Pastor Craig Groeschel, Celtics coach join Tim Tebow in dumping Life Surge
Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla and megachurch Pastor Craig Groeschel have followed former professional athlete Tim Tebow in distancing themselves from Life Surge, a touring faith-based wealth-building seminar accused of pressuring attendees to invest tens of thousands of dollars in real estate and stock courses.
Mazzulla, once featured in Life Surge’s speaker showcase, no longer appears on the website after he asked them to remove his picture.
“I’m always looking for partnerships to be able to share my faith,” Mazzulla told The Boston Globe on Saturday. “It was a platform I thought made some sense for us, and when this comes out, you take your stand and move forward.”
Images of Groeschel and Tebow have also been removed from the showcase. So have images of other speakers, including former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany; Tebow’s wife, Demi Tebow; and former NFL players Emmitt Smith and Brian Dawkins.
Life Surge describes itself as one of the fastest-growing businesses in the United States and seeks to teach Christians “how to create and multiply financial resources for kingdom impact.” Its flagship event, a one-day live Christian conference, drew more than 117,000 attendees in 2025.
Some disappointed participants told Mother Jones that the company, founded by entrepreneur Joe Johnson, left them in debt. One of them, Cathy Luebke, attended a Life Surge event with her husband in Carmel, Indiana, in 2024. She said the couple was pressured to invest through aggressive sales tactics that exploited their Christian faith. Life Surge disputes the allegations.
“My husband and I are very strong Christians, so when you see a product like this, you’re like, ‘well, all right, it’s a hard sell, but, you know, they’re telling us all the good stuff,’” she said, recalling how she was convinced to buy a $20,000 package of investment courses.
One of several complaints about Life Surge posted on the Better Business Bureau website also called the company a “scam.”
“This So-Called ‘Christian’ [redacted] scammed Me and My Wife Out of $42,000+,” the complaint, posted in April, said.
“I attended Life Surge in [redacted] expecting solid biblical teaching on faith and godly money management. They featured respected leaders like [redacted] from [redacted], so I trusted them completely. Big [redacted] started with worship that felt uplifting, but quickly became a high-pressure sales trap,” the complaint continued.
Mazzulla spoke at a Life Surge event in Portland, Maine, in September 2025 and was scheduled to speak at another on Oct. 17 in Hartford, Connecticut. He told The Globe he canceled that appearance because of the allegations against Life Surge.
“Once these [allegations] came out, I just completely backed out of it. I’m not showing up there and obviously don’t support any of the allegations or things that they’re accused of, and [I’m] moving forward,” he said.
“It’s an unfortunate situation, but my purpose is to use my platform for a positive impact on faith,” Mazzulla added. “The risk you take is situations like this happen. The most important thing is to No. 1, focus on the people who were wronged and No. 2, do the best job you can authentically and morally and ethically to share your faith without negatively impacting people.”
Groeschel, pastor of the Oklahoma-based Life.Church, was also featured in Life Surge’s speaker showcase. A Life.Church spokesperson told Religion News Service that he, too, has cut ties with the business.
Groeschel had been scheduled to speak at Life Surge events this fall in Charlotte, North Carolina; Hartford; Tampa, Florida; and Nashville, Tennessee. The spokesperson said the pastor will not keep those commitments.
“Pastor Craig is grateful to have had the opportunity to share his message at these events,” the spokesperson said. “He doesn’t plan to speak at any upcoming events and will continue to prioritize his ministry to the church.”
Tebow, an ESPN college football analyst and former Heisman Trophy winner, is prominently featured in the cover art for Mother Jones’ investigative piece on Life Surge. His name came up last week when Mother Jones reporter Kiera Butler discussed the article on the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast.
Tebow told the Associated Press on Friday that he was “pausing his relationship” with the business and was “kind of caught off guard” by some of the allegations.
“The allegations are extremely, extremely serious, and it’s something that we take very serious,” he said. “For us, we’re having our team do an investigation, but also pausing our relationship ’til we can learn more about the facts to be able to understand more.”
Life Surge CEO Jeremy Nosek defended his organization in a statement last week, saying he "strongly disagrees with the characterization of our company presented in recent reporting."
"We will not apologize for who we are, what we believe, or the work we do," Nosek said. "The reporting presented serious allegations about Life Surge. What it did not present with equal force was the full story: the thousands of students whose experiences stand in stark contrast to that narrative, the extensive compliance infrastructure and safeguards we have built, and the facts and context we provided directly to the reporters before publication. We stand behind our people. We stand behind our mission. And we stand behind the work we have done alongside Tim Tebow for years."
Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
