Q&A: Aileen Reid
As the International Youth Ministries Director for the Church of God of Prophecy (COGOP), Aileen Reid plans youth conferences for a church whose membership is 90 percent outside of North America. The COGOP has a worldwide membership exceeding 1 million people, who worship in more than 10,000 churches or missions in 125 nations. It’s no wonder that an organization with this kind of global network could plan a conference in Central America and use its success to spur an annual North American meeting and 2010 global tour. In May of 2009, Reid traveled to Honduras to launch the Operation Omega Youth Harvest Training conference, which more than 500 youth leaders attended. The first North American training conference was held Jan. 14-17, 2010, in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and although attendance numbers didn’t reach the goal, Reid is confident the training was well received.
“Youth Harvest Training was born out of the desire to train youth to be ministers,” says Reid, who has been planning meetings on the local, regional and national level for 10 years. “I saw a need to equip leaders in our organization. We wanted to train our leaders according to our denominational focus and values.”
The Operation Omega mission, based on a scripture in which the Apostle Paul tells Timothy to train those who will teach others (2 Timothy 2:2), is to encourage youth leaders to reach, raise and release this generation for Christian service. “We are coming alongside to train leaders who will coach our youth,” she says. “Everything that we teach them, they will go back to their ministries and train youth to win their peers. In every area in which we are training leaders, we ask them to replicate the process and make a cycle.”
Reid’s love for languages began during a five-year stint as a co-pastor at a church in Montreal, Canada. Her passion has turned the COGOP’s headquarters in Cleveland, Tenn., into a trilingual office. In the past two years, she has planned two bilingual conferences with upfront translation and downloadable Spanish-language registration forms. She currently is coordinating logistics for the Operation Omega 2010 global tour, which includes five dates with locations in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Peru and Calgary, Canada. In 2011, Reid hopes to expand the tour to include French-language conferences in Africa.
Rejuvenate caught up with the globetrotting mother of three to learn more about the intricacies of an international tour.
When did you first become involved with the COGOP’s International Youth Ministry?
My husband and I have been working for the COGOP in various capacities for a while. We took the position as International Youth Pastors in September of 2008 to revamp Operation Omega. The International Youth Ministry has existed in the church for the last hundred years. We renamed it Operation Omega because we believe this is the Omega Generation.
How do you define the Omega Generation?
We see today’s youth as the generation that will usher in Christ. We are a last day movement and we believe Christ is coming soon. We call them the Omega Generation in the sense that omega is the ultimate and the last letter in the Greek alphabet. When we look at this generation we see the most influential generation that the world has ever seen.
How did the Operation Omega Youth Harvest Training conference come about?
We saw a need for training while visiting summer youth camps in various states. The youth leaders themselves expressed a desire for training. The North American Training Harvest in January was meant to draw all of our North American leaders from our youth and camp ministries.
Why did you hold the North American event in Murfreesboro, Tenn.?
It was a central location for many of our churches. The greatest population of COGOP churches is situated in the South. It’s an easier place for people to travel to by car and we wanted to get the greatest attendance. We had groups come from as far away as Alaska, California and the Cayman Islands.
How successful was the event?
We didn’t reach our goal of 200 but we had 140 attendees. Financially we came out OK in that we are able to cover our costs. In the end, conferences aren’t about attendance; they are about the overall experience. We did train more than 100 youth leaders. We were able to really touch some key areas of leadership training and development. After every class we had workshop evaluations and from those we could tell that people were pleased with the programs.
How was the training program structured?
We had a youth ministry track and a day camp track during the conference. So we touched on subjects like child protection, youth culture, the casual sex revolution and fundraising for youth ministry. The North American event had workshops, speakers and classes on preparing for full-time ministry. We addressed at-risk youth and the arts as a means of outreach.
There were four-hour intensive classes and a practicum. The rest of the weekend was composed of general sessions, speakers, workshops, and praise and worship. Every morning opens with devotional time and every night we have a powerful inspirational message.
How are the international locations chosen?
When we go outside of the country, we try not to go to hotels. We use campgrounds that we own or can rent. In North America, most of our leaders are bi-vocational and volunteers with full-time jobs. When we go outside of the country we realize the attendees don’t have the resources Americans do. So we have them travel to places where accommodations are as cost efficient as possible, meals are easy and where meeting space is cheap so the registration fee can be less.
How do the programs for the international events differ from the North American conference?
We vary the structure depending on budget and resources. With the North American event, we had it at a hotel and we had more meeting space. We are focused on the camp and youth ministry training. When we go out of the country, we don’t focus on camps or training as much as we focus on new and emerging ministries. Youth ministry is still a developing ministry outside of the United States. For international events we try as much as possible to use the same speakers but my husband, another team member and I will be the only consistent speakers. We might have two or three others who will be able to travel to different venues.
What are the different challenges you face when you plan internationally versus here at home?
Budget and facility are challenges. When planning in the United States, we have the choice of using a camp room or a hotel. We can choose to have 10 breakout rooms, state-of-the-art AV and just about everything at our disposal to plan a really great meeting. We have wonderful hotel venues and staff that we can work with to meet our budget. We can bring in speakers and we have a greater pool to draw from in our network.
When we go outside of the country, we face serious venue issues. What kind of space are we working with? If the space is open air, how do we use overhead projection? Are there enough areas for breakout sessions? We also try to keep the registration fee under $15, which is a lot for some areas.
What’s your planning schedule like?
While I was planning the North America conference, I was also planning the meetings in South America. My planning team of five has to think and plan several Youth Harvest Training conferences at the same time. Our planning process begins at least a year in advance for major conferences. For international events we often have a shorter timeframe, but we are fortunate that we have great teams in those nations to help plan the logistical aspects while we plan the teaching and programming. The teams are a part of leadership teams in those nations. They are volunteers and not paid staff. When we go to Venezuela, I will be working with their national youth director and all of her volunteers. Those volunteers will be about 40 youth directors from the local churches in the nation.
Sounds like a tough schedule. How do you juggle everything?
The planning — I’ll be honest — is a killer, but when you see it all come about you see God’s work. It’s a killer because there is so much to do logistically. There is a lot of working with registration, working with venues, working with speakers and contracts, and pulling materials together. Sometimes it feels like your head is spinning out of control. It takes a lot of preparation and prayer time. Physically it is draining, with all of the traveling, but the process allows you to meet great people and work with great leaders. On top of everything else, we have to make all of the contracts, applications and materials bilingual.
It gets crazy. When I got to the North American conference I saw the beautiful binders lined up and realized I forgot to include the course synopsis. The synopsis was completed and on my computer, but it never made it in the binder. It was a little glitch. For some people it would be a big deal but for me it was OK. I know you can still have a great conference without having every duck lined up.
How many youth leaders does Operation Omega expect to train globally?
We expect to train 5,000 youth leaders globally in 2010. We could exceed that. When we go outside the United States, we will train between 300 to 550 leaders in each area. We have five training conferences lined up for 2010, which is a great start for us since we are just launching this ministry.
You have a strong Facebook presence with 534 friends? Do you consider social media an important planning tool?
With every event we do, we have an intensive training session on youth ministry and technology. We give both teens and parents a 42-page booklet on all the latest technology and social networks and talk about the benefits and cautions. For me, it’s a great way to stay connected with the youth. The teens are on Facebook posting things and we have teens IMing us; it is a great way to connect because we’ve moved a lot in the past eight years. When we are traveling we post where we’re going and say pray for us, and [we] get tons of messages. We find Facebook to be a crucial tool right now.
What do you like most about your job?
I like my job most when I am traveling and working with leaders. We really feel a calling to raise leaders in this generation. I love young people, working with parents and going to different nations. It’s a challenge linguistically many times but it is also an opportunity. I am developing my language skills. Seeing youth leaders being so hungry for training is satisfying. We thank God for the grace to endure and bare it. Our heart is in this.
How did you learn to speak French and Spanish?
I don’t speak either fluently, but when I was in Montreal I took courses. I depend on the little that I know to have quasi-conversations. When I was growing up in New York, I took Spanish classes but I was never in an environment where I had to use it. Now that we are traveling so much in Latin and South America, it comes back a little bit but I wouldn’t say I speak Spanish. I do have a love for languages and it isn’t something I consider a hurdle in my work. It is something I embrace whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Do you have any advice for fellow meeting planners?
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Work with an expert when it comes to the contract. Let other people look over your contract to see where you can find more leverage. Sit on the contract a while and think through before you sign. Realize that hotels have room to bend a little. With that said, however, look for the hotel that will give your participants the best overall experience. Sometimes that will mean added cost to you (it may not be the best offer/proposal), but our end goal is always to give the participants a great experience that will make them feel that their time and financial investment was worth it.
What do you believe makes a great experience for attendees?
Venue and programming is key. When attendees arrive, the whole registration process can make or break an experience. If it is chaotic and disorganized, they will feel it and form opinions of what to expect. Organization is crucial.
