The online home for the writings of Keelan Cook. A website for those who love the church and its mission.
“I have no idea how to explain this!” I hear those words frequently from our students. At Southeastern, we take over a dozen short-term mission trips a year all over the world. This results in over a hundred of our students every year traveling t...
I recently spoke to several hundred students at a conference on the importance of evangelism. During my time with those students, I asked them all a simple question: Has there ever been a time when you felt like you should tell someone about Jesus...
I recently stumbled across an article at The Gospel Coalition that caught my attention. The article, titled “The Increasing Value of Christian Testimonies”, resonated. In fact, I make similar claims in my Christian missions courses at the seminary...
Sending global missionaries is one of my favorite topics of conversation with pastors and church leaders. Having been an international missionary myself, it always does my heart good when a pastor or church leader starts asking questions about how...
I initially pulled this book list together during the pandemic a few years ago. Back then, all kinds of posts were appearing that recommended book lists for people to consider during our global shut-in. I even wrote one suggesting you use this ...
“How can we say, ‘let the nations be glad,’ if we’re not?” A few weeks ago, one of our other pastors at church made that statement during a sermon. Tony was preaching on Psalm 138. He made a really good point. The Great Commission is not a burde...
Eschatology weirds a lot of Christians out, nowadays. For the uninitiated, eschatology is the study of last things. In other words, it is the theology about how the world will end, or what happens when Christ comes back. It is a subject that hist...
Americans love our categories. We love our boxes and labels. Even today, with the postmodern push away from classification, we Western thinkers still organize information by placing “like items” together in taxonomies. Categories can be helpful to...
I recently participated in my church’s women’s retreat. The theme for the retreat was “Story,” focusing on The Story (the gospel), and how we view our own stories in light of the gospel. Scripture lays out one big story of creation, fall, redempti...
Yesterday, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina released an explainer video that is just too good not to share. This is the kind of video you need to show in your church. The video discusses the current state of missions in North Americ...
Last week, a friend made mention of this article in her social media, and I felt it was worth sharing. While the news cycle was inundated with shock at the outcome of the presidential election, this little article slipped through at NPR, and it is...
I serve as the George Liele Director of the Center for Great Commission Studies and as a professor of Christian Missions at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
I also serve as Assistant Professor of Christian Missions at the seminary. Previously, I served as the Associate Director for the Union Baptist Association in Houston, TX.
My areas of focus cover both North American and International missions. I teach and write on church renewal and replanting as well as developing healthy sending culture in churches. I have a passion for mobilizing the church to the nations, and a love for missions history.
I lead the Peoples Next Door project, which is an initiative to equip local churches in North America to engage in cross-cultural missions among the least-reached peoples that now live in our communities. I’ve been a church planter in West Africa with the IMB and facilitated ethnographic research in Washington, DC with NAMB.
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