Levi Lusko » Uncategorized

Are tattoos bad?

levilusko — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:01:40 +0000

Anybody can appreciate great art. But what if that art ends up on your skin? Sinner. J/K But seriously, is it okay to get a tattoo?

Text-msg question about tattoos answered @ Skull Church.

Poema at Skull Church

levilusko — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:48:21 +0000

From time to time we have guest artists play at skull church. These nights are random and unannounced, and they are always super fun. In addition to the songs they play during the service, we get the bands to do a 1/2 hour set afterwards as a bonus. Last week we had a group called Poema that has been newly signed to Tooth and Nail.

These two sisters are young, (the younger of the two had a record deal before she got her drivers license!) super talented and have a bright future ahead of them. They were also our first female artists that we have had out and as a bonus they are from my old stomping ground, Albuquerque, NM. Check out their music–they have a new album coming out soon that they let us listen to and it sounds epic.

Enjoy this video of one of their songs that they played at skull church:

Rick Warren Twitterview

levilusko — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:11:50 +0000

What a night! Wow. There was an over-capacity crowd, for the second evening in a row, at the final night of the 20th Annual SoCal Harvest Crusade. The all time attendance hit the 4 million mark. Chris Tomlin was unbelievable. Thousands responded to the simple preaching of the gospel by Greg Laurie. The night ended with a fireworks celebration as Chris did another worship set.

Being there you got the energizing sense that you were getting to be apart of evangelistic history as it was being written. One thing is for sure, God moved this weekend! I am too tired right now (and running late for my flight) for this to be my only blog on the concluding night of the harvest crusade, I will try and gather my thoughts for a later post. Be forewarned, the word epic will definitely be included–maybe twice!

Pastor Rick Warren (@rickwarren) gave the opening prayer last night and I had the chance to sit down with him before the event started and capture some of his thoughts about the significance of 20 years of Harvest Crusades in Southern California. I could only post a clip of it on twitter (limitations of 3G) Here is the full video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Soundcheck

levilusko — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:46:18 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

A little downtime

levilusko — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:57:08 +0000

The family and I have been on vacation in Southern California for the past few days. I will be hosting Greg Laurie’s Harvest Crusade at Angels Stadium this weekend but we decided to come out early and catch our breath. For the last few months my schedule has been intense and a little downtime with my three ladies is just what the dr. ordered. I was bummed to miss a skull church service for the first time but I hear our creative arts pastor, Kevin, did a great job teaching in my place and I will definitely grab the podcast.

We have been recharging our batteries by sleeping in, enjoying breakfasts, spending time at the beach and considering the Lusko family is 75% female we have seen the inside of more than a few stores. (I only pretend to mind.) Orange County still feels like home and it has been a relaxing time. We are really excited about the Harvest Crusade this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This year marks the 20th anniversary of this Anaheim outreach and we are excited to see God move in power as the gospel goes out. Keep the event in prayer and u can invite people to the event, live or online at harvest.org.

Tomorrow night I will be speaking for Greg at his weekly Thursday night Bible study in Orange County so he can charge up his voice for a FULL weekend of preaching. The study starts at 7pm at the Free Chapel on Jamboree and McGaw in Irvine if you live in the area–join us!

Fancy schmancy

levilusko — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:51:05 +0000

In case you didn’t notice this is a completely redesigned levilusko.com. We have been meaning to tweak it for a while, because the old site–especially the blog, were painful aesthetically. (Its a proven fact that Bad graphic design hurts small parts of your soul)

But you know how it is, especially if you work at a church, projects pile up, and our art dept has a list as long as snuffaluffagus’ trunk–10 pts for most obscure sesame street reference ever?! We had planned to get to this site after the big release of
freshlifechurch.com 2.0 in august. (ssssshhhhhhhh! That’s a secret). That was the plan, but one of our creatives got so excited about an idea he had for this site that he gave no sleep to his eyes until it was done. I think he did a beautiful job, on the first try too!

As a result, I think I will be more inspired to blog more often–for two reasons: 1. The wordpress app for the iPhone is epic. (I am typing this on it just now) And 2. I no longer cringe at the site of my blog.

Anyhow, hope you are having a great day and may you realize that just like a graphic designer who is stoked on seeing a new project come to life, God has a master plan for you–one that doesn’t include stock photography or clip art–and He won’t be satisfied until
It’s fully realized and you look just like Christ.

PS if you use a reader–my rss feed has changed u can find the new feed at the top of the page.

PPS props to Trever Hoenhe for photography, Devan Flaherty for site design and Christopher Laurie for teaching me that design is a good idea.

heaven and earth

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:40:00 +0000

D.L. Moody, the great 19th century evangelist, said: “One day you will open the paper and read that D. L. Moody is dead. Don’t you believe it! In that day I will be more alive than I have ever been before… I was born of the flesh in 1837, I was born of the Spirit in 1855. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit shall live forever.” Since that is true for the believer, one year ago today my friend, Christopher Laurie, became more alive than ever before when his earthly life ended and he entered into the presence of the Lord.
The entire month of July my heart has grown increasingly heavy as the 24th approached because of what I knew it would bring back by way of pain and sorrow for his family. I remember vividly hearing the news, on that thursday morning, and it was so hard. I couldn’t believe it. The first thing I said when I got the call was, “that’s not true.” How could it be? I had been texting and emailing back and forth the night before…It seemed impossible. It’s not everyday that you meet someone and instantly like just everything about them, but that was how I felt about Christopher. He had a very unique style, an amazing sense of design, was genuine, had a great sense of humor and a very distinct laugh that I sometimes catch traces of when Jonathan LOL’s. Since Christopher and I both had young families I looked forward to our friendship growing as we both were new to fatherhood. But more than anything I began to feel sick and crushed when I thought of his mom and dad, wife and brother, and his baby girls. The sorrow I felt at “losing” a friend was and is compounded at the size of the vacuum I knew his departure left in their lives.

God has been faithful to uphold them through this year and I have marveled at how they haven’t retreated but advanced their ministry while mourning. Greg has preached more boldly than ever, Cathe has been right there supporting and praying, Brittany has counseled new believers at the crusades and Jonathan has shared his testimony, starting at freshlife, and then at churches and crusades all over the nation. They have also started a new Bible study in Orange County, that I just spoke at and it is awesome. As a family they are all involved in it on different levels and God is using it powerfully. They have chosen to think more highly of others than themselves. I have heard Greg say that his love for this world has diminished and his desire for heaven has intensified through all this. I would agree, and in the last 365 days, I don’t think a single one has ended where I haven’t thought of Christopher and wondered what he was experiencing and prayed for his fam. I know Topher is with Jesus, face to face, in a place where there is no suffering, and no sickness, and no sin. I smile when I think of his family getting to see him there. I believe that if he can see them now he is stoked on how they haven’t sat around feeling sorry but the way they miss him has fueled their mission for Jesus to be made famous.

(here is a pic of Topher’s oldest daughter, Stella and my oldest daughter Alivia that he took in Montana 20 days before he went to heaven.)

Christopher’s death has impacted me more than any encounter with death has, in my life, up until this point. I type this somewhere above California, on a plane, and it just occurred to me, thinking back on this year, how profoundly true that is. I am a pastor, and have been around a lot of death. I couldn’t begin to count the amount of times I have stood looking at caskets in church, and prayed with families in hospitals after a loved one had died in hospital rooms. But this was different. It changed me. And more than ever before it has fueled my desire to understand heaven, to run for heaven, to live for heaven, to populate heaven. I also know that this will not be the last significant encounter with death that I will have because, until Jesus returns, every single person I know will one day die, including me. Keeping this in mind affects the way I interact with people, the way I end conversations with people that I love, the way I hug my kids, the way I text-message friends, the way I kiss my wife and the way I preach the gospel. As it’s been said, Only one short life and it will soon be past–only what’s done for Christ will last. And until I stand before Christ myself, and am more alive than ever before, Topher is apart of the great cloud of witnesses that I picture cheering me on to run this race with endurance, urging me to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.

Phil Wickham at Skull Church

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:50:00 +0000

My good friend, Phil Wickham, showed up and played a few songs at skull church tonight. Then after the service was over, he did a whole worship set and it was off the charts. I love his heart for the Lord and his theologically charged, passion inspiring songs. Plus, even by himself, he puts so much into his singing and playing that it is as rich as if a whole band was up there. Here is a little clip I grabbed with my phone and a shot of kevin guido, (fresh life creative arts pastor) Phil, and myself.

Awesome testimony from Skull Church

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:51:00 +0000

This week we saw 16 people make professions of faith in Christ at skull church. That night I saw this comment that was left on the skull church fan page on
facebook

(if you are not a fan you should become one!) and I just had to share it:

Amy Gembala “thank you so much… for helping me my brother his bff and his bff’s gf and my bff all commit to jesus thank you”
Wed at 9:24pm ·

If that doesn’t just make you smile–something inside of you must be broken. I praise the Lord for what He is doing through this outreach service. You can watch the most recent video or download the messages at skullchurch.com. Blessings!

P.S. For those who are scratching their heads–a bff is a best friend (forever) and a gf is a girlfriend.

A whole new side of skull church

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:41:00 +0000

Here is the most recent skull church service archive. Unlike our Sunday video, which we release immediately, we are taking a little time to clean up the skull church video before it goes out. God has really been blessing this outreach and each week we have seen capacity crowds and people make decisions for Christ. The study we have been going through is on death and surrounding events.
We began in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was arrested and will trace his steps through his trials, torture, and ultimately his execution. A very fun element of the service is that people watching online or in the audience can text-message or twitter questions that they have about the Bible study in and if they are relevant some of them get answered, on the fly, while I am speaking. It adds a very neat interactive element. We also set aside pockets of time occasionally to answer questions that come in throughout the week but are not about the study we are going through. If you have any questions about the Bible, life, or something that you have been wondering text it to 41411 and put the word skull before your question. Or you can tweet it to @skullchurch. Enjoy this video–I think that our video dept did a fabulous job with it.

The Religious Trial :: The Bloody Death of Jesus Christ (Part 2)

from fresh life church on Vimeo.

Jesus is put on trial, illegally. There is a special song performed by Dominic Balli and the Roots Republic after the teaching.