Book Reviews
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The Reason I Jump [Book Review]
![The Reason I Jump [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/the-reason-i-jump-review.jpg)
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida is unlike other books I’ve read about autism. Written by a thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it’s not a study, theory, or guide, it’s a conversation. Higashida answers questions people often ask about his behavior and inner world and invites…
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Sustainable Children’s Ministry [Book Review]
![Sustainable Children’s Ministry [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/sustainable-childrens-ministry.jpg)
Sixteen years ago, Mark DeVries’s Sustainable Youth Ministry changed how I approached student ministry. It forced me to think in systems instead of survival mode; I might not have lasted at my current church if I hadn’t implemented many of those practices. I’ve been wanting to read Sustainable Children’s Ministry by DeVries and Annette Safstrom…
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Sticky Teams [Book Review]
![Sticky Teams [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/sticky-teams-blog.jpg)
Larry Osborne’s Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page is a practical and down-to-earth book on church leadership. Osborne doesn’t just talk theory, he draws from decades of leading a growing church and the lessons he learned the hard way. I appreciate his emphasis on building healthy, unified teams that…
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The Autistic Brain [Book Review]
![The Autistic Brain [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/blog-banner-austistic-brain.jpg)
Temple Grandin’s The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum wasn’t quite what I expected when I picked it up; it dives deep into the brain science behind autism, which I did find fascinating. Grandin combines her lived experience as someone on the spectrum with a mountain of research, and the result is a book that…
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Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity [Book Review]
![Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/unmasking-autisum-blog.jpg)
This past week I read Devon Price’s Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity as part of my effort to better understand and pastor the kids in our student ministry who are impacted by autism. This book was both personal and practical, combining Price’s own story with research and insights that helped me gain…
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My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church [Book Review]
![My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/my-body-is-not-a-prayer-request-blog.jpg)
Amy Kenny’s My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church is a thought-provoking book and worth a read. Kenny confronts head-on the assumptions, prejudices, and theological blind spots the church often holds toward disabled people. She refuses to let us hide behind polite intentions, reminding us that “to assume that my…
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Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus [Book Review]
![Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/blog-rabbi-jesus.jpg)
Lois Tverberg’s Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus: How a Jewish Perspective Can Transform Your Understanding is one of those books that reshapes how you approach Scripture. I appreciated it because it reminded me that the Bible is not a Western book; it was born out of the soil, language, and culture of the Middle…
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The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism [Book Review]
![The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/blog-mk-book.jpg)
As someone who spent a number of my teen years as a missionary kid (MK), historian Holly Berkley Fletcher’s The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism hit home in powerful ways. As an MK herself, she manages to put words to experiences, questions, and disillusionments that are common to the missionary kid experience.…
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Black Like Me [Book Review]
![Black Like Me [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/black-like-me-blog.jpg)
John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me is simple to describe and hard to shake: in 1959 he darkened his skin and traveled through the segregated South, writing down what he saw and heard. The book reads like a road journal—short scenes, overheard conversations, long bus rides, tense sidewalk moments. That first-person style gives the book…
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The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over Its Future [Book Review]
![The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over Its Future [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/second-coming-book.jpg)
Carter Sherman’s The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over Its Future is a fascinating and often unsettling exploration of what some have called the “sex recession.” Younger generations are having less sex than previous ones, and Sherman sets out to discover why. While her concern seems to be that people should be…