Ministry Update

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Subject: Ministry Update

R.J. Ring's Testimony

I grew up in a very biblically conscious home. Both of my parents are strong believers and did their best to raise their children to pursue God. But I discovered pornography at age thirteen through a video game, and for the next ten years, I continued in a cycle of sin that dragged me further and further away from God. I covered my shame and my lustful fantasies by being an outwardly righteous person. I was convinced that I was a spiritual giant with a tragic flaw. The level of self-deception I was in still frightens me today.

I heard about Pure Life at a July 4th picnic but had no plans of going. Two years later, however, my sin had taken over my life and I was depressed, angry, and seemingly unable to do anything but indulge. I wanted to be “fixed,” so I looked up the only place I knew of that dealt with sexual sin. I arrived on campus in October 2020.

My “tragic-hero” view of my life was shattered in my first counseling session. To my horror, I was shown from the Scripture that I likely had never known God and was unconverted. The Lord reawakened a healthy fear of God in my heart. Over the next few months, He broke down more and more of my image. My first breakthrough came at three months, when I realized that I did not have the ability to solve my own problems. From that point, I began to cry out to God for freedom and to change my defiled heart. Around six months into the program, I heard God speak to me for the first time. I was shocked! I never knew that God would actually talk to us when we prayed! Then, a few days later while working on the assembly line at my job, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and fully born into the kingdom! Praise God for His faithfulness!

As I neared the end of my program, I began to seek the Lord on where I should go afterward. I knew that my pre-program goals were sheer foolishness, and that I needed to be discipled. The Lord opened the door to become a member of a very close group of believers in Madisonville, OH. For the past two years, I have lived, worked, and fellowshipped with this little church. God has faithfully answered my prayers for discipleship. He has provided me with a work environment that encourages personal and spiritual growth, as well as a house of godly men that also pushes me to know God more deeply. I have been astounded at His blessings and strengthened through the trials that God has allowed. He has given me fulfillment and life that I never knew was possible. Thank you, God!

Residential Program Curriculum Update

In the fall of 2020, the leaders and counselors at Pure Life Ministries gathered and brainstormed about how to better structure our nine-month residential program for a changing culture. Many practical improvements came from that discussion, but one of the biggest challenges was how to modernize the curriculum men would receive while they were here.

As part of that project, we’ve spent the past year updating some of our resources and adapting them for a younger and more modern audience. We intentionally tried to include more video teachings and Bible Studies, while relying less on reading books and watching sermons. To that end, some of our classic audio sermon series were repurposed as video teachings, and content from books or pamphlets was reformatted into interactive Bible studies. The new curriculum also includes a video testimony each week, specifically geared toward keeping hope for change in front of the students as they journey through the program.

As we began this endeavor, knowing that one of our priorities for this new curriculum was producing new video content, our video team in the Ministry Outreach department put their heads together to come up with video sets that would enhance our content and give it a professional quality. In the end, the team designed twelve different sets within our in-house video studio. Not only have we used these sets for filming the videos for the new curriculum, but you may also have seen various sets used in other videos released on our app or YouTube channel.

Over the last 12 months, a team headed up by Pastor Ed Buch developed a 40-week curriculum that includes:

30 New Video Teachings
32 New Bible Studies
11 New Testimony Videos.

In addition, we created over 80 customized Video Assignments and more than 50 Study Guide Assignments to go alongside our printed resources, as well as several other miscellaneous assignments.

While the Residential Program has undergone several changes in the past few years, this is by far the most systematic change we have made. Of course, our message on the centrality of Jesus, the cross, repentance, and living a life of mercy has not changed, but our approach is much more focused. We believe that with this new structure, the Word of God will continue to pierce hearts every week, and that students will leave here transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Visit https://www.purelifeministries.org/developing-a-grateful-heart to view one of our new video testimonies on Gratitude.

Intake Update

For decades, the staff at Pure Life have met together weekly to dedicate an hour of prayer directed specifically toward our counseling programs. Our residential program has received the majority of attention in those prayers. Time and time again we have been awed by the faithfulness of the Lord to hear our cries during those grueling hours of prayer. Every bit of the effort invested in those times has resulted in eternal benefit as the Lord has exposed secret sin, brought our website up in Google searches, and granted miraculous provision for many desperate men to enter the residential program.

The Lord has continued his faithfulness in answering prayers recently as we witnessed a fresh wave of applications and arrivals to the residential program. As a snapshot, in the first ten days of October:

5 new applications were received
6 applicants were interviewed and accepted into the program
6 new students arrived on campus.

Three Hour Services

Once a month, we have a very special service planned. The Lord has always revealed Himself to us in very powerful and intimate ways during these extended services. It has been a time where staff and students can truly lay aside all distractions and focus on meeting with the Lord. For many years it was held on Friday nights, lasting from seven to ten o’clock at night. Several years ago, during planning meetings it was decided that this service would be moved to a Sunday evening. This made way for a brunch meal and intentional fellowship with staff and students in the morning, while also granting time to seek the Lord in solitude for the service that evening. Here are a few testimonies from our last service held in September:

“During our last three-hour service, the Lord convicted me about taking advantage of His generosity, as well as my lack of regard for it. I thank God for that service because it deeply impacted me.” – Dylan

“The service was very special and powerful for me. I saw how God sees sin and how disrespectful I’ve been to Him. I asked for His forgiveness and He said, ‘I love you.’” – Tim

Special Meetings

In mid-October we were honored to have Dave Leopold come for a weekend of special meetings. He, together with his wife Becky, serve as leaders at the Faith Homes in Zion, Illinois. Together they have laid their lives down for over forty years, ministering to the Lord through prayer and intercession for the body of Christ all over the world, as well as providing a place of rest for others in the ministry.

Dave spoke to us about self-righteousness versus a lowly mind over the course of four services. We were blessed tremendously to hear someone who has saturated themselves in the Bible for fifty years speak candidly and with authority about this subject. The highlight of these talks was how the Lord used Dave to make us consider the lowly character of God through various examples in Scripture. Jesus was magnified and made sweeter and more beautiful in our eyes. Glory to God!

Staff Retreats

Being in full-time ministry can take a toll on anyone. And while the Lord faithfully supplies the needed strength for each day, it is wise to occasionally step back from the day-to-day grind of pouring into people’s lives. If Jesus needed to take time to find solitude from people and be with His Father, how much more do we!

In light of this, the leadership team felt the Lord leading us to hold three staff retreats throughout the year. For each retreat, a third of the staff go away to a cabin located in southern Kentucky, where they can spend several days getting some much needed physical and spiritual rest.

During these retreats, the staff spend time seeking the Lord through group Bible studies, times of prayer and worship, as well as having fellowship and recreation time together. Here are a couple testimonies from our most recent retreat:

“I was really blessed by the time spent seeking the Lord, and time spent together in worship and Bible Study. The presence of the Lord was very real to me, and I came away feeling very full spiritually. The highlight of the retreat for me was the time we spent after taking communion together, sharing what Jesus meant to us personally.” – Tyler

“Being the newest staff member, it can sometimes be difficult to discover my role in this community; however the Lord really used this retreat to show me the value of His body. The Lord showed me that my simplicity and deep love for Jesus can be an encouragement to my brothers around me who don’t find it as easy to have a simple faith. And I need their ability to think deeply and critically to help me understand His Word. We make a great community because He uses our strengths and weaknesses to complete His body.” – James

New Life On Campus

Speaking of our community, in the last two years the Lord has added four little ones to our PLM family: Boaz, Jacob, and twin girls, Talia and Tiannah! Shortly before the Imperato twins joined the family in early August, Boaz took his first steps and is now walking around everywhere. Meanwhile, Jacob started growing his first tooth, and he’s on the verge of crawling. During their play dates, Jacob likes to have Boaz chauffeur him around in his walker! What joy and laughter these precious new lives have brought to our staff. And what kid wouldn’t want 40 uncles!

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Subject: Ministry Update