The Finish Line Podcast Kristen Shuler, President of East West Ministries, on Church Planting in the Darkest Regions of the World (Ep. 178)
Kristen Shuler, President of East-West Ministries International, shares how God shaped her calling to take the gospel to the world’s least reached people. Raised in a Christian home with a deep commitment to discipleship and missions, Kristen came to faith at a young age and learned early that obedience to God often comes before visible fruit. Those formative experiences, including years of frontline ministry overseas, continue to anchor her leadership today.
At East-West, Kristen helps lead a global network focused on multiplying disciples and churches in spiritually dark places where access to the gospel is limited or nonexistent. Rather than relying on outside control, East-West prioritizes local leadership, obedience-based discipleship, and collaboration across ministries, trusting God to grow lasting movements of faith. Kristen speaks honestly about the cost of faithfulness, the patience required when fruit is slow to appear, and the freedom that comes from surrendering outcomes to God.
This conversation offers a hopeful vision for wise stewardship, faithful generosity, and finding your place in God’s mission. Listen to explore how obedience, prayer, and collaboration shape lasting Kingdom impact.
Major Topics Include:
- Obedience over visible ministry results
- Multiplication as a core discipleship DNA
- Reaching unengaged and unreached people groups
- Local ownership of the missionary task
- Obedience based versus knowledge based discipleship
- Finding joy beyond performance driven ministry
- Collaboration reshaping global missions strategy
- Prayer as essential spiritual labor
- Diverse pathways for Great Commission participation
- “The ministry is not about seeing fruit. The ministry is about obedience.”
- “Even if I didn’t see the fruit, I could trust that He was at work.”
- “The Lord uses every step of obedience and every seed that’s planted as part of His ultimate plan.”
- “Discipleship is not just about gaining knowledge, but about being obedient to the Word of God.”
- “If I tell somebody what to do, that will fail every time. But when God’s Word and the Spirit lead, that’s where transformation happens.”
- “The Great Commission is a God-given mandate for every follower of Jesus to find their place in.”
- “It’s not about choosing what feels comfortable, but responding in obedience to what God is asking.”
- “The people are waiting to hear. They simply need a laborer to come to them.”
- “Not a single one of us can accomplish the Great Commission on our own.”
- “That humility we’re seeing across missions organizations is something only the Spirit can do.”
- “We want to learn, grow, and come with open hands to see what the Lord might do through unity.”
- “If I’m not abiding in Jesus, I have very little to offer anyone else.”
- “Do we want to be known for our strategies, or do we want to be known for loving Jesus?”
- “If we’re not marked by our love for Jesus, our strategies will be ineffective.”
- East-West Ministries International
- International Missions Board
- Coalition of the Willing (see our interviews with founding members Jared Nelms and Scott Cheatham)
- The Treasure Principle (see our interview with author Randy Alcorn)
Matthew 28:19–20 | Make Disciples of All Nations
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Acts 1:8 | Witness to the Ends
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Galatians 5:25 | Keeping in Step with the Spirit
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Matthew 9:37–38 | The Harvest Is Plentiful
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
John 15:4–5 | Abide and Bear Fruit
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 17:20–23 | Unity That the World May Believe
Matthew 6:21 | Treasure and the Heart
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
TAKE A STEP DEEPEROn the Finish Line podcast, we are all about stories, seeing how God draws us into generosity over a lifetime.
But sometimes these stories can leave us thinking, “What’s that next step look like for me?”
That’s exactly why we’ve launched a whole new podcast called Applied Generosity which explores the full landscape of the generous life across 7 different dimensions of generosity.
Applied Generosity helps make sense of the hundreds of stories we’ve shared on the Finish Line Podcast to help you find that best next step.
If you’ve been inspired by these stories and want to take things to the next level, check out Applied Generosity anywhere you listen to podcasts or at appliedgenerosity.com.