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LifeWay to launch ‘True Love Waits 3.0’


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–True Love Waits will launch “True Love Waits 3.0: A Path of Purity” during the National Youth Workers Conference sponsored by LifeWay Christian Resources in mid-September.

“A little over a year ago, youth workers and student ministry leaders in the sexual abstinence movement met at a summit to consider the future direction of True Love Waits,” said Jimmy Hester, cofounder of True Love Waits.

“The summit’s sessions focused on better understanding specific challenges students are facing, needs leaders have in meeting them and ways in which True Love Waits can remain effective for future generations.”

Participants also cited the need for more emphasis on parental participation, specifically ways to support parents as the primary spiritual developers of their children.

In response, True Love Waits has created True Love Waits 3.0: A Path of Purity. In sync with the ministry’s sexual abstinence-until-marriage message, Hester said the new TLW initiative will address a variety of markers students experience from childhood to young adulthood. Resources for 3.0 will help guide parents and church leaders to utilize these markers as teachable moments on purity.

Among the parenting-related topics to be included in 3.0 are parental supervision and standards; consistency of lifestyle at home; taking preventive measures rather than being solely reactive; and issues related to dysfunction in families.

“While the message in society today is one of encouraging teen sex, these leaders [at the summit] emphasized that many parents are in denial as to the scope of the problem and the ways their children are affected,” Hester said.

Further details about the 3.0 initiative will be reported from LifeWay’s National Youth Workers Conference, Sept. 13-15 in Nashville, Tenn., which organizers describe as “three days of inspiration, encouragement and practical how-to’s focused on developing students.”

LifeWay launched True Love Waits in 1993 in response to requests from teenagers and their parents for a way to express their beliefs that people should remain sexually abstinent until marriage. Since then, an estimated 2.5 to 3 million youth worldwide have signed commitment cards pledging sexual purity until their wedding day. In addition to the United States, True Love Waits initiatives have been launched in a number of countries, including Uganda, South Africa, Malawi and the Philippines.

TLW resources include a range of materials for students and leaders as well as a True Love Waits New Testament and “Pure Parenting: Teaching Your Teen Why True Love Waits.” For more information, visit www.truelovewaits.com.
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Adapted from a news release from LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. For more information on the National Youth Workers Conference, visit http://www.lifeway.com/lnywc.

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