a blog by Keelan Cook
They are calling it global fluency. In a recent article from Brad McDearmon of the Brookings Institute, he discusses the city of Columbus, OH and their recent training by the Global Fluency Institute. The purpose of this training is to help cities become more "culturally competent and globally fluent, allowing them to successfully interact with…
I have been sitting on this news for a while, but I am excited to announce that this website will soon be coming to you from Houston instead of Wake Forest. From my perspective, Houston is one of the most strategic cities for urban missions in the United States. First, it is growing rapidly. In…
Back in December, I announced a free webinar over at ethnéCITY.com that I cohosted. In that webinar we covered the process of people group discovery for churches and agencies interested in simply ways to find out about people groups around your community. Today, I want to let you know about the follow-up webinar that will be…
Continue reading ➞ Want to Engage People Groups in Your Community? Free Webinar this Thursday.
I have been sitting on this piece of news for a while now, but we are finally ready to make the big announcement. Southeastern is officially hosting Reaching the Nations in North America in 2017! Last year's RTN Summit in Nashville, TN was a great success. We had hundreds of people come from all over…
Continue reading ➞ Reaching the Nations in North America 2017 is happening, and it’s happening here!
CORRECTION! I originally said this webinar begins at 3pm EST, but it is 2pm EST. So, it's in 1 hour! If you and your church are like many, you see the gospel opportunities around you to reach peoples from all over the world. I am thankful for the growing number of resources available to help…
Continue reading ➞ Want to Discover People Groups in Your Community? Free Webinar Today
I love shows about strange food. Maybe it is because I love strange food. I like them even more when I can learn something from them, and this upcoming piece by Anthony Bourdain on CNN's Parts Unknown is all about the radical diversity found in one US city... Houston. I have noted before that Houston…
Continue reading ➞ Bourdain Tastes the Nations… in Houston (VIDEO)
Ministry happens in the medium of culture. In fact, all of life does. Some have compared culture to the air we walk through and breath every day. For this reason, we love talking about "engaging culture." Some question whether we should concern ourselves with culture at all in ministry, as though it is a distraction…
Every church needs to know the community around them. Many churches today knew their community at one time, but things change. When it comes to communities here in the US, that transition has happened quickly and everywhere. Many (I would guess most) neighborhoods look different today than they did 10-15 years ago. In many places…
Continue reading ➞ How to Use Google Forms, Sheets, & Maps to Survey Your Community (For Free)
Methods in local church ministry and mission are too often based on the perceived goals of the church instead of the unique nature of their community. Before I sound too critical, I believe many local churches have noble goals, but they are often more self-serving than the church ever realizes. Many churches focus on growth…
Continue reading ➞ Your Community Should Affect The Way You Do Ministry
Have you ever found a place, a restaurant or little store, in your community that you had never seen before and wondered how it escaped you? A few years back, I spent about a year living in Washington, DC. It was during the early stages of our Peoples Next Door project, and I was trying…
Continue reading ➞ People Group Discovery: Seeing Your Community Through Different Eyes
