WATCH: Country Star Gives Rare College Commencement Speech Focused On Faith And Family

Eric Church has had a “record year” plenty of times, but the Carolina-born country singer can now say he gave one heck of a commencement speech. And yes, his guitar skills were included.

The die-hard Tar Heel fan gave the commencement speech at the University of North Carolina on Saturday, where he used six strings to deliver a sermon you don’t hear too often on campuses anymore.

Church compared the six strings of a guitar to what he described as the six pillars of life: Faith, family, your spouse, ambition, community, and you.

Church began with the biggest string on the guitar and the biggest pillar in life to him, which is faith.

“The people who tend to their faith in ordinary seasons do not come undone in extraordinary ones,” Church said. “They still hurt. They still sit in hospital waiting rooms asking unanswerable questions at three in the morning, but they have a foundation to return to.”

“The world will try to ‘untune’ this string… through business, through slow accumulation of a full schedule, a full inbox, a full life. Listen to me, tend to your faith not just when you’re broken, but when you’re whole.”

Church went on to stress family, telling the new graduates to “call your people.”

“[Family] is the string that makes you feel like you’re not alone in a room. I want to warn you about something. You’re about to get busy in ways that feel important, and many are professionally ambitious… building the life you’ve been pointed toward for years. And family, because they love you with a grace you will spend most of your life trying to deserve, will rarely demand your time. They’ll tell you they understand, and they’ll mean it. Do not take them up on it.”

When describing the “heart string” of the guitar, Church said it holds the guitar together, like a spouse holds your life together.

“Find your best friend. Someone you want to talk to at the end of a long day. Look for shared values over shared interest. You don’t need to love the same food or music … you need the same compass — though it would be a benefit if you both hated N.C. State.”

The Grammy winner has been married to his wife since 2008 and encouraged the UNC alums to find the person who amplifies their faith and every aspect of their life.

“The person you choose to share your life with is the most important decision you will ever make outside of your faith,” Church told the crowd.

After picking the next guitar string, Church explained how ambition and resilience pull in opposite directions, but he encouraged them to keep pursuing their goals regardless. “And when you fail, and you will fail … get back up, tune the strung, and keep on playing.”

For the fifth string, Church got serious when explaining to the Gen-Z crowd the importance of true community and getting offline. He said this generation of new alumni faces a world of temptation, specifically the temptation to “perform” for an online crowd of followers.

Church urged the crowd to “resist” and instead “plant yourself.”

“Put down roots with the full intention of growing there. Learn the actual names, not usernames, of the people around you. Volunteer. Coach the team. Build the thing your community needs. Even if the internet will never see it,” he added.

The final guitar string Church described was the high E string, which he told the crowd represents the graduate. “Social media is going to show you a thousand versions of a life that looks better than yours.”

“Six strings — Six strings of life and willingness to keep them in tune. Six principles. Six pillars. When all six are in tune with each other, the chord your life makes is full and resonant and true,” Church said. “All six will drift, not one or two, all six in their own time, in their own season. Your faith will go quiet when you need it loud. Your family will get complicated in a way only the people who love you most can complicate things. You will go through hard seasons with your spouse. Your ambition will hollow out, and your resilience will wear thin. Your community will start to feel like an obligation, and your world will try to sand down the edges of exactly who you are.”

But when that happens, Church reminded the UNC crowd, “this is not failure.”

“It’s the inevitable universal experience of living in an imperfect world that doesn’t stop to let us tune up. And the difference between a life that sounds like music and a life that sounds like noise, is whether you stop and listen, whether you’re honest enough to hear which string has drifted out of tune… and humble enough to make the adjustment instead of just turning up the volume and hoping nobody notices.”

Church wrapped up the speech by telling the graduates to tune up their “six strings” of life before breaking out into his hit “Carolina.”

The reaction on social media from this crafty commencement speech proves why “The Chief” has 10 No. 1 songs, but for this hit, he didn’t even need the radio.

Encore!