A Statement from Life Surge
A letter from our team: what we agree with, what we dispute, and what we are doing about it
You may have seen a recent article in Mother Jones and a related podcast about Life Surge. If you are a student, a partner, a sponsor, a church leader, or someone who sat in one of our arenas and is now wondering what to make of it, you deserve to hear from us directly. This is where we stand.
First, what we agree with
If an organization puts the name of Jesus on the door, it should be held to a higher standard. We accept that standard, and we welcome it.
If a company takes advantage of people, it should not be in business. We agree with that too, without qualification.
Where we part ways with this reporting is on what is actually happening at Life Surge today.
What the reporting left out
The story was built on a handful of individual accounts, some from people who never attended a Life Surge event or enrolled in a class. We do not dismiss those accounts. Each one is being reviewed, and where we have fallen short of our own standards in an individual case, we will make it right. But a few experiences, selected because they fit a narrative, do not describe the typical experience at Life Surge. The evidence that does describe it was available to the reporters, and it was either left out or mentioned just long enough to claim balance without being given any weight.
Here is that evidence.
More than 100,000 people attend a Life Surge event every year. The ticket is generally $20 or less for a full day with ten or more speakers and lunch, backed by a money-back guarantee. Fewer than 3% of ticket purchasers ever enroll in advanced training.
More than 3,000 public Google reviews give Life Surge an average rating of 4.8 out of 5, with well over 90% of reviewers giving five stars. SurgeU students, the people who went through the entire enrollment process and the entire education, rate it 4.9 or higher, with 99% of reviews at four or five stars. Our customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores are consistently at levels regarded as exceptional in any industry.
A public-records request to the Federal Trade Commission, cited in the reporting itself, returned 49 complaints dating back to 2016. In that same period, hundreds of thousands of people bought a Life Surge ticket.
No organization serving hundreds of thousands of people will have a perfect record, and we have never claimed one. What matters is the standard an organization sets, the systems it puts in place to uphold it, and what it does when it falls short. The exceptions are real, and we are addressing them. They are not the rule.
How this story was built
We have been here before. Standing where we stand, we have learned to recognize the pattern: settle on the narrative first, find a handful of unhappy voices in a community of hundreds of thousands, skip the tens of thousands who would tell a different story, and present the exception as the rule. Many of you will recognize it as the clickbait playbook, and we do not believe it stops with us. It is also, unfortunately, how a great deal of news gets made today, because a sensational headline earns clicks and a balanced one does not. We are not going to pretend that is fair-minded journalism, and we are not going to respond to it like a company with something to hide.
Life Surge is not big enough to draw a million podcast views on its own. Nobody in the national media cares that much about a one-day event in Columbus or Atlanta. So, this story was packaged around the most trusted Christian voice in American sports, and Tim Tebow’s name is what made it travel. We love Tim. He has stood on our stages for years, his compensation has never been tied to the sale of anything, and what he brings to a crowd is a call to serve Jesus and to serve others. He has chosen to pause with Life Surge while his team gets to the facts, and we understand. He is the one carrying the weight of this personally. A man who has given his life and his platform to the gospel and to rescuing the vulnerable should not become collateral damage in a story about us, and it grieves us that our name was the one used to reach him.
We have said more about Tim in a separate statement, and we would ask you to read it: https://lifesurge.com/a-statement-on-tim-tebow/
Please pray for him, for his family, and for the work of the Tim Tebow Foundation.
What our policies require
Our written policies, training, and monitoring prohibit the conduct the reporting describes, and we enforce them.
We do not train, condone, or tolerate using anyone’s faith, fear, or spiritual beliefs to pressure a purchase. We take our compliance policies seriously. Acting in a manner that is not consistent with those policies is grounds for removal, and we have removed speakers and sales personnel who fell short of that standard. Where it has happened in an individual case, it happened against our policy and our training, not because of them.
We do not instruct anyone to take on debt they cannot afford, and we do not train our representatives to pressure anyone into borrowing. Financing for advanced programs is provided by independent third-party lenders who make their own credit decisions.
Our headline speakers are not asked to promote or endorse our educational programs from the Life Surge stage, and their compensation is not tied to any class enrollments or sales that happen at Life Surge events. They are on our stage to share their story and their faith. Responsibility for our business rests with us, not with them.
Participation is voluntary at every step. The event stands on its own. The three-day Impact Class is optional, costs $97, and comes with a money-back guarantee. Advanced training is a separate decision, and it is a serious commitment of time and money, on purpose. Learning to invest or to trade well takes sustained instruction, the same way a degree or a professional certification does. We are on the premium side of financial education because that is what real skill-building costs, and we stand behind the value of every level of it.
Who we are
We are unapologetically Christian, and we are unapologetically in the business of financial education. We have always known that standing at the intersection of faith and finance makes us a lightning rod, and we are at peace with that. The church has been skittish about money for a long time. It teaches giving well and teaches earning hardly at all, and yet every ministry we know of has to be funded. We stand in that gap on purpose.
We reject the prosperity gospel, and we reject the poverty gospel just as firmly. We do not teach that faith guarantees wealth or that giving buys God’s favor. We teach stewardship: that the resources, skills, and influence entrusted to us are meant to be multiplied for Kingdom Impact through discipline, work, and education. Our team says so from the stage, and our disclosures say so on the screen. Financial outcomes are never guaranteed, and our training and written materials make clear that they should never be promised.
Last year, 25,541 people made a decision for Christ at Life Surge events. We never ask for a donation in connection with those decisions. We did not build Life Surge to be an evangelistic organization; we assumed we were speaking to believers. God had other plans. When you see fruit like that, you should expect opposition.
Unapologetic, and accountable
We have said publicly that we are unapologetic about who we are and what we stand for, and we meant it: our faith, our mission, and our refusal to be defined by a story built to reach a conclusion. That statement was never about any individual person. However small a percentage of our ticket holders they represent, even one student who felt pressured, or who walked away believing this would be quick and easy, is one too many for a company that claims to honor God. Where we fell short in an individual case, we owe that person an apology and a correction, and we are committed to both.
We have invested millions of dollars in compliance: written policies, ongoing training, monitoring, and engage outside counsel to advise on compliance.
We can reject what is false without rejecting examination. We can defend this organization without becoming defensive about the things that need to improve. The judgment we care about most is not the media’s. It is standing before God one day and hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That is the standard, and it is higher than any regulation.
What you will find on our site
A statement can only say so much. In the coming days, we will be releasing a series of videos addressing the allegations and how Life Surge operates: our business model, our education and what it is worth, why we believe faith belongs in finance, how we sell and how we train the people who do it, how we approach compliance, our people and our culture, and how ministry lives inside this business. We are not going to answer a story built on a handful of accounts with a single statement. We are going to show you the whole thing.
If you have a question, ask us
If you are a student, talk to your mentor or contact us at 888-579-8998. If you are a partner, sponsor, or church leader, we will make time for a direct conversation with the facts and the documentation behind them.
We believe God has more to do in and through Life Surge, and we believe the best of what He has planned for this work is still ahead.
10/02/2026