The 2026 Inspire Conference is returning to Winnipeg to help hundreds of students overcome struggle and influence their world for Jesus. 

The conference started in 2018 when Alex Janzen was living in Saskatoon with her husband. “We connected with Caitlin Say, who would become a good friend and eventually the executive director of Inspire. God had given her a vision of youth from diverse backgrounds, gathering, worshipping Jesus.”

Since then, a conference has taken place in Saskatoon and 2026 marks the third Winnipeg event for students in Grades 6 to 12. 

Amani Halisi is on the student leadership team with Inspire and says he heard about the conference through a friend. “I first heard about Inspire after one of my friends, who’s also on the student leadership team, sent me a message about it. I looked into and signed up for the conference. I had a great time there, and I decided maybe God is calling me to join the student leadership team. And I did. And ever since then, it’s just been a very good experience getting to know people, learning more about my faith, and learning more about what happens behind the scenes with the conference.”

During the conference, Janzen says participants can expect games, music led by the Bread We Break team, prizes, Kamau Wahrmann doing hip hop music, and a message shared by Breanne Williams going deeper on the Holy Spirit. “Who the Holy Spirit is, how we can know Him, walk with Him, and then many student presenters like Amani and other students from Winnipeg and our Saskatoon team sharing their story, sharing music, spoken word, dance, all these different elements,” Janzen says. 

Students will also be able to choose to participate in three of 13 workshops. “On themes like digital discernment, spiritual gifts, art, hip hop dance, or pro sports and faith with Nick Hallett from the Blue Bombers. He will come to share how he lives out his faith as a professional athlete.”

The theme for the conference is Come Alive, something that Halisi is seeing firsthand. “I’ve really understood more about what it means to come alive, since that’s our theme this year. Going into that topic in a lot at our meetings opened my eyes and helped me understand what it means to come alive through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Janzen says the theme has been known for a while. “Last year, as we were launching the conference weekend and praying, God started to already speak what the theme would be for this year and our student leadership team spent time in discernment and prayer and that’s how the Come Alive theme came to be, coming from Acts 27 where God says I will pour out my spirit on all people.”


The organizing team prays the theme conveys a clear truth. “The idea is that youth can come alive through the power of the Holy Spirit to live an empowered life for God’s purposes in the world, not allowing their struggles to keep them down, to keep them silent, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, overcoming those things and living the empowered life that God wants them to through His Spirit.”

Halisi is excited to be on the live testimony and prayer team. “It’s been very good hearing about prayer and how much thought and effort they actually put into a prayer team. It’s been fun writing my testimony and seeing how God is speaking to me as I’m writing it.”

While the conference happens once a year, Halisi says it could be the best $10 spent for a student. “You really get to encounter the Lord. You get to meet other teenagers, high schoolers and middle schoolers who have the same passion for Jesus. Overall, it’s a great experience in your faith and building relationships with other people.”

Both Halisi and Janzen look forward to the two day conference and see hundreds of students hear about Jesus and get to know Him.

Last year in Winnipeg, the Inspire Conference saw over 200 students make the decision to follow Jesus, a number that Janzen prays grows higher. “We praise God for that. We want to see that number go even higher this year.”

Through the years of the Inspire Conference, Janzen has loved seeing how the students respond. “I’m also a youth pastor. So whenever I’m around students who are taking in Jesus and experiencing Him, I always say there is nothing better.”

The Inspire Conference is on March 6 and 7 at Gateway Church North, 745 Kapelus Drive. Students can register for $10 here.