Levi Lusko's Unexpected Social Media Post

Hey, it’s Brady,

Levi Lusko is the pastor of Fresh Life Church in Montana.

The other day a post of his came across my feed. And we rarely see stuff like this.

It’s one of the best I’ve ever seen from a pastor.

It’s a carousel post of 14 photos and videos.

The first photo is a candid shot of Levi and his wife, Jennie, at his father's funeral.

Levi's dad, Chip, had pancreatic cancer and Pastor Levi had been posting regularly about his dad’s fight with the disease over the past year.

But there are 13 other photos and videos in this carousel. None shot with a professional camera. Just candid shots from a phone. Some blurry. Some low resolution.

In this carousel you’ll find images like:

• The family dancing around a hot tub

• Taking the kids to sports

• Meeting up with friends on a work trip

It's the complete human experience in one post. Which is captured perfectly in Pastor Levi's caption:

“life lately. sorrow and gladness. hope and mourning. tears and laughter. grief and glory.”

To be abundantly clear, this post isn’t successful because it got a ton of likes.

My own mother passed away after a multi-year fight with cancer. She was 54. It was awful. You don’t use that kind of thing for social media engagement.

There’s a deeper lesson here…

Pastor Levi has surely preached countless times about life’s darkest seasons.

Now, he’s taking what’s preached from the pulpit and showing us what it actually looks like in real life.

Why? To shout as loud as he can from his public platform online:

Christ is still on the throne.
Jesus is still king.
Death has no sting.

Pastor Levi could have kept this private. As is his right. This stuff is agony.

But by inviting people into his pain and suffering - and not hiding from it - he gives us permission to confront our own sorrow.

And to say with faith, “God is still good.”

The reason this post resonated with so many people is because we see ourselves in it.

The human experience on full display.

A beloved dad went to meet Jesus. And the kids had tennis practice.

Answering Your Questions About Church & Life [Unfiltered]

This week on The Pro Church Tools Show, we're answering your questions.

Questions like:

• What are the first steps you take when you have a brand new problem in your church?

• Does being in a small town change how my church should be doing social media?

This is The May 2024 Mailbag (AKA ‘Bro’ Church Tools).

Let's dive in.

Full episode link here.

Thanks as always for your time, attention, and trust. Talk to you next Thursday. - Brady Shearer