Uncommen: Man to Man

https://www.uncommen.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/April-18th.mp3
Quick Answers


Are my hobbies actually a sin? Absolutely not. Hobbies, sports, and interests are good gifts meant to be enjoyed. The problem arises when these good gifts are elevated to ultimate things. When a hobby dictates your schedule, your finances, and your emotional state more than your relationship with Jesus, it has crossed the line into idolatry.
How do I know if I have modern day idols in my life? Look at your schedule and your emotional reactions. If you feel devastated about missing a football game but feel absolutely nothing when you skip your daily Bible reading, your priorities are inverted. Your calendar and your bank statement will always reveal what you truly worship.
Do I have to give up the things I love? No, but you have to bring them into submission under Christ. You don’t necessarily have to sell your golf clubs or cancel your sports packages, but you must establish firm boundaries. Hobbies should fit into the margins of a life centered on God, not the other way around.
What is the "fishing boat" excuse? It is a common justification men use to skip gathering with other believers. Men will say, "I can worship God just fine on my boat or in my deer stand." While God is present in nature, using recreation as an excuse to avoid church community is a clear sign that a hobby has taken the throne.

The Subtle Creep of the Weekend Idol
When most Christian men hear the word “idol,” their minds immediately jump back to ancient history. We picture the Israelites melting down their jewelry in the desert to forge a golden calf, or we imagine ancient temples filled with statues of wood and stone. Because we don’t physically bow down to statues in our living rooms, we falsely assume that we are completely immune to the sin of idolatry. But the human heart is a factory for worship, and the enemy is perfectly content to let us trade golden calves for fiberglass boats, fantasy football rosters, and pristine vinyl record collections.
This is the subtle, dangerous reality of modern day idols. They don’t announce themselves as false gods. They enter our lives disguised as harmless hobbies, much-needed stress relief, and well-deserved weekend entertainment. You start by just wanting to catch a few football games to unwind after a brutal work week. You start by taking up golf to get some fresh air and network. You start hunting or fishing to find a little peace and quiet away from the noise of the city.
These are good, natural desires. But as men, we have a terrible tendency to take things to the absolute extreme. What starts as a simple, relaxing interest slowly begins to demand more of our time, more of our money, and more of our mental bandwidth. Before you know it, you are organizing your entire family’s schedule around kickoff times, dropping thousands of dollars on equipment, and spending your Monday mornings completely consumed by your fantasy league standings. The transition is so quiet that you never even realize your hobby has taken the throne of your heart. But make no mistake: anything that commands your greatest loyalty, time, and affection above Jesus Christ is functioning as a god in your life. Defeating modern day idols requires us to drop our defenses and take a brutally honest look at how we are spending the one life God has given us.

Examples of Modern Day Idols in a Man's Life
If you are looking for examples of modern day idols, you don’t have to look very far. You simply need to look at how the average man spends his weekend. As discussed on the Uncommen podcast, the sheer volume of time and resources we dedicate to entertainment is staggering when viewed objectively.
Consider the reality of the fall football season. A single NFL or college football game takes roughly three and a half hours to watch. If a man watches a Thursday night game, a college game on Saturday afternoon, a Saturday night prime-time game, two NFL games on Sunday, and Monday Night Football, he has suddenly dedicated twenty to twenty-five hours of his week solely to watching a screen. That is the equivalent of a part-time job. When twenty-five hours are sacrificed to the television, and zero hours are sacrificed to reading God’s Word or leading a family devotional, football has officially become one of the most prominent modern day idols in that home.
Or consider the massive, dedicated communities built around motorsports and tailgating. Men will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury RVs, burn through weeks of hard-earned Paid Time Off, and completely relocate their lives to a speedway parking lot for two weeks just to watch cars drive in a circle. It is a modern-day pilgrimage. We treat sporting events with the kind of absolute devotion, financial sacrifice, and communal dedication that the early church used to reserve for the Kingdom of God.
The danger isn't limited to sports. Modern day idols can be found in the quiet corners of our personal lives. It can be an obsession with building a perfect vinyl record collection, hunting down rare trading cards, or spending endless hours doom-scrolling through YouTube and TikTok videos. It can be the relentless pursuit of lowering your golf handicap while your marriage struggles to survive. The object of the obsession changes from man to man, but the spiritual result is exactly the same: we become spiritually numb, emotionally distant from our families, and completely disconnected from our God-given purpose.

The "Fishing Boat" Excuse and the Heart Check
When a man’s hobbies begin to be challenged by his wife, his pastor, or his brothers in Christ, the immediate response is almost always a defensive justification. "I work hard all week; it's just my thing," we say. Or, we try to spiritualize the hobby to make it untouchable. This is where the infamous "fishing boat" excuse comes into play.
A man will skip Sunday morning service for months at a time to go out on the lake, and when confronted, he will say, "I read my Bible while I'm out there. It's just me and the Lord on the boat. That's my worship." While God certainly created the outdoors and we can experience His presence in nature, using a hobby as an excuse to perpetually ditch the gathering of believers is a massive spiritual red flag. It is a convenient lie we tell ourselves to protect our modern day idols. We want the blessings of God without having to submit our schedules to His Lordship.
To determine if you are harboring modern day idols, you have to perform a ruthless heart check. Ask yourself this highly revealing question: Do you feel as much conviction and sorrow about missing your daily Bible reading as you do about missing your team’s big game? If your DVR fails to record the game, you are furious. You spend the whole day avoiding social media so the score isn't spoiled. But if you go four consecutive days without opening your Bible or spending time in prayer, do you feel any urgency? Do you feel that same level of frustration? Furthermore, if you can readily explain every detail of what happened on last week's episode of Survivor, but you couldn't even summarize the last sermon you heard or name the book of the Bible you are supposedly reading, you have a major priority issue. Modern day idols blind us to our own spiritual starvation. They feed us cheap entertainment while our souls wither away.

The Great "I'm Too Busy" Myth
The ultimate defense mechanism for a man protecting his modern day idols is the excuse of busyness. When a man is asked to step up and lead—whether it is joining a men’s small group, volunteering in the community, or simply dedicating thirty minutes a day to family prayer—the default answer is almost always, “I am just so incredibly busy right now. I don’t have the time.”
But time is the ultimate lie detector. The truth is, you are never too busy for the things that you truly value. A man will look his pastor in the eye and say he cannot possibly find the time to attend a 6:30 AM Wednesday morning Bible study, but that same man will gladly wake up at 4:00 AM on a Saturday, hitch up a boat, and drive two hours to hit the water before sunrise. A man will say he doesn't have the bandwidth to mentor a younger man, but he will somehow find three hours every single night to grind through video games.
You are not lacking time; you are lacking priority. When you take a hard look at your weekly routine, your modern day idols will be glaringly obvious based on where your free hours are spent. We convince ourselves that our busy season just became a busy decade, but when we finally audit our time, we realize we have thrown away thousands of hours on trivial pursuits. Eradicating modern day idols requires us to stop lying to ourselves about our schedules and start taking radical ownership of our daily choices.

Practical Steps to Dethrone Your Modern Day Idols
It is important to remember that the goal is not to eliminate fun from your life. God designed you to enjoy creation, to experience brotherhood through sports, and to have hobbies that allow you to decompress. The goal is proper alignment. You have to put God at the absolute center of your life and sprinkle your hobbies around Him, rather than putting your hobbies at the center and trying to squeeze God into the leftover cracks. If you are ready to smash the modern day idols in your life, here are three practical Uncommen steps you can take today:
1. Perform a Brutal Time Audit: You cannot manage what you do not measure. This week, check the screen time report on your smartphone. Track exactly how many hours you spend watching sports, gaming, or scrolling. Write the number down. Then, write down exactly how many hours you spent reading Scripture, praying with your wife, and serving your local church. The resulting ratio will expose your modern day idols instantly. Let that conviction drive you to repentance.
2.

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https://www.uncommen.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Faith-at-work.mp3
The Office Mission Field: How to Integrate Faith in the Workplace Without Being “That Guy”
Quick Answers



What holds men back? Fear of being labeled "weird," getting reported to HR, or losing social capital often silences men from sharing their faith in the workplace.


Is excellence spiritual? Yes. Your work ethic is your primary witness. You cannot have a sloppy career and a powerful testimony; they are incompatible.


Do I have to preach? No. Most workplace evangelism happens through "relational equity"—building genuine friendships first, so you earn the right to speak later.


What if I’m not perfect? Perfect people don't need Jesus. Admitting your mistakes and owning your failures is often a more powerful testimony than pretending to have it all together.


How do I start? Start small. Pray over your meal. Mention church when asked about your weekend. Let your "faith flag" fly just enough to invite curiosity.


The Monday Morning Dilemma
We all know "That Guy." You’ve probably seen him in a movie, or maybe, unfortunately, in the cubicle next to you. He’s the guy who turns a request for a stapler into a theological debate. He’s the guy who leaves tracts in the breakroom microwave. He’s the guy who uses "Christianese" jargon that makes everyone else uncomfortable and frankly, a little annoyed.
Because we are so afraid of becoming "That Guy," most of us swing the pendulum entirely to the other side. We go silent. We become "Secret Service Christians." We clock in, keep our heads down, do our work, and clock out, leaving our faith in the workplace completely undistinguishable from the world around us.
But as Joshua and TJ discussed on the podcast, this silent approach is just as dangerous as the "weird" approach. Jesus didn't call us to be undercover agents; He called us to be the light of the world. And since most of us spend the vast majority of our waking hours at work, if our light is hidden under a bushel from 9 to 5, we are missing our primary mission field.
The challenge for the Uncommon man is to find the middle ground. How do we live out a vibrant, undeniable faith in the workplace that draws people in rather than pushing them away? How do we stop viewing our jobs as just a paycheck and start viewing them as a platform?

The Myth of the Secular Job
One of the biggest lies men believe is the divide between the "sacred" and the "secular." We think that pastors, missionaries, and worship leaders do "God's work," while the rest of us—accountants, mechanics, sales reps, project managers—just do "regular work."
This is unbiblical nonsense.
There is no such thing as a secular job for a believer. Everything you do is spiritual because you are spiritual. The Holy Spirit doesn't clock out when you walk into the office. Whether you are preaching a sermon or pouring concrete, Colossians 3:23 applies: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters."
When you shift your perspective to see your career through the lens of faith in the workplace, the mundane tasks of your day take on eternal significance. That spreadsheet isn't just data; it's a demonstration of integrity. That difficult client meeting isn't just a headache; it's an opportunity to show patience and grace.
Joshua made a great point in the episode: We often think evangelism means standing on a desk and shouting repentance. But real, sustainable faith in the workplace often looks much more like quiet excellence. It looks like being the guy who doesn't complain when the project goes sideways. It looks like the boss who takes the blame but shares the credit. It looks like the employee who actually works a full 8 hours when everyone else is scrolling social media.

Excellence is Your Apologetic
If you want to share your faith in the workplace, you first have to be good at your job. It sounds simple, but it is profound. In a culture of "quiet quitting" and bare-minimum effort, excellence is a disruptor.
Think about it. If you are lazy, unreliable, or constantly late, no one cares what you believe about Jesus. In fact, if you are a slacker who talks about God, you are actively doing damage to the Kingdom. You are giving Christ a bad name. Your coworkers will think, "If that's what a Christian is, I don't want any part of it."
Competence creates curiosity. When you are excellent at what you do, you earn respect. And when you have respect, you have an audience. People will eventually ask, "Why do you work so hard? Why are you so joyful even when the quarterly numbers are down? Why didn't you panic like everyone else?"
That is your open door. That is where faith in the workplace moves from abstract to concrete. You can say, "Honestly, my identity isn't tied to this job. I serve a different Master, and that gives me peace even when things are chaotic." You haven't preached a sermon, but you have planted a seed that only excellence could have cultivated.

Relational Equity: Earning the Right to Speak
In the podcast, TJ shared a powerful story about working in the design industry in New Orleans, a field often populated by people who live lifestyles very different from a biblical worldview. He didn't walk in on day one and start condemning people or handing out list of grievances. He built relationships. He went to lunch. He got to know them as human beings.
This concept is called "relational equity." Think of it like a bank account. Every time you listen to a coworker, help them with a task, ask about their kids, or show genuine care, you are making a deposit. You are building trust.
Many men try to make a "withdrawal"—sharing the Gospel or correcting a worldview—before they have made any deposits. That is when you become "That Guy." You are trying to cash a check that is going to bounce because you haven't earned the relational capital to cover it.
Faith in the workplace is a long game. It requires patience. It requires you to actually love the people you work with, not just view them as projects to be converted. When your coworkers know that you genuinely care about them, they will be infinitely more open to hearing about what makes you tick.
TJ mentioned that when he would go back to work on Monday, and people asked, "What did you do this weekend?", he wouldn't hide it. He would say, "I went to church," or "I served with my community group." He didn't make a big deal out of it, but he didn't scrub it from his life either. Over time, that consistency builds a reputation. People start to associate you with your faith in the workplace naturally. They know who you are. And when a crisis hits—a divorce, a diagnosis, a death in the family—guess whose desk they come to? They come to the guy who has been steady. They come to the guy who has hope.

The "Fruit" Check: Do You Look Like the World?
Here is the hard truth: You cannot share faith in the workplace if you look, act, and sound exactly like the world.
If you are gossiping in the breakroom, you have lost your witness. If you are complaining about the boss behind his back, you have lost your witness. If you are getting drunk at the company happy hour, you have lost your witness. If you are fudging the numbers on your expense report, you have lost your witness.
Jesus said, "By their fruit you will recognize them." Your coworkers are fruit inspectors. They are watching you closer than you think. They are waiting to see if your faith is real or if it’s just a Sunday morning hobby.
Living out faith in the workplace means holding yourself to a higher standard. It means having integrity when no one is watching. It means choosing your words carefully. As the podcast highlighted, this doesn't mean you have to be a prude or judgmental. You can still be fun. You can still joke around. But there is a line.
When everyone else is tearing someone down, you stay silent or offer a different perspective. When everyone else is panicking, you bring a calming presence. These small, daily decisions accumulate. They create a distinct aroma of Christ.
TJ noted that in the creative field, he worked with many gay colleagues. He didn't affirm everything they did, but he loved them. He treated them with dignity. And because of that, they respected him. They knew he was a Christian. They knew where he stood. But they also knew he wasn't hateful. That balance—truth and love—is the hallmark of mature faith in the workplace.

Vulnerability vs. Perfection
One of the reasons men hesitate to share their faith is the fear of hypocrisy. We think, "I'm not perfect. I lose my temper. I make mistakes. Who am I to talk about Jesus?"
But here is the secret: Your perfection is not the point. In fact, pretending to be perfect pushes people away because everyone knows it’s a lie. No one relates to a plastic saint.
Real faith in the workplace is displayed most powerfully in how you handle failure. When you screw up—and you will—do you blame others? Do you make excuses? Or do you own it?
Imagine the impact of a leader who says, "I was wrong. I shouldn't have spoken to you that way. I apologize. Will you forgive me?" That is counter-cultural. That is Uncommon. The world teaches us to cover our tracks and shift blame. The Gospel teaches us to confess and seek restoration.
When you apologize, you are demonstrating the Gospel. You are showing that you are a sinner in need of grace, just like everyone else. This vulnerability makes your faith in the workplace accessible. It shows that Christianity isn't about being better than everyone else; it's about being forgiven.

Practical Steps to Integrate Faith in the Workplace
So, how do we move from theory to action? You don't need to quit your job and become a missionary. You just need to be intentional. Here are five practical ways to start exercising your faith in the workplace this week:
1.