Qualified, and called to this.

Behind the curtain

I spent nearly a decade managing wealth for some of the UK's most affluent individuals, first at Barclays Private Bank and then at a boutique wealth firm. I sat with people at every stage of life - inheritance, divorce, retirement, building a business from scratch - and helped them make the right decisions with their money.

What struck me wasn't how clever any of it was. It was how ordinary. A small group of people were being taught things about structure, order and compounding that the rest of us never hear. Not because it's secret. Nobody thought to tell us. I didn't learn it at home or at church either. I learned it behind a desk at Barclays.

The knowledge was never the scarce resource. The belief that it was possible for you, the structure to apply it, and the people to do it alongside - those were.

The other half of my week

For twenty years I've also been leading in church. So the most rewarding conversations I've had haven't been with the wealthiest clients. They've been with Christians who simply want to be faithful with what God has given them, and who've been told to tithe and trust but never shown what stewardship looks like on a Tuesday, in practice.

I've held plenty of money lies myself along the way. I've paid for the expensive kind of lesson more than once, and the second best lesson is a very cheap one. That's the point. This isn't expertise dispensed from above. It's someone who's seen behind the curtain bringing it back to people who were never shown it.

Why the Academy

The Christian Finance Academy exists to give working Christians one coherent path through budgeting, debt, saving, investing, property and pensions - grounded in biblical stewardship, built around their actual numbers, and walked with people who'll notice if they go quiet.

The aim is plain: transform the finances of one million Christians in the UK by 2030. This is where we start.

- Tom Lawrence