Contact: Don Beehler, 615-566-0776, don@abcdcommunications.com

FRANKLIN, Tenn., Jan. 15, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ -- Building on the deep and rich legacy of the True Love Waits movement, which for two decades has helped millions of young people pursue lives of sexual purity, LifeWay Christian Resources has relaunched True Love Waits through a video-driven Bible study for students called The True Love Project.

The eight-session curriculum was written by author and speaker Clayton King.

The True Love Project seeks to communicate God's design for relationships to a new generation of students and young adults who may be struggling or confused about love, dating and sex. In a culture that has largely abandoned a traditional view of marriage, it is a summons for the next generation of students to understand their sexuality in light of the gospel, according to Ben Trueblood, director of student ministry at LifeWay Christian Resources.

"True Love Waits has been a tremendous movement, orchestrated by God, to spread the biblical message of sex and purity to a younger generation," Trueblood said. "Now, God has opened the door for the True Love Waits message to be restated, to once again point people to the gospel through this very important issue in our culture."

In the midst of a culture that is sex-saturated, Trueblood said today's generation needs a new message "to see how the gospel impacts their purity and how their choices in purity are about more than their sexual decisions."

The refocused message has been inherent in True Love Waits from the beginning according to Dr. Richard Ross, one of the co-founders of the movement, which was introduced publicly in 1993. At the time, he was a youth ministry consultant for LifeWay and a student minister at a local church. The first 53 students to participate were from his church.

In their commitment, these early adoptees were "affirming their love for Jesus through their commitment to purity," said Ross. Since that day, an estimated 3 million students have made that pledge around the world.

For King, that legacy is something on which he wants to build.

"I spoke at one of the very first True Love Waits DiscipleNow weekends," he said. "I signed the [commitment] card, along with hundreds of thousands of students, and I still meet people today who give testimony to a season in their adolescence when they began to discover God's design for love and intimacy through True Love Waits."

The new curriculum captures the gospel-centric focus implanted in the original and that Trueblood wanted to bring back to the forefront.

By beginning lessons in the broader paradigm of the story of the Bible -- Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration -- Trueblood believes King's lessons will give students the proper perspective for later lessons dealing specifically with sex and purity.

"We believe students can live pure lives in Jesus' power," King said. "We also seek to communicate the forgiveness and restoration that Jesus offers those who compromised their sexual purity in the past. Just because you messed up doesn't mean you give up."

For more information, visit TrueLoveWaits.com.