If you are a teenager, stay tuned to Teens Against Porn. A lot of new, cool features should be popping up!

If you aren’t a teen, but know one who struggles with porn and wants help – send them our way. Teens Against Porn is a great place where teens are empowered to Get Real, Get Honest and Get Free!

For those of you who were already familiar with Higher-Calling.com, that site has been rebranded and relaunched as The Purity Report (www.purityreport.com). We still have the same great online community for those struggling with sexual sin. But the additional focus of accountability with The Purity Report gives you a powerful tool to create safe accountability relationships in the area of purity.

Check it out and stand with us. This is the year to get real, get honest and get free!

Happy New Year!

After the New Year 2010, we will be rebranding and relaunching Higher-Calling.com. After the New Year, we will be known as “The Purity Report.” When you visit higher-calling.com you will be redirected to the new site.

What is The Purity Report? I’m glad you asked!

Most of us have seen or heard about accountability going badly. The church has not done a great job keeping accountability safe. It has tended to be too authoritarian or too unstructured. Neither are helpful and leave those struggling with purity frustrated or worse, believing a lie that the church does not have the answers!

The Purity Report is a simple framework for accountability relationships. It consists of a “script” for confession to be used by those struggling with purity and a set of guidelines for their accountability friends. The combination of these components foster safe and effective accountability.

The program begins with a 40-day challenge during which strugglers complete The Purity Report every day for 40 days. They share that daily report with someone they know personally. We also have specific forums to share the report with the online community, and tools on the website to help send the report to those who are not on the website through email. It takes about 5-10 minutes each day to complete the report. After the 40-day challenge, we encourage participants to continue using the report weekly to stay accountable long-term.

We will continue to foster a safe online community as we have always done. But, we are really excited to take this new direction. We have a vision to see accountability restored to the church and for many to be set free!

Please join us in sharing The Purity Report with your churches. If you would like, you can contact me at info@purityreport.com with any questions or if you would like us to discuss the program with your church.

You can visit the newly designed website at www.purityreport.com. It is still under development, but you can learn more about the program there.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear about what Aaron and his team are doing. I look forward to seeing them grow and hopefully taking advantage of some of the resources they plan to develop.

There can never be too many in the fight for our character and integrity. In our society, this is never more true than in the area of sexuality. Go check out Pure Path and show them some love!

It is always refreshing to see someone as successful as he is living out his faith.

The blog post was precipitated by the recent moral failure of a pastor who lives in my community – Cherokee County, Georgia.

This past Sunday Elevation Church hosted Ted and Gayle Haggard for an
interview on the topics of sin, forgiveness, and the essence of the
Gospel.

You can read some of Steve Furtick’s thoughts on the interview here…

I am really glad to see Mr. Haggard speak so openly about his struggle. It helps folks know that we all struggle…even a pastor and evangelical leader is not immune to sexual sin. If it can happen to him, it can happen to any of us.

Jud does a really great job of taking some well-known passages of scripture and breathing new life into them. He adds an insightful twist that gives them new meaning.

Each short chapter is an example of God’s grace from scripture accompanied by a poignant story of how it plays out in real life. That is what I appreciate most about the book. It deals with grace where real people live. Jud could have easily stopped with verses and his exposition of them. It is the stories showing God in action that makes it something special.

By the end of the book, you can’t help but be encouraged about who you are in Christ, how God sees you and the purpose you were put here to fulfill for God’s glory.

We will post (uh…I mean tweet) updates to the blogs and other nuggets regarding purity issues.

We purchased a logo project from LogoWorks and it turned out really well. I really liked the design elements they incorporated into the logo itself. The abstract tree represents life, strength, growth and strong roots. Consistency is also reflected in the repeating pattern of the branches. The expression of life and growth are also reiterated by the green in the logo and the text.

These design elements obviously fit well with our vision to help those who struggle with or have been hurt by sexual sin find healing. It reminds me of the tree of life mentioned in Genesis and Revelations. As Jesus said in John 15, he is the vine and we are the branches. Apart from him we can do nothing.

I was able to easily incorporate the new logo into a website theme using a software package called Artisteer. My wife helped me with the color palette a bit!

I hope you enjoy the changes as much as I do!