Ephesiology Master Classes

Don is, first and foremost, a Christian thinker and practitioner. But he is also a spiritual friend-director and missiologist. Don and his wife, Ellen, invested twenty-five years of their lives as missionaries—most of them in the former Czechoslovakia. While living there his primary focus was facilitative church planting, functioning as a trainer, coach and mentor with Czech church planters. He also provided spiritual friendship and direction for expatriate missionaries and other spiritual leaders. Don earned a professional doctorate from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, specializing in Spiritual Formation for Ministry Leaders. However, his highest academic credential is the Th.M. in New Testament. He continues to bring his experience and education to bear on his ministry passion: Christian ministry leaders, congregations and organizations who struggle and seek help. Don and Ellen make their home in Palm City on South Florida’s Treasure Coast.

Dr. Cooper earned a PhD in Intercultural Studies with a focus on religious movements and a minor in theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He currently serves as a missiologist for a missions agency where he focuses on missiological research and equipping missionaries for effective cultural engagement. He has thirty years of missions experience, including ten years as a pioneer church planter in Romania after the fall of communism and has equipped church planters and leaders in Africa, Europe, North America, South America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. He is a guest faculty at Torch Trinity Graduate University, adjunct faculty at Mission India Theological Seminary, Asia Graduate School of Theology Nepal, and Ebenezer Bible College in Katmandu, and affiliate faculty at Kairos University. He has written and contributed to more than 30 books and academic articles and has presented conference lectures at the London School of Economics, University of Bordeaux, Loyola University, Baylor University, and many others. His recent book, Ephesiology: A Study of the Ephesian Movement is a best seller at William Carey Publishing.

A graduate of Penn State, Pastor Dave earned a Master of Theological Studies at Palmer Theological Seminary outside of Philadelphia, and then to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL, where he received a Ph.D. in Theological Studies with a concentration in Systematic Theology. His dissertation was a theology of proclamation, aiming to help the local church use not only preaching, but the sacraments and living out one's faith in the world as means of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.