A Review of Life Surge "Christian Wealth Creation Conference"

On Saturday, August 26, 2023, I went to Life Surge, "America's #1 Christian Wealth Creation Event." For months prior to their St. Louis stop, the traveling event bombarded social media, television and the internet with advertisements promoting its all-star roster of speakers including Nick Vujicic, Tim Tebow, Marcus Lemonis, Auntie Ann, the Benham brothers and later Willie Robertson.

After signing up, I was peppered with text messages, emails and voicemails as numerous as the promotional ads plastering media slots all around town.

While skeptical coming into the event, my mother and I decided to attend to hear the speaker lineup. I was also genuinely curious what the message of the event would be—would it truly be a "Christian" conference, the prosperity gospel, or something else?

The event was hosted at Church on the Rock in St. Peters, MO, a prosperity megachurch that did not run the event but promoted it among its members.

Main Speakers

As my mother and I made our way to our $20 backseats, the event opened with prayer and singing that God would change lives and that the audience would have expectant hearts; much of the crowd was certainly "into it." Their slogan was "surge your life God's way." The opening speakers, the Benham Brothers, introduced the theme verse of the event, Isaiah 48:17,

"I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go."

They explained how "profit" in this verse ( יָעַל) was not speaking about money but about creating value—this wasn't about the prosperity gospel. I appreciated how the Benham Brothers clarified that the event was not about prosperity gospel. 

The Benham Brothers then told their story of their minor league baseball careers and short-lived HGTV show, Flip-It Forward. They shared how being a Christian will lead to adversity, not ease; in their case, they struggled with the desire for a successful TV show, only to be cancelled for their biblical viewpoints on heretosexual marriage.

They then connected this idea to the importance of developing independent wealth, not relying on fund managers (or wordly systems) and generating passive income, citing Proverbs 27:26-27.

Nick Vujicic was up next. He repeated many of the refrains of the Benham Brothers: the event was not the prosperity gospel, one needed to have passive income outside of wordly systems that can turn on a believer, and that real estate and options trading was a tried-and-true way to achieve this. Asides from this, Vujicic did share his life story, how Jesus gave him personal value, and how we all need to be his hands and feet, even if we don't have limbs.

Christian evangelist and motivational speaker, Nick Vujicic, known as the "man without limbs." 

After a financial speaker came up (more below), there was a brief panel discussion with Duck Dynasty's Willie Robertson. He emphasized "faith, family and ducks" in that order.

After a lunch break, Auntie Ann's founder Anne Beiler shared her testimony alongside the story of her business—good works cannot lead to salvation, only God's grace. She also shared her story of years of sexual abuse by a pastor and how revealing this to her husband released her from the chains of secrecy.

After sitting at the event for seven hours, my mother and I decided to call it a day before Tim Tebow spoke, so I cannot share about his message.

Marcus Lemonis

I wanted to talk about Marcus Lemonis in more depth because I am especially "familiar" with him, having watched the entirety of The Profit and to consider his seeming mismatch with the other speakers. 

While Marcus was one of the main speakers who attracted me to this event, I was surprised to see he was headlining a Christian wealth conference—never once had I heard Lemonis mention his faith (other than a passing post about his Catholicism) until this event. At the beginning of his session, he did mention that he didn't normally talk about his faith, that he viewed it as private, and hoped people respected his decision to do. Quite the contrast from the other speakers at the event.

Marcus' session was drastically different than all the others in that he did not give a speech. Instead, he facilitated an impromptu group therapy session, encouraging people to tell the crowd a secret no one knew. His goal was to encourage vulnerability and disclosure, showing that every employee is ultimately a person with a story. However, his session made me and probably others feel uncomfortable. This is in spite of the fact that I was not called up front nor did he pass by my seat to see if I had written down my darkest memory (after saying they were private, he went around and read a few to check if people were following directions).

Lemonis did mention "the love of Jesus" (and perhaps prayer) during his session, but it lacked any distinctively gospel message. In fact, he has done this "full disclosure" event in non-Christian contexts as well. I'd also mention that his session at Life Surge was absent of any vulgarity, where in the recorded session above he uses the s-word (let he who hears, let him hear).

I pray and hope that Marcus Lemonis is a genuine follower of Jesus, but based on what I've heard him say, and the limited portrayal of him I've seen on television, I do not know if he and I would share our definition of what it means to be a Christian—embracing the authority of God's word over all areas of life, and the bold proclamation of faith in Christ alone for salvation. Only God knows his heart.

"Wealth Principles" or a Sales Pitch?

Woven into the conference speakers, there were two sessions, one for each of areas of passive income Life Surge emphasized, stock options trading and real estate investing. Out of the two sessions, I personally found the first to be more helpful than the second, though I didn't feel as if either truly equipped with the audience with "wealth building" skills.

The first session emphasized stock trading. The speaker quickly provided an overview of some of the indicators one must look at when determining whether to buy or sell a certain stock. While this information may have been intelligible for some, I was unable to follow it at the speed he covered it and with my lack of financial know-how. What stood out to me more, however, was not the rushed-over indicators but the sales pitch. He made the point that we now have technology that can help you quickly and easily make decisions. The words "filter search" continuously popped on the screens, pointing back to their Trade Surge software and the capabilities it offered.

Furthermore, he heavily emphasized "buy on three green arrows, sell on three red arrows." I believe these arrows were pointing to the indicators he talked about at the beginning, but it seemed as if the meaning of these indicators were abandoned in favor of his simple mantra. He even invited audience members on stage to show how easy it is—buy on three green, sell on three red, no less. I imagine this was unique to Trade Surge.

Lastly, he closed out his session with an offer to buy into their classes, which normally would be cost over $1,000, but now, in what was promised as their biggest discount they had ever offered, were available for you and a second person for only $97! People clearly were interested, as droves of people formed into lines to sign up for the classes.

The second session was given by a motivational speaker named James Smith. He focused on real estate and ended his session by doubling the first's offer with bundling yet another set of classes that would be included with the $97. Smith confessed that many viewed him as offensive, and indeed he spoke his mind. Asides from his allusion to word of faith theology ("don't you know your words are prophecy"), he rattled on about the need to gain independence from fund managers, "you don't know what you don't know", the impending doom of the dollar and the oft repeated "I'm going teach to you."

I honestly did not learn anything from Smith's presentation, other than that he was eager to "teach you" at one of the later classes. While the first financial session at least talked about some of the indicators, I had trouble following Smith's ramble and lost interest. In my opinion, he was intentionally provocative as a rhetorical strategy, but perhaps so much so that he lost credibility with me early on. However, many others seemed to appreciate this and valued what he had to say.

The Verdict

While the event was advertised as a Christian wealth creation conference, I do not believe the intent of the conference was teach financial principles. In my opinion, I believe the event was the top of a sales funnel using big name speakers to draw a crowd.

While wealth-building concepts were discussed, I did not feel as if the event really equipped the audience to actually apply these (outside of their software's functionality). Instead, they pointed the crowd to their classes that allegedly do this. I believe the event tried to inspire listeners and give the "why" of "wealth building" through options trading and real estate but not teach a depth of principles, nor did they advertise that this would be the case.

The messages of the speakers seemed to be isolated from each other and from the overall messaging of the conference itself. Some speakers' (especially the Benham brothers and Vujicic) messages fit more neatly into the "why" of Christian wealth creation, while others, such as Anne Belier or Marcus Lemonis seemed entirely unrelated (Lemonis) or just barely relevant to Life Surge itself (Beiler). Speakers talked about broad concepts related their faith and their efforts in creating passive income, leaving the Life Surge-affiliated speakers to drive home the pitch.

At its best, I would consider Life Surge to be an event selling wealth generation training courses for a Christian-owned business. At its worse, I would consider Life Surge to be a classic sales funnel appealing to the American Christian ethos to get you to buy into more products.

The content in this post is meant to posit the author's opinion of the event and should not be viewed as representing factual statements about the event or business.