Books
-
Sacred Word, Broken Word [Book Review]
![Sacred Word, Broken Word [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/sparks-blog.jpg)
Kenton Spark’s Sacred Word, Broken Word: Biblical Authority and the Dark Side of Scripture was a thought-provoking read—one that’s been sitting on my to-read list for a while. Sparks doesn’t shy away from difficult questions or uncomfortable tensions in Scripture, which I appreciated. He dives straight into the messiness: contradictions, troubling passages, and the fact…
-
Orphans of the Sky [Book Review]
![Orphans of the Sky [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/orphans-blog.jpg)
I first read Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein when I was twelve and loved it—but then forgot the title. For decades, I’d find myself trying to remember it, coming up short every time. Recently, a random memory finally clicked, and after some quick Google searching, I tracked it down. Reading it again…
-
Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming [Book Review]
![Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming [Book Review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/curveball-blog.jpg)
I recently finished Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming (or How I Stumbled and Tripped My Way to Finding a Bigger God) by Peter Enns, and I really appreciated it. The book is part memoir, part theological reflection. Enns walks through the unexpected shifts his faith has taken over the years—starting…
-
Exploring Factors Influencing Long-Term Volunteer Engagement and Retention in Student Ministry
My dissertation is live at ProQuest and available on Amazon in physical and Kindle formats for anyone that wants to dive into my research project and learn more about what I’ve been working on the last few years during my doctoral pursuit. Here is the abstract: Volunteer retention is an often overlooked, yet important part…
-
Sometimes I Read Books
I read some amazing books. Here’s what I think of them: Terraform: Building a Better World by Propaganda. This book is so good. Seriously good. Using the metaphor of terraforming, Propaganda makes a case for being active participants in remaking and repairing the broken parts of our culture and world. With a mix of poetry…
-
Another Book Review Roundup
Some more short takes on four books I’ve read recently: Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood, Lisa Damour. I really appreciate Dr. Damour’s books about teenage girls. In Untangled, she does a great job of helping the reader to understand the critical steps an adolescent girl needs to take as she…
-
Book Review Roundup
Some short takes on four books I’ve read over the last couple months: God and the Pandemic, N.T. Wright. I really wish I had read this when it first came out! Wright does such an effective job of both navigating scripture and addressing the real pain of the pandemic. He challenges the reader to respond…
-
Under Pressure [book review]
![Under Pressure [book review]](https://matthewmcnutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/under-pressure-title.jpg)
Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Dr. Lisa DaMour is an important book. Just from my own anecdotal experience of being a youth pastor for what will be twenty years in a couple months, I have noticed anxiety skyrocketing in adolescent girls in the last five years. Drawing on…
-
Mark Stuart’s “Losing My Voice to Find It”
Mark Stuart’s Losing My Voice to Find It is such a great book! I picked it up a couple weeks ago at Youth Specialties NYWC conference; I actually got to meet Mark at the Interlinc booth and get my copy signed. I should probably preface this review with the fact that Audio Adrenaline has long…
-
Spiritual Grit & Suicide
Some thought provoking words on suicide from Rick Lawrence in his book, Spiritual Grit: We live in the most affluent society in the history of the world, and one deadly (and counterintuitive) side effect of affluence is suicide. A 2012 study by the U.S. government found that the richer the neighborhood, the higher the risk…