For the first seven or eight years of being a Youth Pastor in late May/early June I’d have the dreaded task fantastic opportunity of blessing our grads (in all seriousness, loved the blessing part, the shopping part was the “dread”). As graduation day and/or our “Senior Sunday” approached and as the invitations started pouring in for Grad-Parties I began to panic.  Mainly, because I don’t like going to the Christian Book Store that much.

I believe in honoring our seniors and gifting, but I didn’t like going to the local Christian Bookstore, Hallmark or gift-card factory to try to find something that would work, I didn’t want to get individual gifts for each student, because then it becomes the “he likes you better than me” contest.  However, I did want the gift to not be so generic that it was just a courtesy-gift. A Lucado book for him, a WWJD bracelet for her didn’t seem “fair.” But the WOW CD seemed to be just too generic and an attempt to make it more personal by getting a card for each grad on top of the gift just got too expensive.

Then I found it (and later they found me, Spire has since done my publishing)!

Feeling Friendly is a weekend series I began for my blog several weeks ago; through this series I hope to highlight ministries and products that enhance Student Ministries/Churches, etc.  Today’s Feeling Friendly highlights a gift you ought to consider for your grads!

Graduate To Greatness is a COMPLETE gift for your grads and was perfect for me with my grads because it met several requirements:

1. It’s a Gift: Not only is it a book but it comes with the audio-version for those grads who aren’t readers (ironic huh?)!
2. It has a Card: Not paying extra for a card, the card gives me the opportunity to write something short & simple, yet personal for each grad.
3. No Wrapping Required: It comes in a Gift-Box which requires no wrapping; no extra time!
4. One-Stop Shop: All I have to do is order online and it was delivered to my office!
5. I Looked Good: Because our church also did a Celebration Sunday for the students I got to take these gifts to the individual grad-parties and hand them to the students, they all thought “Wow, Brian personally got me a gift.”  (I rarely let them think any different)
6. It is BETTER and CHEAPER than any other gift I ever purchased for graduates: I’ve done the books, the music CD’s and the gift-card thing before, but everything was well over $10 (and then add a card on top of that).  You can get the Book, CD, Box, and card for under $8!

I believe you should check out the Graduate To Greatness early-bird special and get your grads their gift well in advance.  Spire has awesome products for churches, but I’m particularly impressed with this one, it’s specifically for our high school grads or  young adult grads (AA or Bachelors degrees)!

If you’d rather, you can call them at 1.800.992.3060 and mention the early-bird special!  I would typically buy two years at a time to get the lowest bulk-rate as well (just a thought).

You ever seen those “Hair Club For Men” commercials? (Please, no slams here, I am aware…); well, I can end this little Feeling Friendly the same way, “not only am I involved with Spire, but I’m a client as well.”

A great gift you should take advantage of!

Grace,
Brian