Thursday, March 27, 2025
August 21, 2009
As I started my career as a financial advisor in late 1997, I had a few offers, of which American Express Financial Advisors seemed the best. They competently taught the ins and outs of traditional financial planning. And, for a few years, I taught and managed my clients using these traditional principles. But it wasn't long before I realized that what I was teaching and implementing - though true in the traditional sense - actuality wasn't. Money and math work very differently. And yet most financial planning advice given in this country is based purely on math, and never works the way it’s advertised in real life.
The more I educated myself outside the world of financial institutions whose goal was to sell their products to clients, the more I saw that all their advice was intended to make them money. These institutions, along with the very wealthy, were playing with one set of rules, but teaching the public to do a very different thing. And what they were actually teaching flew directly in the face of how God tells us to handle our money through the scriptures. Such ideas are so prevalent and mainstream that almost everyone uses them including many well meaning Christian financial educators and advisors.
At that time, I was growing in my faith and in my financial education at the same time. I was so impacted by some short term mission trips I took, that I considered being a full time missionary. I prayed hard about what which direction to go with my life, because the life of a missionary - seeing God perform big miracles on a daily basis - really excited me.
Nonetheless, I felt certain that God was telling me to teach the new financial things I’d been learning so that people would have more cash flow to put toward their own callings.
This was exciting because it marked the first time in my life that I have reached out to God and asked for which direction I should go. And He was strongly pointing me in one. But what would this new business look like? I went to a Symposium in Florida to see if there were other people doing what I wanted to do. I met a lot of great Christians, but none of them were doing what I was being called to do.
It was about then that I met a mentor in Salt Lake City who allowed me to license some of the materials he was using for a similar business. I realized his platform was perfect for what I wanted to do. That's how we got started taking people through our process. That was the beginning.
Now Kingdom Calling has its own team that builds its own scriptural materials and exercises that offer a full multi-media education that helps to transform lives for God’s Glory.
I learned that there's the way that its done just about everywhere else in our society, and there's God's way. Kingdom Calling, and this blog, and everything we do, is about finding and sharing that way.
If you'd like someone else to know about this blog, and about discovering that way- please share with them.
Kingdom Calling's Founder & Chief Stewardship Advisor
Wes Bridel, Kingdom Calling’s Founder and Chief Stewardship Advisor, is a faith-fueled steward with a Degree in Finance from the University of Texas and over 25 years of solid experience in helping people with their finances, primarily through his work as a financial advisor. Wes became a stockbroker (Series 7), financial advisor (Series 63), and insurance agent (Group 1) in 1998. Then he became a fiduciary financial advisor (Series 66) in 2002. He is living in Austin, Texas with his wife Kara and their three wonderful kids. Wes has been blessed with over 20 years of being transformed by the Lord. And he continues to walk with the Lord faithfully, as he lives out his own “Kingdom Calling” to help Christians in America build their financial future, leave an impactful legacy, and fulfill their unique God-given vision.
The Transformation You Want in a Quick 12-Module Online Course That Will Propel Your Stewardship Journey Amid Challenging Times
Build your financial foundation on biblical truth and get ready for what lies ahead, so you can answer God's calling for your life and bless your family and others for generations to come.