Americans spend 42.5 years of their lives at work, yet most individuals spend just one day a week talking about their faith, according to the Christian empowerment movement Life Surge. Life Surge founder Joe Johnson is working to change that, one soul at a time.
Life Surge CEO Joe Johnson
Johnson believes in living and leading by example—and meaning not “splitting Sunday and Monday.” Faith is a everlasting way of life for Johnson and his family. Life Surge Family.
Though he now heads the fastest-growing Christian business in America, his path to success was far from linear. He grew up in a missionary family in Brazil, but at just 21, he found himself drowning in a staggering $330,000 in debt after his landscaping enterprise failed. But that pivotal moment became the catalyst for his life’s true calling.
“For this reason trip and because of that kind of trauma, my approach and thinking about the market changed,” Johnson recalls.
For nearly three many years, Johnson has sought to help others bridge the divide between faith and commerce. “If you go back 27 years, [had] “a desire to truly help people serve God in their lives, especially in the area of business and building relationships between faith and business,” he explains.
Changing lives with faith and ambition
Johnson’s humble upbringing instilled a unique perspective in him. “I was kind of poor. And when I moved to the States, I just had this missionary-immigrant mentality, and that’s probably why I became an entrepreneur,” he recalls. That mindset laid the foundation for his entrepreneurial spirit, ultimately paving the way for Life Surge.
The idea for Life Surge began about 12 years ago, when Johnson sought to address a disconnect he saw between faith and business. “We had people in full-time ministry and people who were outside the church or had full-time jobs,” he explains. That realization fueled his desire to create a space where people could seamlessly integrate their faith with their skilled pursuits.
Today, Life Surge is a Christian channel for those that want to live their faith while achieving financial success. The company’s events and other offerings are designed to encourage, equip, and empower participants to maximize their resources and use them for greater impact.
One of the key pillars of Life Surge’s approach is cultivating a sense of community. Johnson firmly believes that true transformation happens when people feel supported and connected to like-minded individuals. “We believe in live, in-person events, not digital events, not Zoom calls, because people have been missing community in a big way since 2020,” he says.
Life Surge’s blossoming journey continues apace
Johnson’s commitment to creating a tangible sense of belonging resonates deeply with Life Surge’s audience. In just three years, the company has experienced an impressive 46,000% growth, demonstrating the need for a faith-based approach to business and personal growth.
Johnson’s journey from bankruptcy to building a movement was fraught with challenges, but his unwavering faith and determination have kept him going. “We focus on the hard stuff,” he says. “When everyone was leaving the world of events for a good reason — they had a lot of good reasons — and we did the exact opposite, and we knew it was going to be hard, we were still willing to do it.”
As Life Surge continues to expand its reach, Johnson’s vision stays the same: to empower individuals to change the trajectory of their family’s legacy. “It’s not about Life Surge, it’s really about people taking part in Life Surge and having the opportunity to really change the direction that their family goes and really be what their legacy is built on,” he confirms.
“The other guiding philosophy I would point to is that we talk about this as an organization, but as individuals, that there is a biblical commandment to be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth, but we apply it in a business environment where we want to be fruitful as individuals — and we always multiply,” Johnson adds.
The article, “Life Surge CEO Joe Johnson’s Journey from Bankruptcy to a Mission of Hope,” first appeared in The Startup Magazine.