“I knew in my heart that this was where I belonged before I left campus,” said Chris Karlin, head coach of the Indiana Wesleyan University Bowling program, after his interview for that very job.
Coach Karlin and his wife have been following God for many years together. Their journey to IWU has been full of spiritual battles, lessons and memories that God used to build them up, in preparation for the work He called them to do.
In 2021, IWU created the university’s first bowling program for men and women. Four years later, the men’s team was ranked 22nd in the nation while the women’s team finished third in the Crossroads League.
The roster has increased to nearly 40 athletes between the men and women. Coach Karlin has overseen most of that growth and is starting his second year as head of the program.
In his first practice at IWU in 2024, Coach Karlin gathered the whole team together and laid down the guidelines for them moving forward.
He told them his goal was for the team to grow every day in the sport of bowling and in their lives as Christians. He would set high expectations on and off the lanes, but that was for their benefit. This was a college-level sport, and he wanted the team to treat it as such.
Karlin pushed his team to one small goal at a time. He focused on spare shooting and strike percentage as well as other areas of the game. But he also pushed them in their spiritual lives.
“My biggest thing is that my kids are growing closer to God,” he said.
From the start, bowling has been a staple in Coach Karlin’s life. Both his parents were bowlers and brought him into the bowling world from the age of two. He was in the bowling alley five nights a week, practicing with his parents. By the age of four, he was in competitive leagues. At eight, he was bowling against high schoolers.
This passion continued into college as Karlin went to bowl at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Through the team’s connections, he and some of his teammates began coaching at the high school level. They would have fun competing against one another to see whose team was best.
After three years in college, Karlin went back to his hometown in Wisconsin to coach and to work with his mom at the Salvation Army daycare. After some convincing from his pastors, he became the community ministry and outreach director.
The idea was to connect the daycare families with the church families. God used the position to open Karlin up to the world of ministry and serving.
He would later attend Candidates Weekend at the Salvation Army territorial headquarters in Chicago to learn more about the seminary schools run by the organization.
After giving his first sermon, Karlin could feel the Holy Spirit changing something inside him. This radical shift from bowling to ministry was a part of God’s plan for his life, he just didn’t know how.
When he called the divisional youth secretary (who was in charge of sending people to the organization’s seminary schools), he told the man he wanted to begin his testing to go.
The man on the other end of the line said, “I know. I felt God telling me you would be heading this direction, and I’ve prepared everything for you. When would you like to come?”
The next day coach Karlin began his journey into ministry. He went to seminary for two years, met and married his wife, and together they served in the Salvation Army for eight years.
“I still feel called to full-time ministry,” he said. “But I am in it. It just looks different. I’m not preaching every Sunday, but I’m leading devotionals, praying with my team and walking with them in their spiritual journeys.”
In 2021, Karlin’s wife got sick. He decided to step down from his pastoral role at the church where they were serving in LaPorte, Indiana, and look for a job closer to the doctors and treatment she needed. This led him to apply to be a camp director in Wisconsin.
He and his wife, their two kids and their dog had to adjust to the change in lifestyle. They lived in a summer cabin on a 300-acre plot of land that the camp owned.
“I think it was a time of God teaching us to rest and focus on us as a family,” he said. “Living on 300 acres allows you to do fun stuff. And it gave me a chance to pour into my kids like I couldn’t before.”
After two years, his wife had recovered, but they began to feel the familiar tug of God. That tug led them back to his wife’s hometown of Huntington, Indiana. Karlin’s children could grow up with their cousins close by, and his wife’s side of the family would be able to see them more often.
Karlin became the Executive Director of the Senior Center at the Council on Aging while his wife began to work in the Boys and Girls Club. He also rekindled his lifelong passion when he became the assistant coach of Huntington North High School’s bowling team.
Coaching at Huntington showed Karlin what it took to run a successful bowling program and what the jump was like from high school to collegiate coaching. Their idea of putting team over self really had an impact on him.
In the summer of 2024, coach Karlin got a call telling him that the coach of the IWU bowling program had resigned and there was a spot open. After much prayer and conversation with his wife, he put his name in.
Taking on the IWU bowling program was a huge step of faith for coach Karlin. He was leaving a well-established team with a steady income and comfortable living to lead a new and inexperienced program.
But after his interview, he knew where God was calling him. He spoke to his wife on the phone and said, “Honey, I belong here.”
She responded with, “I know you do, and I was hoping you would take this job.”
While improving on their skill is essential for the IWU bowling team, Coach Karlin and his staff have made God the center of everything they do. The team holds devotionals every week, led by Karlin himself or the team chaplains. He instituted prayers before every practice and game to continue to establish the Christ-first mentality.
“I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to get my kids to grow closer to God,” Karlin said. “Even if there is one who leaves and doesn’t accept Christ, I still want to have planted that seed.”
Ending last season, both the men’s and women’s teams qualified for sections in Tennessee and went from being near the bottom to third in the Crossroads league conference. In the league tournament, IWU finished ahead of Huntington’s team, which was a personal win for Coach Karlin.
“I have nothing but respect for Huntington and Coach Mike. I still talk to him regularly, but it was pretty cool to finish ahead of them,” Karlin said, smiling.
