On Sept. 11, Green Forest Church of Christ will begin the latest in the series of spiritual growth seminars begun in 2014. Minister Adam Noles has been with Green Forest since 2012 and remembers when they began.
“Traditionally, we used to do a lot of evangelizing but we realized that we needed to work on us,” he said. “We needed to educate ourselves as Christians before getting out in the world.”
Past seminars have educated the congregation on how to teach the Bible to adults and the role of families within a church.
Spiritual Growth Seminar 2022, like the seminars that came before it, is free to the public and takes place at the church’s location on 2535 Township Line Road.
This year’s speaker is Spencer Furby of Valley View Church of Christ of Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Born in Fredericktown, Furby was the speaker for the first Spiritual Growth Seminar. He has been in ministry his entire life.
“I knew at an early age that preaching was my life’s vocation,” Furby said in his biographical information at Valley View’s website.
To accomplish that goal he pursued a formal education at Crowley’s Ridge College, Freed Hardeman University and Harding School of Theology. He gained experience and much informal training while working with churches in Lufkin, Texas and Success, Arkansas.
In 1995, he joined Slicer Street Church of Christ in Kennett, where he served as minister until joining Valley View in 2016.
This year’s seminar topic is apathy. Furby has spoken on the topic before and presented it to the church leadership. They liked the topic.
“That’s perfect,” Noles said when he first heard the topic.
“We’ve seen a lot of disengagement in people since the pandemic,” he added.
The seminar will take place over four days, beginning on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 9 a.m. during the regular church service. Furby will discuss two topics: Apathy: You Want to Want To and The Opposite of Apathy: Zeal.
The seminar will continue on Sunday at 6 p.m. with Recognizing Apathy. The causes of apathy will be discussed over the two nights of Monday, Sept. 12 and Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 6 p.m. each night.
The last seminar in the series will be given on Wednesday. It will provide attendees with strategies for handling apathy in their own lives and in the lives of those around them.
Green Forest Church plans to offer Spiritual Growth Seminar 2022 on Facebook Live so anyone and everyone can draw benefit from the lessons.