Autism · ADHD · FASD · Trauma
This Place Expected Someone Like Me to Show Up, and They Were Prepared
A faith-rooted, practical guide to help your church welcome, understand, and support neurodivergent children, teens, and the families who love them.
Your church wants every person to feel welcomed. So why does it still feel this hard to know how?
Fidgeting instead of focusing. Melting down instead of worshiping. Wandering instead of engaging. Or sitting silently, in what looks like shyness but is really lockdown.
You've likely seen them, and not known quite how to help. Their families often sit in the back row, or slip out early before anyone notices they were even there.
Their parents carry invisible weight into every service. They're making a decision most of us never have to think about: do we come, or will it be too hard today?
A field guide from two dads who've sat in the back row too.
Joel Sheagren and Carl Young are fathers of children impacted by FASD, autism, ADHD, and trauma, and co-authors of Embracing Hope. They've sat in the back of sanctuaries with their hearts pounding, wondering if Sunday would be safe, and they've felt the sting of a church that didn't know how to hold their family.
Embrace Neurodiversity is what they wish someone had handed their own pastors years ago: a faith-rooted, practical guide for understanding, welcoming, and walking alongside neurodivergent children, teens, and the families who love them, written with Scripture in one hand and lived experience in the other.
A clear path from understanding to a church culture of belonging.
Five chapters, one clear path
Understanding the four profiles, building inclusive environments, ministry-specific applications, pastoral care, and building a church culture of celebration.
Stories you'll recognize
Q, Shay, Zak, and Kennedy walk through real ministry moments: a youth retreat, a small group, communion, a quiet exit after worship.
Tools for every ministry lane
Children's ministry, youth ministry, adult discipleship, family support, and pastoral care, because this isn't one department's job alone.
Reflection questions & next steps
Every chapter closes with discussion questions and action steps your team can actually put to use this month.
A theology of belonging
Grounded in Scripture, from the Imago Dei to Jesus's own pattern of moving toward the overlooked, not borrowed policy language.
Foreword by Pastor Steve Fitzhugh
A speaker, coach, and chaplain with 40+ years in ministry lends his voice and credibility to this guide.
Your church is already serving these families. The question is whether you feel ready.
Embrace Neurodiversity is Book 2 in The Embraced Movement series, written specifically for pastors, ministry leaders, and the families standing beside them, not as a special-needs ministry program, but as a Kingdom call.
Add in parents, siblings, and caregivers, and a significant portion of your church body is touched by these realities. Embrace Neurodiversity follows Embracing Hope (Book 1, for parents) as the next chapter in The Embraced Movement, alongside the novel Embracing Zak, a feature film in development, and a growing community of churches and families learning to walk this road together.
Endorsements
"This book calls the church not just to include, but to embrace those who experience and express life differently. It's not a manual, it's a movement. A Kingdom vision where every mind, every heart, every child belongs."
"With humility and clarity, Joel and Carl offer practical guidance to help churches become spaces where neurodivergent children, youth, and families are not only welcomed but also deeply understood and intentionally supported."
Your church already has the heart. This is where you start.
Whether you're a pastor, a children's or youth ministry leader, a volunteer, or a parent raising a neurodivergent child of your own, this guide was written for you.