Cali Black is an author, podcaster, speaker, and content creator who loves the scriptures. She received her bachelor’s degree in education at Brigham Young University in 2019. She started an Instagram account called Come Follow Me Study and has consistently shared spiritual thoughts, study resources, and helpful videos ever since, growing to over a hundred thousand followers. She co-hosts the popular podcast “One Minute Scripture Study” and has co-written four Amazon bestselling books—One Minute Scripture Study for each of the standard works.
In her interview with LDSPMA podcast host Connie Sokol, Cali credited her parents with her love of the scriptures. “Both of my parents have always been avid scripture readers. They always are in their scriptures. I think my dad’s a genius in gospel topics. He taught our early morning seminary class in California, and I got to learn even more from him. I wanted to be the person who knew the scriptures and could talk about them confidently.”
She decided to increase her understanding of the scriptures by serving a full-time mission. Both her parents had served, so she felt that was her natural path and was excited to go. But she got married instead.
Rather than waiting for a future mission call, Cali began studying the scriptures from that point on. “I’m gonna figure out how to understand the scriptures and love them and feel confident in them and be able to teach them without having the mission to jumpstart me in that area,” she said.
Connie said that the desire to understand the scriptures is key to unlocking their mysteries. Cali’s approach to understanding the scriptures is to link them to personal experiences with a story.
“I’ve trained my brain to have a story view. There are moments where my kids will say something and I’m like, well, there’s a post right there. That [experience] perfectly explained that gospel principle. I have those moments all the time, and I have a note on my phone . . . where I write down a quick summary of what happened, whether it’s in the moment . . . reflecting at the end of the day.
“I truly believe that when we stop and we reflect, that allows the Spirit to bring things to our remembrance.”
Connie asked Cali what led her to her current path.
“I taught for four years and had my daughter, and I wanted to keep teaching. This truly was a passion of mine. [But] I had the strongest feeling to quit my job. I didn’t want to quit my job. I could do this. I [could] be a mom. I [could] be a full-time teacher. [But] I could not escape that prompting. I had to do a lot of internal work . . . and to be okay with other people’s judgment of what I was doing.
“I was a great teacher and I loved what I did, and I loved being able to help kids and change their lives and make an impact. It was really hard for me to just be like, I’ve got to follow this prompting. If I love God above all else, I’ve gotta put my ego away. I’ve gotta listen to what He is telling me to do, and I’ve gotta trust. It was scary, but I did it.
“And then the Come, Follow Me program started.
“I was serving in Young Women at the time, and I [thought] I should send them an Instagram account [about Come, Follow Me] that they all can follow. The only accounts that came up were like family activities to teach your little kids, but that’s not what my Young Women needed.
“Immediately, the thought came to my mind, ‘You should start the account, fill the space, fill the need that you see.’
“It was terrifying. I was like, not me. But one of the scriptures I had been studying that week then came to my mind. It was Doctrine and Covenants section 58 verses 22 through 24, where it talks about how it is not meet that [the Lord]should command in all things, but be engaged in a good cause, and do many things of your own free will and bring to pass much righteousness.
“I felt like the Lord was saying, ‘Cali, I’m not telling you that you need to start this account. I’m telling you that you get to choose if you want to use your good influence to start a Come, Follow Me study account.’ And I said, ‘I’m gonna use my agency, and I’m gonna do it.’”
Cali says it started small, but then it snowballed. When COVID hit, people searched for online Come, Follow Me resources like never before. Cali feels that Come, Follow Me was inspired for situations like COVID where church members are unable to meet in person.
“During those first few months of COVID when everything just felt so big and scary and unknown, I really just dug into [the question], how can I use my words? We were studying the Book of Mormon that year. It was so good to share peace and to share joy because I have found over and over again that’s the real blessing of the gospel, right?”
During the pandemic, Cali began hosting a podcast and writing books about the scriptures with her friend Kristen Walker Smith. “I feel like a lot of our strengths are aligned,” Cali says about their partnership. “But then we also have our own unique voices behind that. We have our own ways of sharing our own perspectives.” Cali believes that she’s able to accomplish more working with Kristen.
Connie then asked Cali to share her thoughts about some of the obstacles she has faced while teaching about Come, Follow Me.
“Biggest thing, hands down, is I see people misunderstanding what Come, Follow Me is supposed to be,” Cali says. “It’s not meant to replace all the good things we’re already doing. It’s meant to keep the whole Church on the same reading schedule. That’s so much fun. It doesn’t have to be every day. It could be individually or with your family . . . or it could be once a week, or it could look like so many different things.
“. . . I think people feel so much guilt and constraint over what Come, Follow Me should be, and instead, I love sharing this message of do what you want, do good things . . . [Do] Come, Follow Me whenever you’re able to, and connect with God, access personal revelation, whatever that looks like to you.”
In conclusion, Connie asked how things have changed for Cali since she began teaching the gospel on social media.
“I’ve developed my personal professional strengths. I love teaching, and so speaking and storytelling has become a huge passion of mine, and I feel like I’ve been able to practice that thousands and thousands of times. I absolutely love it. I’ve loved writing and being able to figure out how to take [a] spiritual prompting [I’ve received] and turn that into a good social media post is such a creative challenge for me. I absolutely love that challenge of trying to get what’s in my brain into other people’s brains through my words . . . I love what I’m doing right now, and I feel so content with it. And then I also look to the future and just think, man, I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store. Whatever that path looks like, I’m super excited . . . My desires can align with the Lord’s desires for my life.”
This article is based on the Called to Create podcast featured during Season 3, Episode 1o. You can listen to the full podcast here.
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