This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Going with the Energy at NGCC

She’s only been pastor of North Guilford Congregational Church (NGCC) since April, but Reverend Judith Cooke has already kicked up the energy with family sermons including puppets and even a jukebox.

The Killingworth resident began her career as a pastor shortly after completing college and seminary in her 20s. Now, she’s enjoying her 21st year as a pastor. Judith joined NGCC from her most recent post with a Higganum church. She also served Connecticut churches in Trumbull and Newington as well as in Cincinnati, Ohio.

When Judith comes to a new church, her approach is to “go with the energy,” she says.

“I think it’s very hard for 300-some people to adapt to how I do things,” she says, of NGCC’s current membership. “It’s much easier for one person to adapt to how they do things. If there’s something I love doing and I’m really good at doing, it doesn’t matter if no one else is on board with it. So I’ve always tried to find the energy in a church and go with that.”

Established in 1719, NGCC may be housed in the oldest church building in town (completed in 1814), but the energy among today’s congregants is filled with vitality and excitement. It’s a perfect fit for Judith.

“It’s very exciting,” she says. “Our youth programs here are wonderful, the music here is great—we’re a very blessed church.”

Not many months before Judith joined NGCC, the church hired a new Christian education director, Dawn M. Longley. Together, Dawn and Judith have been revitalizing what Judith feels are some critically important parts of the church’s offerings—Sunday school and family worship.

“In September before I was hired, they hired Dawn, and she is fabulous,” says Judith. “She is so creative, so engaging...a delight in every way. And when you revitalize your Sunday school, younger families will come, and we get into a growth pattern.”

An engaging Sunday school program is key.

“I know more church Sunday schools, if they woke up and it was 1950, they’d be all set,” says Judith. “But it’s not 1950, and Sunday school kids don’t want to learn with crayons and workbooks. They want to learn in different ways. And if we’re not engaging them, we’re failing them.”

Judith is no stranger to growing congregations, having succeeded in creating substantial growth in her past leadership with other churches.

“I always try to foster growth, largely through getting Sunday school so exciting that kids want to be there,” says Judith. “Churches also have to compete with today’s culture. No church sermon is going to be as entertaining as a stand-up comedian. No church choir, even though we have an amazing church choir, is going to compete with a professional symphony or concert. Sunday schools cannot compete with public schools, or even a summer camp.”

Judith recognizes those may be obstacles, “but our problem is when we try to compete. Because that’s not who we’re supposed to be. We’re not supposed to be the most entertaining—we’re a different category. We’re supposed to help people connect with God. And when kids do these Sunday school activities that are faithful and meaningful in ways they don’t get in other places, they want to come back.”

Judith says Dawn’s installation of a junior youth ministry group has been a huge hit with young ones. Judith and her husband, Jay Cooke (the pastoral director of Hartford Hospital) have seen the effect on their 10 year-old son, Jamie.

“A lot of kids, my son in particular, love anything with a screen, and it’s very easy for kids in this culture to get sucked into this isolated, technological stuff,” says Judith. “But he has also always been desperate to do the stuff that the older kids are doing at church, so when Dawn started finally started a youth group for younger kids, it was a hit. Jamie actually had a choice between attending an after-school program end-of-year party, with a Bouncy House and ice cream social, or youth group, and he said, ‘Youth group!’’

When Judith and Dawn get together for once-monthly family sermons (on the first Sunday on the month), they draw a crowd.

“It used to be the service no one came to,” says Judith. “Now, the puppets always come out and we do a puppet conversation, and we have a message. “

Judith brought a pile of puppets to NGCC, including two oversized characters she made herself when following the energy at the Newington church she served for 10 years.

“There was a group who wanted to do puppet ministry with kids [and) we found affordable ways to do puppets, and it was such a huge success,” says Judith. “I’ve kept using puppets, but it all started because that was where their energy was.”

At NGCC, one of Judith and Dawn’s family sermons used the theme “What You Hear in Church.”

“We dragged in a juke box, which weighed a ton, and had musical things all around,” says Judith. “You hear music in church and Bible [messages], but you also hear yawning and shuffling and squirming, and these are blessings in their own way, so we talked about those kinds of gifts. It’s much more creative—and a lot more work! But when the kids are engaged, it’s more meaningful for the adults, too. The humor we use with the puppets is also geared more for adults. Kids love it, but the people who are raving about it are the adults! So that’s what we’re trying to do, to make church as engaging as possible.”

While she’s only been at NGCC since April, Judith says she’s felt welcomed and embraced from the start. In fact, it wasn’t long after she first arrived that many members of the church reached out to show their support, following an automobile accident involving Judith, Jamie, and their dog, Humphrey. The one year-old beabull (beagle and English bulldog cross) was shaken up and ran off.

“The outpouring of support I received was incredible. Our head deacon, Dianne Grasso, she’s amazing,” says Judith. “She got in bed after this long day of her veterinary work, sees an email that Humphrey’s missing, gets in her car and comes out to Killingworth and searched until 1 a.m. The next morning, she plastered the area with ‘Lost Dog’ posters.”

Humphrey found his way home two days later, safe and sound. Now, thanks to Grasso and the other NGCC council members, he’s got a role with NGCC.

“The first council meeting here, Dianne said, ‘We have a new contract for you to sign.’ And it was a contract offering Humphrey the job as pastoral assistant, so he could be in the office with me!” says Judith. “So Humphrey is here most days with me.”

Now that she’s settled in at NGCC, Judith says she’s ready to keep the energy she’s found here going.

“This church has been such a gift in so many ways,” she says. “I’m really excited to be a part of it.”