Kristen Welch Raising Grateful Kids Mercy House Global Rhinestone Jesus Finish Line Podcast
Finish Line Podcast Episode 175

Kristen Welch, Founder of Mercy House Global, on Intimacy with God Amidst Fruitful Ministry

You want to steward God’s resources faithfully. But questions about generosity, calling, and impact are rarely simple.

In this conversation, you’ll hear from someone who has walked through these kinds of questions and learned along the way. Listen for the next step God may be inviting you to take.


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Meet your guide

Kristen Welch is an author, speaker, and the founder of Mercy House Global, but her story is shaped less by achievement and more by surrender. Raised in a generous, Christian home, Kristen followed God’s lead into ministry, writing, and motherhood. Her love for writing led her into the early Christian mom-blogging world where she found community and influence, but it was a 2010 blogging trip to Kenya with Compassion International that unsettled her faith and reordered her calling. That encounter became the catalyst for Mercy House Global and for a lifelong journey of learning what it means to say yes to God with open hands.

Through Mercy House, Kristen has spent the past fifteen years walking alongside vulnerable women and families through job creation, orphan prevention, and discipleship, both globally and locally. Along the way, she has learned that generosity and ministry busyness without intimacy with God can quietly hollow out the soul. Her story reflects the cost of faithful work, the danger of doing for God without being with Him, and the grace God offers through rest, repentance, and renewed friendship with Him.

This conversation invites all of us to reflect on how God calls us to slow down, reorient our hearts, and rediscover satisfaction in His presence while living generously.

What you’ll gain

  • Generosity in hospitality
  • Obedience through small, faithful yeses
  • Using influence for Kingdom purpose
  • Serving without losing intimacy with God
  • The danger of doing for God without being with God
  • Identity rooted in sonship, not productivity
  • Parenting through embodied generosity
  • Slowing down to practice God’s presence

Inspired? Take your next step

Try the Game of Life Simulator

Step into a four-minute interactive experience and see what unfolds as you decide how to manage your resources.

Start the Game
Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot
Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot

Inspired? Learn how to partner with ministries well.

A compelling ministry story can inspire you to respond. But wise partnership often begins with better questions.

Applied Generosity Intervention Partnership Focus

What is the ministry really seeking to restore?

Learn to look beyond visible needs toward people, context, relationships, and flourishing.

Applied Generosity Intervention Partnership Fruitfulness

How do you recognize meaningful impact?

Consider how ministries learn, evaluate their work, and pursue lasting change.

Applied Generosity Intervention Partnership Faithfulness

What does genuine ministry partnership look like?

Explore how to foster trust, alignment, and shared mission in your giving.

In our Intervention Series on the Applied Generosity Podcast, we’ll help you become a more thoughtful, discerning, and faithful partner.

Start the Series

Quotes to Remember

  • “Just do the next right thing.”
  • “We were always looking for ways to use what we had for the gospel of hospitality.”
  • “The opportunity to use the writing skill and the blog platform for God’s glory really became a sweet spot for me and it changed my life.”
  • “I will spend the rest of my life answering the question, ‘what am I doing to help the vulnerable in our communities and in our world?’”
  • “God used the poor to help me find Him in a new way.”
  • “God doesn’t need us to do any of this, He invites us to do it.”
  • “Being with God is the best use of our time.”
  • “It is not a waste of time to spend time with God.”
  • “When we live as generous people, our kids will too.”

Links from the Show

Bible References from the Show

Revelation 3:20 | Christ’s Invitation to Intimacy

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Hebrews 2:1 | Drifting from Jesus

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 | Gratitude amid Hardship

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Philippians 4:11–13 | Contentment in All Circumstances

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Use Our
Free Guide

Have you considered the ways you are uniquely called into generosity? We’re not all called into the same adventure.

Enter your information below and we’ll send you our free PDF guide to explore the specific adventure you were called into.

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Use Our
Free Guide

Have you considered the ways you are uniquely called into generosity? We’re not all called into the same adventure.
Generosity Profile Image
Enter your information below and we’ll send you our free PDF guide to explore the specific adventure you were called into.
Generosity Profile Image

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