite. Global Christianity is clearly non-white.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

“The Bible he gave me was written not so much in words but in flames of love, fired by his prayers.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“Even the Puritans, derided by Mencken, seem like paragons of pleasure compared to overworked, stressed-out modern Americans.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“At times, the evangelical church has been indistinguishable from the Western, white American culture.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

“When we enjoy God’s creation, we reflect God himself. God does not stoically pronounce creation “good”, like a disinterested manager checking off a quality checklist so he can clock out early.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“Men are responsible before God, not only for their personal sins but also for their national sins. The tragedy of all the captive nations is a responsibility on the hearts of American and British Christians. Americans must know that they have at times unwittingly assisted the Russians in imposing on us a regime murder of and terror.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“Worship in the white captivity of the church is oftentimes a collection of individuals who happen to be in the same room. Worship is just between the individual and God, and the church service exists to help facilitate that individual communion.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

“In this volatile business of ours, we can ill afford to rest on our laurels, even to pause in retrospect. Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future. —Walt Disney”
― Theodore Kinni, Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service

“Every soul won for Christ must be made to be a soul winner.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“Could you suggest that child rearing practices could affect a nation's foreign policy? If it seems unlikely, imagine a world where half the adults are child abuse victims, and consider the many strange and unforeseen consequences that might manifest.”
― Dan Carlin, The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses

“Our reduction of sin to a personal issue means that we are unwilling to deal with social structural evils, and this reduction prevents us from understanding the full expression of human sinfulness and fallenness.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

“God will judge us not according to how much we endured, but how much we could love”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“Ask yourself if it is not also your sin that such tragedies occur, that such Christian families are alone and not helped by you who are free.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“How do we measure "success" in the typical American church - by the standards of Scripture or by the standards of the American consumer value system?”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

“My only prayer repeated again and again was "Jesus, I love you.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“If we use the language of individual sin to address sin, then no individual is guilty...But if we use the language of corporate sin, then we are all complicit.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

“Strategic thought is needed in missionary work. From the point of view of salvation, all souls are equal. From the view of missionary strategy, they are not equal.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“Too often, ethnic minorities are asked to put aside their discomfort to come and sit at the white table.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

“The early church worked secretly and illegally, and it triumphed. We must learn again to work in the same manner. Until the Communist era, I never understood why so many persons in the New Testament are called by nicknames...We continue to use secret names in our work in captive nations.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“The doctrine of the incarnation stands in opposition to our obsession with mobility.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

“God is “the Truth.” The Bible is the “truth about the Truth.” Theology is the “truth about the truth about the Truth.” Christian people live in these many truths about the Truth, and, because of them, have not “the Truth.” Hungry, beaten, and drugged, we had forgotten theology and the Bible. We had forgotten the “truths about the Truth,” therefore we lived in “the Truth.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“If you are a white Christian wanting to be a missionary in this day and age, and you have never had a nonwhite mentor, then you will not be a missionary. You will be a colonialist. Instead of taking the gospel message into the world, you will take an Americanized version of the gospel.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

“The value of the Bibles smuggled in by these means cannot be understood by an American or an English Christian who “swims” in Bibles.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

“White Christians need to see the value and worth of nonwhite leadership beyond the context of serving only ethnic-specific or immigrant churches.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity