150: Karli Loving "God calls youth to youth ministry" #WomenInYM

In the fourth episode in our month-long celebration of Women In Youth Ministry, an Okie and an upstart youth minister Karli Loving shares her story of calling and discovery of God's purpose in her life. She also is keen to remind us all of the most important things. Thanks Karli! Key Takeaway: God calls youth to youth ministry “If you are going to have attention on you it needs to be for the right reason” “He didn’t tell me he called the police after he made the call” “Do not sweat the small stuff, like literally sweating through my t-shirt small stuff” “Your call is the share the gospel with the students in front of you” Follow  Karli Loving on Twitter #WomenInYM  Giveaway on Twitter Join The Twitter Conversation For  #WomenInYM on Twitter

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hey everybody, welcome to our fourth installment in our Hashtag women in Yam conversations our month long emphasis in celebrating and encouraging women who serve in youth ministry, whether you're a volunteer part time, full time, whatever you do, and youth ministry. If you are a woman in leadership, we are thankful for you for loving young people, for caring about youth ministries, and being one of those that helps to further the local church by caring for the generation that is now and yet to come. Thank you for what you do. We're really excited and this interview episode to have one of Oklahoma's own, so ms dot Carley. Loving or hello Ms Dot Carley on twitter is a wonderful and delightful interview that Jag gets to sit down with. In this episode, you're going to be entranced with her warmth and her honesty and insight, and I know that I am so thankful for this interview. In episode, we do want to share a few things that you can join the conversation. If you are on twitter, on instagram post and Hashtag it women in Yam. That's Hashtag women I n y n because we want to share stories of women who are serving, leading and our awesome, awesome and youth ministry.

Speaker 2: 1:23

Hello and welcome to youth ministry booster. We are so excited. We are celebrating again today. Um, some amazing women in youth ministry. And so we're here with carly. Carly, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, who you are, what that looks like.

Speaker 3: 1:40

My name is carly loving and I'm from Oklahoma or I'm the high school and Middle School youth director at Zooey Christian Center.

Speaker 2: 1:48

Alright carly. We are both Oklahoma people and I'm like super sad because like where I grew up is like literally like 20 minutes away from where you're serving and this, this is the first time we've met and so that is like, that's sad, right? That like we've got, I mean, and I know that we can't know everyone in our state and all those kinds of things, but I'm excited to meet you today and hear more about you and your ministry and what that looks like.

Speaker 3: 2:17

Nice to meet you. We're just to Oklahoma people just making it happen.

Speaker 2: 2:21

Just trying to dodge tornadoes as well. Um, so tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us about how you got into ministry, your calling into ministry, your life up into this point. What does that look like for you?

Speaker 3: 2:38

I felt called to ministry when I was about 15 years old. Um, I was actually attending the church that I'm serving at now and that at that time in the youth group, I mean, we were just like this ric rac patty white group of kids. We complained about everything. We were so bad. We were just a terrible group of teenagers and we had this youth leader who was determined to get us on the right path. And uh, one day he was just like, okay, I want you guys to start serving. I want you guys to start getting involved. And so he just started pointing at different kids, giving them different jobs. He's like, Hey, you're going to be an usher. Pointed to another kid. You're going to be a greeter. And he comes to me and I'm thinking he's going to give me an easy job, but he's like, I want you to get up and speak. And so I was like, okay. And uh, I mean me, I'm a person, I love all eyes on me. So this was really no big deal for me. I love attention. Anyone who knows me will tell you that. But, um, so he was just like, I want you to get up and speak. And so at first it was no big deal. I was like, okay. So I went home and I eat, went over, tried to come up with a message to deliver to my friends and my peers in the youth group. And weeks later I get up and I deliver it. And as I'm talking about Jesus and I'm talking about the Lord who, um, my friends and the kids in my group, I mean, I just, I fell in love with doing that. I fell in love with telling students about the Lord. I fell in love with telling people about the Lord. And I mean, if somebody, like I said, who loves to have attention on them, if you're going to have attention on you, it needs to be for the right reason. And so I just fell in love with that and from there I decided, okay, like I, I believe that this is what the Lord is calling me to do. And so I began to pursue ministry, didn't get to go to college for it because where I went to college did not offer ministry degrees. So I picked the next best thing which was elementary education. Um, so I majored in elementary education, but even just in doing that, there's so much that I learned in the world of education that I was able to just kind of take over into the world of ministry after college. And so I'm finished college and went on to get a job as a youth pastor's assistant. Worked that for about a year. And then, um, just last summer I was offered the job as the youth director at the church I am at now. So here we are.

Speaker 2: 5:04

You are currently serving in the church that you grew up in. That's a unique experience, right? I've met a few other youth ministers that have done that same thing. Zack working as a co founder of youth ministry booster for a time served in his home church. Tell me a little bit about that experience. What is that like? Has it been hard to like transition to like, Hey, I'm no longer a student?

Speaker 3: 5:32

Like tell, tell me a little bit about that? I don't think it was too hard to transition because my family, I grew up in that church, but then when I got to about 17 years old, my family, we felt like God was calling us to another church. So I did go to another church for a few years throughout the end of high school and through college, but we felt that the lord was calling us back and so in coming back, it's just been really cool to see, uh, you know, this was where God had me at a time. This was where he had me as a student and now I get to come back as a leader and I get to serve these students. I get to, um, you know, just give them maybe some of the things that I didn't get while I was here as a student. I get to for those things into them. And so it's been pretty cool. It's just one of those things that only God can do that only God works out. And I love it. It's just an end. A lot of the kids I've known since they were little, like I remember I was a teenager and they were maybe five or six years old and now they're in the youth group. And just getting to be the one that helps them in their relationship with Christ is so amazing. It's so incredible.

Speaker 2: 6:42

Yeah. That's really cool. I love that because I mean so much of your heart with this church that I mean for you had this incredible experience, right? Like calling the leadership like this is where you, you know, first experience some of the giftings that God has given you and now you're getting to serve their full time. I love that. I think that's a beautiful story. So your, uh, your years in student ministry now tell me one of your like favorite moment.

Speaker 3: 7:11

Okay. So I have a few and it was really hard to narrow down my favorite one, but okay. So the youth I am working in now, it is like 85 percent middle school boy. So there's just always like every single Sunday, every single Wednesday there's gonna be some kind of crazy story that I come home with. But my absolute favorite, uh, it was my very first, like official Wednesday night working in this youth group and we had just started a midweek service for the students. And uh, there was a high school boy that was there. And then there was a middle school boy that was there. So we're doing our service and once everything finishes, both the boys go outside and start playing basketball. And I guess the basketball belong to the middle school. Boy, let me just keep, let me just remind you all this. My first night, that first night, so um, I guess the high school boy he takes the basketball away from middle school boy and instead of the middle school boys saying, Hey, give it back or whatever he decides to call nine one one, he calls the police because this boy to kiss basketball and when I found out he didn't tell me until after he called nine slash 11 and I was just like call the police for that. Like just take the basketball bag, like what is wrong with you? And so like I'm freaking out freaking out because he didn't realize that, you know, if you call the police or you know, even if you're just joking or like you calling, you hang up, but they will most likely show up and we're in a bad neighborhood anyway. So the police probably had no idea what was going on. So it was just, it was a really bad. By the grace of God, the police did not show up because I was praying. I was just like, we're not like I cannot have these parents come and get their kids in here. The police like and it's my first night and what was even worse was the kid who called the police with the pastor's grandson. I mean it was just, it was just bad. It was bad all around. But again, the police ended up not showing up. It was definitely a lesson learned. I never thought that I would have to say, hey, don't call the police because somebody takes your basketball and I don't know, like it was bad. It was so bad when it was happening. I mean I was stressing out, but I look back on it now and it's just a really funny story and I actually never told my pastor that. So he's gonna listen to this. I can already see carly you need to meet with. I never told him that story, but it's all good. It's, it's funny now. So that I would definitely say that that's one of my favorite moment.

Speaker 2: 9:58

That is fantastic. When you have your student ministry experience is trying to teach your kids when is appropriate and inappropriate to call the police, you are doing student ministry. Well, at that point I had a similar experience. I had A. I had the pastor's son bring a basketball.

Speaker 3: 10:21

Okay.

Speaker 2: 10:22

To Wednesday nights stuff one time a older boy. He took it from him. Uh, instead of him calling the police though, they began to scuffle and the pastor's son gets punched in the nose. Right? That is, that is not a phone call that you call your senior pastor. Go, Hey, your son was punched in the face tonight and Wednesday. Uh, thankfully the pastor was like, yeah, he probably deserved it. And so it was all good. Okay. So I know that a, for you, imagine we've got a time machine you get to go back to that very first night and not with that experience. Right. But like brand spanking new in student ministry. With the experience you have right now, what advice would you give yourself and what advice would you give other brand new youth ministers?

Speaker 3: 11:21

I would say do not sweat the small stuff. And I know that, that sounds so cheesy, but I can think of all of the times where I stress and I got frustrated and I got just so anxious over little things when it came to programming or events. Um, you know, how many students are going to show up, do we have enough donut? Uh, should we have the chairs this way? Just worrying about those little things and just literally sweating the small stuff like sweating through my shirt. Small stuff. I don't know if was bad to say, but when you stress, you sweat and you gotta go bond deodorant anyway. Um, but seriously, I mean like they're just so many times where I have stressed about that stuff and I look at it and I wasted so much time stressing about that stuff and not focusing on what the purpose of student ministry really is. And it is this ministering to these students and their families and pointing them to Jesus Christ. It's not about the donuts. It's not about how many kids show up. It's not about how cool your youth space looks like. All of that stuff is important. But when your focus is on that and not on the actual purpose and the actual call of what you're supposed to be doing, what is sharing the gospel with the students that are in front of you, then you're wasting your time. Then it's, you know, it's all wrong. And that's what I would tell myself. I feel like if somebody had told me that at the very beginning, I would have saved myself a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress, a lot of stress where a lot of deodorant. But I, that's definitely what I would tell myself or tell somebody who is walking into youth ministry.

Speaker 2: 13:07

That's so good. I love that. It's so easy, right? I know for myself in all of the little details to, to take my eyes off that bigger picture. Right? And that's such a good reminder, whether it's your first day in student ministry or you've been doing this for 20 years, that we continue to keep those things in front of us. Um, carly, thank you so much for joining us today. As we get to hear a little bit of your story. And Man, I just want to encourage you, your passion and excitement is contagious. Uh, and so, uh, I look forward to, to know you more in the future and thank you so much for being a guest as we get to celebrate. I'm so many great women in student ministry across our country. Hey, thanks for joining us on Youth Ministry booster today. Make sure to join us tomorrow as we hear from another amazing woman in student ministry. We'll see you later.

Speaker 4: 14:16

Okay.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Alright, there you go. That's our interview with carly loving. Hello Ms Dot Carley on twitter. Thank you so much for sharing and honesty. The small stuff isn't always worth the sweat stains. If you've enjoyed this content, make sure to go over to she[inaudible] dot com. Check out the blog posts that go with each of these episodes that guys have, show notes, some more details and that giveaway for a year's worth of goodies. Treat yourself that you can actually boost your.com/giveaway. And then do you really like what's going on and want to give a review and a thanks and a subscription a, make sure you go and check on apple podcast, Google or wherever you get your podcast and leave a review with some stars for whatever you enjoyed about today's episode or any other episodes like it. Thanks for checking it out and we'll see you again tomorrow

Speaker 4: 15:19

down.