CD enables grads to ‘stay connected’ to faith, church

FRANKLIN, TENN. (FBW)–As recent graduates face new challenges, their parents and pastors search for ways to keep their faith vibrant and their roots in the church grounded. One Florida church used ConGRADulations!, a music and resource CD especially prepared for graduates, to create an umbilical cord linking their youth to the church as they embark on the next phase of their lives.

Tom Stallworth, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Blountstown, was encouraged by the positive responses he obtained from graduates as he gave them CD’s. Several recipients of ConGRADulations! told him they still listen to the CD, even several years later.

“It’s another way of saying to them that the church that cares about young people, the church that cares about sharing Christ with people, that’s the church that’s active rather than passive,” Stallworth told Florida Baptist Witness.

Featuring 11 meaningful songs by top Christian artists, the CD also includes video greetings and devotionals by the musicians, fellow-senior testimonies, a 33-day devotional guide, the New Testament as well as Psalms and Proverbs, a scrap booking feature to memorialize their senior year, and links to online tools and resources–including a 2004-2005 school year-in-review video.

Christian song artist Steven Curtis Chapman, one of the musicians featured on the CD, said he knows how it feels to trust that a child will find their way home after he or she grows up. Last year his own daughter graduated from high school.

Encouraging his daughter to make the right decisions and cling to her upbringing, Chapman penned the song, “I Believe in You,” and now he wants to help other parents, caregivers and friends convey that message to upcoming graduates.

“This ConGRADulations! CD reaches students at such an important time in their lives,” Chapman said in a news release. “They are asking some really tough questions as they leave home and look into the future, and maybe wondering ‘ Can I really do this? Can I make it on my own?’ I hope ‘I Believe in You’ will be a great encouragement and reminder to them that there’s a God in heaven and people in their lives that love and believe in them, and that they can do it.”

Chapman’s lyrics help put into words for parents and loved ones the thoughts they want to convey to their graduates, but many have a hard time verbalizing: “I believe in you, Everything you are, Everything you are becoming. So spread your wings and fly, On the winds of knowing, I will always believe in you … Now this is where we stay, While you go change the world, But I’ll be where I have always been, Up in the stands cheering you on … I believe in you.”

Allen Weed, president and founder of Interl’inc, the youth resource company that produces the CD’s and a former member of First Baptist Church, Blountstown, wants to challenge students in their Christianity.

“Other questions graduates face have to do with their faith,” Weed said. “Do they believe a certain way because they were taught it at home, or is it really personal for them? The entire CD guides students into exploring their own faith, with resources on it to help connect them to college and singles ministries that will keep them on the path to Christian maturity as individuals.”

Stallworth and the members of FBC are excited about the project. Their CD ministry is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from church members and community businesses.

It takes one of their church members little more than a week to contact enough people to fund over 100 CD’s at no cost to the church.

“We wanted to reach out to the senior class of our local high school,” Stallworth said. “We contacted several Christian businessmen and shared the vision with them. With their support we have been giving the ConGRADulations! CD to the entire senior class at Blountstown High for the past eight years.”

Other church members, including a former high school superintendent and a former high school principal, help hand out the CD’s at the two Calhoun County high schools’ award ceremonies.

“It’s a gift someone gladly receives and when they use it they find there’s a whole lot more to it than they ever expected,” Stallworth said.

This year’s artists have combined sales of more than 17 million CD’s, and their popular songs–including Salvador’s rendition of Los Lonely Boys’ Grammy-winning hit “Heaven”– should help to dramatically increase the more than 750,000 CD’s already given by more than 20,000 churches.

This year’s theme is “Going in the Right Direction,” with many of the participating artists offering advice along those lines, geared specifically toward the class of 2005.

In addition to Steven Curtis Chapman, some of the other artists included in the 2005 project are tobyMac, Audio Adrenaline, Mark Schultz, and Relient K.

The songs focus on life issues such as friendship, the future, success, personal faith, or finding direction in life.

Each CD also comes with a free gift card, which quotes the lyrics of Chapman’s contribution, “I Believe in You.”

The ConGRADulations! Class of 2005 project is available online at www.grad2005.com, or by calling interl’inc at 800-725-3300.