An annual event that brings over 1,000 young adults to Calvary Temple in Winnipeg is back this week.
Collide Conference is back for year three. Brittany Petkau and Rhythm Knowler, who serve as two of the three directors of the event, along with the full team are excited to see what God is going to do this year.
"What we're trying to do is we want to create a place where young adults can come and intentionally seek God for a weekend. Get out of their routine of life and come and experience Him through worship, teaching and just pauses, resting, listening to Him, and yet creating that space where Heaven is touching earth, where they are just so completely experiencing the presence of God because they are intentionally seeking Him," Petkau said.
The theme of the weekend is 'Prepare for Impact,' something that Knowler says was intentional. "We believe as we come expectant and excited to make space for God that we would be prepared for His impact in our life with what He wants to do, how He wants to send us, how He wants to equip us. That's not just receiving, but having God do something that ripples outside of us into our communities, homes, and neighbourhoods."
While over 1,000 young adults are expected to flood Calvary Temple and grow in their faith, Petkau says it's encouraging for her own faith. "It reminds me that God is just getting started with this generation. There can be so many stereotypes about young adults that they're losing their faith. They're walking away from the church, they don't care about truth or about God. When we see this, it's like no God is doing something. Just as we've seen in every single generation, God does something fresh with each of us."
Despite being in a full church, Knowler is excited for the quiet moments. "I just love our moments of worship and breathing moments, where it's just you and God, and I feel like life is so busy. A lot of us are students, or we're working, or we're going through hard things. And when you can just have that meeting space to meet with Him uninterrupted, no distractions. People leave with fresh hope and a better perspective. They're excited to leave, Collide and go back to whatever it is that their life looks like, and they have a new vision to live their life for Jesus."
Both Petkau and Knowler are excited to see what God is going to do through the weekend. "I believe that we only hear a very small portion of the stories of how God is impacting people, but the stories we do hear, I leave so encouraged by what God is doing in people's lives. And so I'm excited to see what He does next," Petkau said.
"I wish we could have Collide every weekend, to be honest, because it is like the best little fire starter that we need in our faith," said Knowler.
While there will be similarities to the previous two years with worship and breakout sessions, Knowler says what makes this year unique is the speakers coming. "We have Hakeem Bradley from the Bible Project. We're so excited for him. We have Jason Ballard, who's done a lot of work with Youth Alpha. We have the infamous, the one, the only Amanda Cook. She's coming back home and I'm so excited. I feel like I've been watching her lead worship on YouTube since I was 12 years old. We got Gracie Binion. She's an up-and-coming worship artist. I feel like who we bring in and what God's going to do, that's going to be different."
Leading up to the conference, Knowler is asking listeners to pray. "Number one is to pray that God would have the impact He desires with this generation. We want to see our people on fire, living for Jesus. Number two, we feel like although Collide's in the heart of Canada, we want to reach Winnipeg first, we believe what God is birthing and doing through Collide is for our nation. Pray that the Lord reaches our nation through something like this, because we need it."
Collide Conference is at Calvary Temple, 400 Hargrave Street, on May 2 and 3. The doors open at 6:15 p.m. on May 2 and kicks off at 7 p.m. On May 3, the doors open at 9:15 a.m. before it starts at 10 a.m.
Tickets can be purchased here.