Career Profile
Keelan Cook is the George Liele Director for the Center for Great Commission studies. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Missions at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Keelan’s areas of focus cover both North American and International missions. He teaches and writes on church renewal and replanting as well as developing healthy sending culture in churches. He has a passion for mobilizing the church to the nations, and a love for missions history. In previous years, he spent time as a church planter in West Africa with the IMB and doing ethnographic research in Washington, DC with NAMB.
Experiences
The Lewis A. Drummond Center for Great Commission Studies is the hub of missionary mobilization at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The CGCS exists to mobilize and equip students, faculty, and staff in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. We accomplish this in the classroom, in our community, and among the nations in partnership with local churches, state conventions, NAMB, and the IMB.
Serve full time on the teaching faculty at Southeastern in the ministry area. Teach various missions courses at the undergaduate, graduate, and advanced levels.
Provided leadership, direction, and oversight of key mobilization and student initiatives. This includes aiding in the pathways initiative and facilitating SEBTS mission trip strategy.
UBA is an association of over 560 affiliated congregations from the greater Houston area, cooperating for the purposes of missions, evangelism, leadership development, church planting & discipleship. The Houston metropolitan area is the 5th largest in the U.S. and the most ethnically and culturally diverse population center in the country.
Served as a lay elder with responsibilities pertaining to small group pastoral oversight and missions and evangelism. Coordinated missionary development and sending.
The Urban Resource Initiative at Southeastern provided students, churches, and other Great Commission partners with equipping and resources designed to engage lostness and plant churches in our urban centers domestically and around the globe.
Served as an international church planter in rural West Africa.
Courses Taught
A course designed to introduce the student to the biblical, theological, historical, and practical bases for Christian missions. Special attention is given to contemporary issues in missions as well as current ways to do missions.
An introduction to Judaism and Islam, in their varied manifestations, for prospective workers. The course will feature missional approaches which communicate the gospel effectively, to individuals and groups, in such contexts.
An interpretive history of the expansion of Christianity from apostolic times to the present.
This seminar examines diaspora missiology with an emphasis on cross-cultural missions and ministry in a North American context. Students will examine the biblical theological foundations of diaspora missiology, the contemporary context of diaspora missiology, and the role of the church in engaging diaspora communities.
An examination of how to develop a missionary culture within the local church. Students will study the missiological vision presented in the Bible as well as the works of missiologists. The seminar will also explore the importance of changing a church’s culture as well as developing a well-thought-out and complete mission strategy.
An introduction to the biblical, theological, and practical aspects related to the practice and fulfillment of the Great Commission. Special attention is given to contemporary methods of doing missions and evangelism.