Being a Higher Purpose Organization

Working for SpringHill, a not-for-profit organization committed “to creating life transforming experiences where young people can know and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ” can be heady stuff. It’s easy to believe that there’s no higher purpose than our mission.

Yet over the last couple of years I’ve been challenged with the question “is our mission ultimately our highest calling or does SpringHill have yet a higher purpose?

An article by Russell Eisenstat and Tobias Fredberg of the TruePoint Center for Higher Ambition convinced me that SpringHill should have a larger purpose. So I’ve modified slightly Eisenstat and Fredberg’s language and began to think in terms of SpringHill being a “higher purpose organization.”

What does “higher purpose” mean? It means SpringHill’s called to make a larger impact in the world than it can do on its own by being a significant part of a world-changing movement.

By implications this means that the movement’s larger, more significant and enduring than SpringHill itself. Now it’s easy for SpringHill to understand its connection to the higher purpose of Christ and His Kingdom. But the deeper and more tangible question centers on understanding “what’s Christ’s unique higher purpose for SpringHill and how does it fit into His Kingdom?”

I don’t have the answer yet (to find the answer’s an act of discovery) but I have some preliminary thoughts on our higher purpose.

I believe it will involve the spiritual growth of all kids and that we’ll enable others to serve kids better. Finally our higher purpose may center on being an organizational role model that helps other not-for-profit’s be more effective in their work.

So please share your thoughts and insights into what you believe SpringHill’s “higher purpose” might be. I’d love your input.