Just A Guy In The Pew Podcast

Most everyone has felt stuck, that your life would be so much better if everyone else just got on your level one way or another. We know that’s a distraction by the enemy to get you focusing on the speck in your brother’s eye while you walk around with a two-by-four hanging out of your own. But what do we do to finally overcome that? How do we fight against this and win? Long story short: we can’t...

Most of us were taught how to work hard, provide, and solve problems. But very few of us were ever taught how to truly love, communicate, or lead our families the way Christ calls us to. That leaves a lot of men frustrated. We work harder, say less, withdraw emotionally, and wonder why our marriages keep drifting further apart. This week, I sit down with Dr. Greg Popcak, the founder of CatholicCou...

Tell me if you’ve ever said something like this before: “If my boss wasn’t such a jerk, I’d like my job.” “If my wife would just listen to me, we’d be able to be happy.” "If only my friends would stop doing x, y, or z, I’d be able to be myself.” This blame game is a favorite tool of the enemy going all the way back to Eden. As long as we’re focused on what other people aren’t doing right or how th...

How do you stay true to Christ? I hear this question so often. People are creatures of habit; when things get difficult, it’s easy for us to go back to our bad habits, our addictions, our sins. As the book of Proverbs says, we so often go back to our sins the way a dog goes back to its vomit. What I’ve discovered in my life is that the key to staying faithful to Christ is to understand the gift th...

As Catholics, we treat Mary with a particular sense of reverence and honor. But sometimes it’s hard to know how to relate to her, and how to open ourselves up to a relationship with her without feeling like we’re somehow taking time away from her Son. The truth is that she always brings us closer to Jesus, so the time we spend with her is time spent with Him. That’s what my friend John Heinen, exe...

God did not create us to have a mediocre marriage. My good friend Paul George, the author of Rethink Happiness and Holy Grit, joins us today to discuss common ways our marriages get put on the back burner and how to make sure that our union is treated like the sacrament that it is. In this episode we’re talking about: 🔹Different seasons of marriage 🔹How the fall of Adam and Eve contributed to ou...

"What happens when young Catholics stop sitting on the sidelines? Today Fr. Jacob Dumont, a local superior for the Legionaries of Christ in Cincinnati and my spiritual director, joins us in the pew to talk about the explosion of faith happening in the Church right now. This is happening in particular among younger people, and so many of them are searching for truth, purpose, and something real, an...

Folks, today is a huge day for the ministry. My new book, Power Made Perfect: Finding True Strength in Christ launches today, and I am so excited for you to read it. This whole episode is dedicated to telling you what this book is about, how it came together, and how grateful I am that the Lord brought each one of you here - whether to the podcast, to a pilgrimage, to a mission, or anything else -...

Many of us live in the past or in the future, and we’re not present to anything. The devil loves to use this tactic to rob us, to get us listening to the wrong voice and pulling us away from the one thing we can do something about: the present moment. We talked last week about some of those voices and who they’re coming from. Today Victor and I follow this theme some more and talk about what happe...

“Who told you that?” That question from God changed everything for me. Over the last few months, I found myself exhausted, overwhelmed, anxious, disconnected, and spiritually dry while trying to “do more” for ministry, family, and everyone around me. And in prayer, I heard the Lord ask: “Who told you that?” Who told you to carry everything? Who told you your worth comes from productivity? Who told...

Boldness. Not the kind that stays inside, but the kind that shows up in your life. Because once God does something in you, He wants to do something through you. That’s where many of us stop. We face our wounds. We start to change. We get back on track, and then we settle. But Christianity doesn’t end with transformation. That’s where it begins. In this episode, John and Victor explore what it mean...

There’s a word that keeps showing up in the Book of Acts: Boldness. But before the Apostles lived it on the exterior they had to find it in the interior. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just send us out—He first cuts us to the heart (Acts 2:37). He leads us through: Conviction → Conversion → Commission And that starts with something most of us avoid… Facing what’s really going on inside. In this episode,...

This week on Just a Guy in the Pew, Victor and I walk through Acts 3—the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate. For over 40 years, he sat in the same place… asking for coins. But when Peter and John show up, they don’t give him what he’s asking for—they give him what he actually needs: Healing. And it raises a hard question for all of us: What are you asking people and things for… that only Jesus can...

It’s easy to treat Easter like the finish line. But what if it’s actually the starting point? In this episode, John challenges the temptation to return to old habits once Lent is over and instead calls listeners to something deeper. If you’ve ever felt the slow drift back into old patterns after a spiritual high, this episode is a direct call to stay the course, make a decision, and follow Him wit...

It’s easy to follow Jesus when everything is good. It’s much harder to stay with Him when He is suffering. The question is simple but challenging: will you stay with Him, or will you move on to what’s more comfortable? John walks through the reality of Holy Week and why so many of us are tempted to skip past the cross on our way to Easter. This is an invitation to do more than go through the motio...

Lent is an invitation to encounter Jesus. In this episode, John and Victor reflect on how easy it is to approach Lent as a checklist of sacrifices instead of a path toward deeper relationship with Christ. If your Lenten practices have ever felt mechanical or disconnected from real change, this conversation is an invitation to refocus the season where it belongs. Lent is not about what you give up....

Becoming the man God created you to be does not happen by accident. It requires intention, surrender, and a willingness to be formed. In this episode, John welcomes Fr. John Burns back to the pew to talk about what real formation looks like for men and why so many settle for comfort instead of transformation. If you have ever felt stuck, passive, or unsure of what God is asking of you, this conver...

The Church was never meant to thrive on priesthood alone. In this episode, John sits down with Fr. John Burns to talk about a part of the Church many people rarely think about until it is missing: consecrated women and religious life. Fr. John shares his own vocation story and the moment God redirected his life from pursuing success to becoming a priest. He shares the heart behind Friends of the B...

Lent is not about checking a box or proving how disciplined you can be. It is about bringing your whole heart back to God. In this episode, John and Victor reflect on what real conversion looks like and why simply giving something up is not the same as returning to the Lord. Drawing from Joel’s call to “rend your hearts, not your garments,” they challenge listeners to move beyond surface-level sac...

Waiting may be one of the hardest tests of faith. In this final episode of this discussion series, John reflects on what it means to trust God’s timing when prayers feel delayed and hope feels fragile. Drawing from the story of Jairus and the hemorrhaging woman in Mark 5, he explores two desperate situations, two very different timelines, and one Savior who was never late. If you are in a season w...

Sooner or later, every believer runs into a collision between what we hoped God would do and what He is actually doing. In this episode, John continues his reflection on grief and adversity by diving into one of the hardest realities of faith: wrestling with God when trust clashes with fear and our need for control. If you are in a season that feels confusing, unfair, or out of your control, this...

Storms have a way of exposing the questions we are often afraid to ask out loud. In this episode, John reflects on grief, suffering, and the moments when life feels like it is taking on water, leading many of us to quietly wonder, “Does God even care?” If you are walking through adversity, grief, or uncertainty, this episode is a reminder that God is not indifferent to your suffering. He sees you,...

Adversity has a way of revealing where we really turn for refuge. Reflecting on personal loss, including the recent passing of his father, John invites listeners to honestly examine how they respond when life becomes painful and uncertain. Drawing from Scripture, the Church’s teaching, and his own journey through grief, addiction, and healing, he challenges men to stop numbing their pain or handli...

Loneliness is one of the most widespread and least talked about struggles facing men today. John and Victor name what so many feel but rarely say out loud, the quiet isolation that exists even in homes, marriages, parishes, and pews filled with people. If you have ever felt unseen, disconnected, or like you were carrying life on your own, this conversation is both a challenge and an invitation. Le...

Strength, discipline, and self-reliance are often praised as the highest virtues of manhood. But what happens when those very traits become obstacles to trust, intimacy, and faith? In this episode, John sits down with former Navy SEAL officer Sam Blair for an honest conversation about identity, surrender, and the spiritual battle beneath high performance. If you’ve been trying to carry everything...