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 ...
The term missional is overused. It happens a lot with new words that are initially helpful. We see the word as clearly describing some admirable trait and we adopt the word, but the meaning starts to expand. People continue placing it as a label ...
I get this question a lot, so I thought it fitting to address it in a post. With the remarkable diversity we find around ourselves today, we can no longer assume we understand someone’s religious background. This is obvious when we talk about dis...
I was recently talking to a student deploying to the field for missionary service, and she informed me she was the only person to ever serve as a missionary from her Baptist association back at home. Now, she’s from the South where there are many ...
We talk a lot of theory on this website about how to engage different population groups and cultures in your community. Today, I want to provide a practical example of a real-life church-based ministry implementing a lot of what we talk about. I w...
All analogies break down, so bear with me here. But I want to share this one with you, because I think it does a good job of answering why your area (and mine) needs new churches. A church is, in some ways, like a tree. Churches have a life cycle...
The following is a guest post by Trevor King. Trevor is a good friend, and I have always appreciated the way he articulates the importance of church membership, so I wanted him to share it with you all. This is a good read, and may even be convict...
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.
Get notified about new articles, right in your email inbox. Receive an email no more than once a week with any updates.
