Keelan Cook promoted to Associate Director of CGCS

“Keelan Cook is one of the most gifted missiological thinkers and leaders in North America,” said Keith Whitfield, SEBTS Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies. “We are thrilled that he and his wife, Meredith, are returning to SEBTS. For the past four years, Keelan has gained incredible experience serving in one of the most diverse cities in North America, Houston, TX through the ministry of the Union Baptist Association. He brings back to Southeastern that experience as we seek to equip and mobilize Great Commission students.”      

Cook will oversee student mobilization and networking with to provide opportunities for students to be on mission. This includes the goals of seeing every student go on a short-term mission trip before they graduate and challenging 22 college students to participate in the GO2 Initiative by 2022. Cook will also focus on increasing student applications with the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the International Mission Board (IMB), further emphasizing the school’s goal of seeing all students use their degrees to fulfill the Great Commission in a strategic way.  

In addition to his role in the CGCS, Cook will also continue teaching in his role as Instructor of Missiology. Cook comes to SEBTS with extensive experience networking with local churches, state conventions, and Baptist associations through his role as the Associate Director and Senior Church Consultant for the Union Baptist Association in Houston, Texas. He also leads the Peoples Next Door project, which is an initiative of the CGCS to equip local churches in North America to engage in cross-cultural missions among the least-reached peoples that now live in North American communities. 

“When I was a student, the Center for Great Commission Studies at Southeastern changed my life,” said Cook. “I hope I can continue that tradition of shaping others into stewards of our Great Commission responsibility given to us by Christ. I truly believe the CGCS can be the flagship missions equipping center for Southern Baptists, and I am grateful for the opportunity to labor with others at Southeastern to identify and equip many for an array of Great Commission tasks.” 

In previous years, Cook spent time as a church planter in West Africa with the IMB and has done ethnographic research in Washington, DC with NAMB. He has already served in pastoral ministry at Imago Dei church in Raleigh and as College Minister at First Baptist Church, Humboldt, Tennessee.  

Cook is currently pursuing his PhD in Applied Theology at SEBTS. He also received his Master of Arts in Christian Studies and Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He is married to his wife, Meridith, and they have two children, Nora and Ezra.