Posts Tagged ‘News’

I am very excited to announce a new direction and new focus for our ministry. As many of you know, we have endeavored over the years to create a safe online community where those who struggle with sexual integrity can come and receive support, encouragement, prayer and fellowship. We have been really successful in this and it has been a pleasure to be a part of.

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.

Last night I had a great conversation with Aaron Dailey. He and I were both RA’s together in Bible school. Well, it turns out that Aaron has recently kicked off a new ministry focused on equipping the church and Christian leaders to deal with sexual issues called Pure Path.

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!

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.

This past weekend I finished reading “Eyes Wide Open” by Jud Wilhite. I had the pleasure of finishing it while drinking coffee and eating a blueberry muffin at a local coffee shop. After I was done, I passed the book on to the barista. Hopefully it will bless her as much as it did me!

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.

Some of you may have already noticed that we have created an account on Twitter for Pure Community Ministries. It’s a great way to keep up with what we are doing, so check it out.

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

I’m really excited about the new website design and in particular our new logo.

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!

The guys at Covenant Eyes have created a new partnership with the Christian music industry called Covenant Musicians.

This is their stated purpose…

Covenant Musicians is a network of Christian artists who are committed to seeking sexual purity in their life and promoting it in their music. Covenant Musicians is a community of musicians and ministries partnering together to call the church to a life of openness, honesty, and accountability.

I especially appreciate their catch-phrase: Radical Honesty, Intentional Accountability, Authentic Community. Those things resonate deeply with what we are all about at Pure Community Ministries!

We are in the process of getting a logo designed for Pure Community Ministries. It is an interesting process because it forces us to think about who we are and what we do as a ministry. I’m excited to see the end result.

Stay tuned!