JoshLazar

Some pics from Sunday...

These are some pics from Sunday's bike week. "DRIVE: Pinks, Transferring Ownership to God."
Thanks again to our talented Chris Gregory!

52 Days...

Today we end our 52 days of prayer as a church at Lifepoint. Today we have a fitting prayer:

Psalm 67:1-2 "God, cause Your face to shine upon us, so that Your ways and salvation will be known in Spotsylvania."

We have been praying that God will do more in these past 52 days then He did in our first year and eight months in existence.

* We have seen a group of Christ-followers become more excited than ever about following the vision
  that God has given Pastor Daniel for Lifepoint.
* We have seen many people accept Jesus and find God's design for their lives.
* We have seen people identify with Jesus and our Church through Baptism.
* We have seen families ministered to in our Bringing Sexy Back series.
* We have seen people begin to fine-tune their lives in our Drive series.
* We have seen strongholds begin to break down.
* We have seen spiritual disciplines begin to rise in the lives of our people.
* We have seen more people than ever serve in the ministries of Lifepoint through volunteering.
* We have seen God begin to move and give us direction as a church on our next location for meeting.
* We have seen the seeds sewn and know that we may never know the full impact of what went
  down over these past 52 days in the hearts of our people.

Today, we do not look to the past for direction but we look to God for our future. We celebrate the victories, learn from our mistakes, and move forward. Today is not simply the end of some prayer campaign, today is the beginning of a new chapter in the life of our church. Today we celebrate Jesus. Today we ask Him to burn in our hearts.

What will Lifepoint Church look like in 52 more days? What about in 104 days? 208? 5 years?
Jesus knows. Will you join us as we reach this community? Will you join us as we reach our state? Will you join us as we reach our nation? Will you join us as we partner with believers around the globe to offer life-transformation so that those who are far from God can experience His design for their lives?

Jesus be near us. Guide us. Move in our hearts. BURN IN US. Fill us. Use us. We ask that your arms would hold us tight. Protect us from Satan. Wrap us in your love. Bring us close to Your heart. Draw us into You! Here We Are God! WE ABANDON ALL FOR YOU!

Lifepoint Downtown...

Here is a little highlight of what God is doing at our Downtown campus!

Video Production - Playing Live to a Produced Video...

This video I produced for yesterday's creative element at Lifepoint. Our topic was
"DRIVE: Pinks - Transferring Ownership to God." It was also bike week so we decided to give out some love to all of our bikers at Lifepoint.

This video was shot in full HD. I'm always disappointed in the quality of Youtube once it gets uploaded because of their 100mb limit. Anyways... We shot this video in two parts. One set of angles we got from a car moving around the pack of bikers. The other, my favorite, I got from the back of one of the bikes! Yes, I rode on the back of the bike, tried to hold on, and got the shots we wanted from the story-board.

Here is how we made the video work live: I built the video in Final Cut to the original song. I then took a click track and loop that was perfectly matched to the original song. All of the click track got panned to the left stereo channel. All of the loop that we wanted the audience to hear got panned to the right stereo channel. I then got rid of the original song. Since our band did an original cover, this allowed us to build the video exactly to the original.

In the live mix, the click track (panned left) got mixed into the bands in-ear system. The loop got mixed in to the main mix with the band. The audience never heard the click track and the band stayed perfectly with the video. It worked very well. Thanks again to our bikers from Lifepoint for allowing us to shoot them. Shout out to Matt for building the click track and audio loop!

Enjoy (minus the horrible youtube quality!):

the low down...

So its been a few days since I have posted, and i know many of you wanted to know what's been going on... so here we go:

Last week, my beautiful wife and some of my friends threw me a surprise birthday party! The party theme was hot sauce... of course! I don't remember ever being surprised before. Here are some pics:

Friday and Saturday we went to Lynchburg for Liberty University's homecoming with Daniel and Tammy. Lots of fun! Flames killed their opponent 48-14. Beautiful weather to drive home with. Here are some pics:

We had an amazing Sunday today continuing our Drive series. Today's message was called PINKS: Transferring Ownership to God. It was also bike week. Pastor Daniel drove in on a Harley to preach! He gave a very clear gospel message. We baptized 10 people! My bro Steve and BROTHERZ-N-ARMZ bike club drove up from Richmond with 16 motorcycles! We had a huge crowd!
VIDEO AND PICS TOMORROW! Check back...

Relaxing and doing nothing tonight! Yeah!

A Touchdown For Learning...

Yesterday I had the opportunity to be involved in a public service cookout with Parkside Elementary School. Parkside is where our church Lifepoint meets on Sundays.

They entitled it "A Touchdown for Learning." There is this one particular neighborhood of families that for one reason or another just hasn't come to school activities on the school campus. So the administration decided to take the school to them.... hmmm... the Church could learn from this!

The children and their families got a little paper football with different stations that they had to go to and check off before they could get their free meal.  There was a science, technology, reading, family info, a few others, and of course... a LIFEPOINT table. The school and Lifepoint have a great relationship and they actually invited us to this event! How awesome is that! I had the opportunity to give out over 80 invite cards to Lifepoint and talk with many families about our church.

Let me tell you  how awesome Tom Eichenberg (principal) and Jennifer Gardner (a.p.) are for doing this! I have never met a school administration who was as passionate and committed to reaching children and families with learning! When my child is old enough I would love to have him attend this school!

Parkside has some of the coolest teachers in the county! They seemed so genuine and caring of those many families that participated. Parkside... YOU ROCK! This is a type of event that we would do as a church, but it is awesome to know that our schools are taking the same approach to seeing people as more than just another stat, but rather as real people who need to be loved on. Great job Parkside!

Why We Do What We Do...

This quote was taken from someone in our church yesterday they filled out on their connection card:

"Pastor Daniels advice was outstanding! It was so touching... everyone is very welcoming. I have to thank you how you all make me feel when I am here... my whole week could stink and i know for an hour every Sunday I can smile, be happy, and enjoy how happy I am at Lifepoint!"

This person indicated that they received Jesus as Savior yesterday! This is why we do what we do...

Unbelievable...

So tell me how you can go from 3-1 up on Boston to completely choking?
Always a bridesmaid... never a bride.

Baptism and Krispy Kreme

I did this video for our worship experience today...
Message - "DRIVE: Ignition"
Topic - Baptism

Jeremy did a great job explaining baptism in terms of everyone's favorite junk food.

The Trip That Never Was...

So today I packed up an overnight bag, kissed my wife Mia goodbye for the next day and drove to Richmond Airport to fly to Phoenix, AZ. I was supposed to be in Phoenix tomorrow for a leadership meeting for a church-planting missions project I am directing in Canada next summer.

My original schedule included flying out tonight to Phoenix tonight, having an all-day meeting tomorrow and then flying back red-eye tomorrow night.

Well the windy city lives up to its namesake tonight. Apparently there were extremely windy conditions in Chicago tonight delaying all flights. The soonest i would get into Phoenix tomorrow would be at 5 in the afternoon... Not happening! So i called and canceled and drove the hour back north home.

Now I get to see my beautiful wife... enjoy the day at home and ministry tomorrow...
and hopefully watch the INDIANS win tonight. Hopefully they will not choke again!

I'll post again at the end of the game...