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...
Things change. We know this to be true. Live long enough, and you see the world around you adjust and evolve. It is a fact of life. Some things appear to always push forward, like technology. While other things seem to move in circles, like fashi...
If you are questioning man’s depravity lately, might I suggest you cut on your television. This weekend, I visited a friend in Richmond and was sitting on his couch before church. The television was on the National Geographic channel, and I notic...
If you ever want to feel awkward, try preaching a wedding as a single guy. That will just about do it. A few months ago, I received a call from an old college student of mine. He and his fiancée (also a past student of mine) were getting married...
This post is a continuation from a previous post. For the whole story, read On debating an imam. Christianity is not about a religion, or a philosophy, or a worldview; it is about a person. For centuries men have been beaten, persecuted, tortu...
This post is a continuation from a previous post. For the whole story, read On debating an imam. “How many copies of the Bible do you own?” asked the imam. It was a question for which I had no definite answer. “Perhaps a dozen,” I thought to ...
Life has a way of putting people in weird situations. It is that awkward moment when you realize you are sitting in the wrong classroom on the first day of school, or perhaps, it is that instance when your boss randomly asks for your opinion abou...
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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