The online home for the writings of Keelan Cook. A website for those who love the church and its mission.
I wonder if you think like I do. When I read through the gospels, I often wonder what it would have been like to walk alongside Jesus in the flesh. Even more, what would it have been like to walk alongside Jesus in his resurrected body? What was i...
During my time serving overseas as a missionary, I lived in rural West Africa. Rustic doesn’t quite describe the living conditions. No electricity. No running water. That meant water had to come out of the ground, and it had to do so by hand. I h...
We live in an anxious age. If you don’t believe me, check out this book, or this article, or this article that even discusses a rise in anxiety before the pandemic, or this research. And if you don’t trust any of those sources, here’s Fox News say...
This article has been a long time coming. If you are a long-time follower of my writing (and I mean long time), you may recall an article I wrote back in 2015 titled, “A Word of Caution Concerning ‘Relationship Evangelism’.” In that article, I wr...
I’m presently making last-minute travel arrangements to head to Dallas at the end of the week. This year marks my 11th year in a row attending the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting. It’s my 13th meeting in total. Yes, I go because of my...
A generation ago, many (most?) churches had a problem with discipleship. In many ways, that became the concern of a generation in evangelical churches across North America. The concept of discipleship had been whittled down to nothing more than co...
Gentrification is a buzz word today. I know I talk about it quite a bit (See: here, here, and here), and if you are paying attention to the conversation it is a regular topic for church planters and ministers in bigger cities across the country ri...
Refugee care is an issue Christians should address. I talk about it a lot here on the website, and with due reason. It is important. So, I like to keep it in front of regular readers. We need to be able to speak clearly and winsomely about the imp...
I am starting to dread that first look at Twitter each morning. After all, Twitter is my morning newspaper. It is where I get my headlines, and frankly this last week I have not wanted them. It is one thing when your headlines are filled with the ...
I see it regularly: young church planters who want to move to some other city and plant an exact copy of their sending church. Both in my role at the seminary and as a pastor of a church that sends a number of planting teams, it is not uncommon fo...
“You cannot do the Great Commission without doing the Great Commandment.” We say that a lot nowadays, and I do believe it is true. The premise is as follows. The Great Commission, or the call to make disciples of all nations stands at the very ce...
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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