Moving Forward in Faith: Conference Recap

“Moving Forward in Faith,” a conference hosted by Resonate Global Mission and Diaconal Ministries Canada,  was hosted from November 14-15. It included two days of fresh imagination for what mission can look like today. Hosted by Resonate Global Mission and Diaconal Ministries Canada, the gathering brought together people of all ages who were eager to worship and learn. 

Danielle Strickland was the featured speaker. 

In her first talk, “The Church Released,” Strickland invited listeners to revisit Acts 1–2 as a blueprint for what it means to unleash the church in times of cultural anxiety and rapid change. Acts serves as a perfect illustration of this, since the Church itself was built during a time of rapid political change and social anxiety. She noted that ministry paradigms tend to “fail” or require reinvention roughly every 50 years, and she urged humility about our limited imaginations — much like the disciples who assumed Jesus would restore political power to Israel.

Strickland emphasized three practices at the heart of renewal: waiting, prayer, and receiving the Holy Spirit’s power. She described this power, the Spirit’s dunamis, not as the destructive force of dynamite but as a steady, sustaining fire, like the burning bush that did not burn up. This Spirit, she said, creates a decentralized “gift economy” in which all believers receive what they need to bear witness. The call to be martus, witnesses whose lives reflect self-giving love, subverts the pull toward control, hierarchy, and empire-like systems.

To make this vivid, Strickland shared stories from her years of church-planting in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and on the streets of Edmonton. In those communities, sustained prayer opened unexpected doors: a donated van that became a lifeline for anti-trafficking outreach, and a movement powered by 280 volunteers from 18 denominations. These ministries grew not from financial strategies but from people embodying liberating love.

She contrasted these experiences with the Spirit’s first act in Acts 2: a multilingual proclamation that reached the many nations conquered by Rome. By speaking God’s good news in the heart languages of oppressed peoples, even when public proclamations of “good news” were tightly restricted, the Spirit birthed the beginning of a new, boundary-breaking movement.

Here are a few practices we can all learn from the first few chapters of Acts:

• Prioritize prayer and waiting over action: Create dedicated prayer spaces or shifts, emulating Acts 1 by resisting immediate "doing"—instead receive the Spirit's power as gift, fostering sustainable ministry like multi-year prayer rooms unlocking unexpected opportunities.
• Embrace inclusive power: Flatten hierarchies where possible, equipping and trusting ordinary members, across denominations, backgrounds, and social locations, to carry Spirit-filled ministry into streets, workplaces, and neighborhoods, not just into Sunday services.
• Proclaim good news in heart languages: Let the church’s witness take multilingual, multicultural, and context-specific forms that make sense to marginalized and “conquered” communities, preferring relational presence and embodied love over polished branding or growth tactics.

Check out the full talk at the YouTube link below.

Do you have any experiences of what Spirit-led ministry looks like in a time of rapid change? Share them in the comments!