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...
Life sucks sometimes. We all know it is true. You get passed up for a promotion, or perhaps you get fired. Someone in your family becomes terribly sick, or perhaps you do. You find out the girl of your dreams does not feel the same way about you,...
I am a dreamer. God blessed me with a vivid imagine. As a child, that took the shape of me dressing up in costumes and running around fighting crime in a world I had created in my mind. As an adult, I find my imagination no less vivid. However, I...
For several weeks, my posts have revolved around the pursuit of holiness. We looked at several misunderstandings of the term “holiness” when we discussed self-help theology and legalism. Last week, we talked about how the Bible uses the term “holi...
One of my earliest memories of childhood is a painting that hung on the wall in my grandparent’s living room. The painting was a fox hunt, and it was rather large. The scene detailed a vast stretch of fields and tree lines boxed in by fence rows....
Having just moved to a new place, I am still trying to find my way around. Part of that process, at least for me, is learning all the nooks and crannies. It is discovering the little places, like a park or a trail, that provide moments of escape f...
I began looking for a church yesterday, a topic I will discuss fully in another post. Today, I simply share a quick thought from yesterday’s sermon. The preacher hopped around the gospels and was pointing out ways people try to put God in a box. ...
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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