Joe Johnson’s path to becoming CEO of Life Surge began with a lawn mower and an entrepreneurial spirit. As a missionary kid growing up with humble beginnings in Brazil, Johnson developed what he calls an “immigrant mentality” that set him apart from his family of pastors and missionaries.
“When I was 12 to 15 years old, I was just wired differently than my family,” Johnson recalls. “I thought more about money because I didn’t have any.”
At 13, Johnson started his first business mowing lawns in Ohio. Wise beyond his years, he soon realized he could employ friends to do the mowing while he focused on expanding his business. Before he even had a driver’s license, Johnson was managing a crew and had to hire a driver to transport them between jobs.
“We had no clue how to put a lawn in, so we would go to the construction sites and we would just watch what they were doing and we would write everything down,” Johnson reveals.
This early success planted the seeds for Johnson’s future as a business leader who would eventually fuse faith with finance to spearhead America’s fastest-growing Christian business. However, his journey to founding Life Surge was not without setbacks. As a young entrepreneur, Johnson faced bankruptcy at age 21 when his landscaping business collapsed. He was $330,000 in debt.
“I came to the conclusion the primary reason for my bankruptcy as a young businessman was because of my sacred-secular dichotomy,” Johnson explains. “I really did not see my business as the thing that God called me in terms of my ministry.”
This experience sparked a passion in Johnson for helping people in business see their work through a lens of faith. It took nearly three decades for that passion to fully crystallize into the vision for Life Surge, but it was a clear indicator that his dream would bear fruit.
The Rise of Life Surge
Founded in 2019, Life Surge has grown from a mustard seed to a giant tree. Life Surge says, since its inception, it has grown 46,000% with events increasing by 1,400% and ticket sales up 1,329%.
Life Surge’s mission is “to inspire, transform, and equip people to surge their lives God’s way.” The organization focuses on teaching Christians how to create wealth and use it for “kingdom impact” through what it calls the “4 W’s: worship, wisdom, work, and wealth.”
Johnson says Life Surge fills a void left by many churches that avoid teaching about wealth creation. “Because a lot of church leaders have been silent on the subject of wealth creation, it creates a vacuum,” he explains. “So the church goes to other people to get practical instructions on how to create more resources.”
Life Surge aims to provide practical instruction from a faith-based perspective. The organization offers education on useful topics such as trading and real estate. But Johnson emphasizes that the goal isn’t simply to make people rich.
“We are really focused on kingdom impact,” he says. “We’re trying to mobilize the Christian community to really not be afraid of this issue of being a faithful resource creator and multiplier and being a good steward with that, but using it for the purposes that God has called him to use it for.”
A Movement Built on Community
At the heart of Life Surge are its large-scale live events, which bring together thousands of like-minded Christians. These conferences feature well-known Christian entrepreneurs and artists and combine elements of worship, wisdom, and encouragement to equip attendees with the tools necessary to win in the workplace.
Nine-time Grammy nominee Natalie Grant, who is co-founder of Hope for Justice, a nonprofit organization battling human trafficking, and Jeremy Camp, whose new album, Deeper Waters, dropped in May, are two of the performers to take the stage to the delight of Life Surge attendees. Its revolving list of motivational speakers is extensive and includes football hero turned philanthropist Tim Tebow and Soul Surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a 2003 shark attack but used that tragedy to strengthen her faith in God and inspire millions of people with her story on the big screen.
Life Surge events regularly draw crowds of 8,000 or more, with its largest event selling 13,000 tickets. The average event sells 5,000 tickets, and over 80% of events sell out.
These sold-out events don’t happen by coincidence. Johnson believes strongly in the power of these in-person gatherings to create transformation. While the majority of people across the planet lost face-to-face connections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Life Surge saw the need to rebuild community and began achieving that through its one-day, in-person live events in cities throughout America.
“There is sort of that eternal transformative decision. And then there’s what I would call sort of the earthly transformative decision where you know what you’re not satisfied with where you’re at in life and your career hasn’t necessarily given you the answers that you were hoping for,” Johnson explains. “And here’s another option. And you decide to move forward and thousands of people at the same time join you in that same decision.”
Faith, Hope, and the Future
Looking ahead, Johnson and his team are focused on continuing to serve their core audience of Christians seeking to grow in faith and business. They plan to launch new products and services to help customers on their journey.
For Johnson, the rapid growth of Life Surge is exciting, but his focal point remains on the impact on individuals and families. He hopes Life Surge can help people “have the opportunity to change the path of their family and the legacy of their family and where they’re headed.”
From his modest start mowing lawns to leading a nationwide movement, Johnson has come a long way, but he hasn’t forgotten the lessons of his youth or where he comes from. Just as he once taught himself how to landscape by observing construction sites, Johnson continues to look for innovative ways to help Christians bridge the gap between faith and business, fulfilling what he sees as Billy Graham Jr.’s prophecy of “one of the next great moves of God” happening through believers in the workplace.
“I just think the power of community, the power of doing things together, knowing that you’re not alone, you’re not taking that step by yourself is a very transformative thing,” Johnson concludes.