On the Journey (The Coming Home Network: A Network of Catholic Converts)

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their series sharing how they came to believe Catholic teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. As Protestants, both Matt and Ken conceived of the Lord's Supper in merely symbolic terms; but as they read the Church Fathers, they saw it being discussed in much deeper and more reverent terms. Matt and Ken share what they found when they went back to the writings of St. Paul, to see what he had to say about what was really going on when the early Christians gathered for the Lord's Supper. For more episodes, visit www.chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

All Christians talk about worship, but not all understand it in the same way. What is our goal in gathering together regularly as a community of believers? What should we be doing when we're together? How does God ask us to worship Him, and how did the earliest Christians seek to honor Him when they gathered?  

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard start a new series comparing their own experiences of leading Protestant worship gatherings with what they experienced when they first went to Mass, and discuss the questions each of them began to ask about what true Christian worship should look like.

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Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard continue their series on the Church. In the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, we profess that the Church is "catholic," but what do we mean by that? Former Protestant pastors Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard share how they used to think about the word "catholic" before they themselves ended up becoming Catholics.

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Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard continue their series on the Church. In the Nicene Creed, Christians profess that they believe the Church to be "one." What does that mean? How did Ken and Kenny think about the idea of Christian unity when they were Evangelical pastors? And what are the obstacles to believers being "one" in Christ? Watch more episodes: https://chnetwork.org/category/blog/c... Join our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org Support our work: https://www.chnetwork.org/donate

Ken Hensley and Matt Swaim conclude their series looking at the life and thought of Martin Luther, and how his experiences shaped him to become the initiator of the Protestant Reformation.

In particular, Ken looks at three key questions about the origins of sola Scriptura that led him to conclude that it could not possibly have been the faith and practice of the early Church.

Having come to that realization, Ken wasn't yet sure what kind of Christian he'd have to become; he just knew that there was no way he could be a sola Scriptura Protestant any longer.

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Many are familiar with the fact that the Catholic Church does not hold to the Reformation doctrine of "sola Scriptura." 

But what *does* the Catholic Church teach about God's Word?

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard begin a new series unpacking "Dei Verbum," the Catholic Church's official document on Divine Revelation from the Second Vatican Council. They begin by looking at the historical climate leading up to the council in the early 1960's, and how that provided a new opportunity for the Church to re-articulate its understanding of how God speaks to His people.

As former Evangelical pastors, Ken and Kenny share how reflecting on this period in Catholic history has helped them to better appreciate what the Church has to say about the Bible and the nature of divine revelation.

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Ken Hensley continues to interview Matt Swaim about the process that led him to the Catholic Faith. For many who become Catholic, there's often a significant adjustment period, almost like having to learn the language and customs of a foreign country. Matt shares some of the ways he had to get his Catholic "sea legs" as a new member of the Church.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley conclude their discussion of how they came to believe Catholic teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

Matt and Ken take into account some of the main objections that they themselves had to this "hard teaching" of Jesus, and look at the consensus of Scripture and the early Church that helped lay those objections to rest for them.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue their series comparing their own experiences of leading Protestant worship gatherings with what they experienced when they began going to Mass. This week, they dive into the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and specifically into a prayer (posted below) that really calls the Church to reflect on who She is, and what She means by the concept of Communion.

*****

Prayer:

Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the saving Passion of your Son, his wondrous Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, and as we look forward to his second coming, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice. Look, we pray, upon the oblation of your Church and, recognizing the sacrificial Victim by whose death you willed to reconcile us to yourself, grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ. May he make of us an eternal offering to you, so that we may obtain an inheritance with your elect, especially with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with blessed Joseph, her Spouse, with your blessed Apostles and glorious Martyrs and with all the Saints, on whose constant intercession in your presence we rely for unfailing help. May this Sacrifice of our reconciliation, we pray, O Lord, advance the peace and salvation of all the world. Be pleased to confirm in faith and charity your pilgrim Church on earth, with your servant N. our Pope and N. our Bishop, the Order of Bishops, all the clergy, and the entire people you have gained for your own. Listen graciously to the prayers of this family, whom you have summoned before you: in your compassion, O merciful Father, gather to yourself all your children scattered throughout the world. † To our departed brothers and sisters and to all who were pleasing to you at their passing from this life, give kind admittance to your kingdom. There we hope to enjoy for ever the fullness of your glory (He joins his hands.) through Christ our Lord, through whom you bestow on the world all that is good.† Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the saving Passion of your Son, his wondrous Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, and as we look forward to his second coming, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice. Look, we pray, upon the oblation of your Church and, recognizing the sacrificial Victim by whose death you willed to reconcile us to yourself, grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ. May he make of us an eternal offering to you, so that we may obtain an inheritance with your elect, especially with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with blessed Joseph, her Spouse, with your blessed Apostles and glorious Martyrs and with all the Saints, on whose constant intercession in your presence we rely for unfailing help. May this Sacrifice of our reconciliation, we pray, O Lord, advance the peace and salvation of all the world. Be pleased to confirm in faith and charity your pilgrim Church on earth, with your servant N. our Pope and N. our Bishop, the Order of Bishops, all the clergy, and the entire people you have gained for your own. Listen graciously to the prayers of this family, whom you have summoned before you: in your compassion, O merciful Father, gather to yourself all your children scattered throughout the world. † To our departed brothers and sisters and to all who were pleasing to you at their passing from this life, give kind admittance to your kingdom. There we hope to enjoy for ever the fullness of your glory (He joins his hands.) through Christ our Lord, through whom you bestow on the world all that is good.†

*****

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Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue to discuss the Reformation pillar of sola fide, or justification by "faith alone," by focusing specifically on the idea of the doctrine of imputation.

As a Baptist pastor, Ken held to the Reformed belief that righteousness was "imputed," meaning that God credits His own righteousness to our account, and the Christian then wears that righteousness like a cloak. However, throughout the Old and New Testaments, God is shown to deal with his people in terms of actual forgiveness, actual regeneration, and actual transformation.

Matt and Ken look at how Scripture shows that God's plan for his people is not to merely credit righteousness to their account, but to transform their hearts and bestow upon them the grace to follow His commandments and live in true relationship with Him.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their discussion of how they wrestled with the question of Christian authority on their way into the Catholic Church.

Last week, Matt and Ken looked at how authority functioned in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we find a similar pattern of authority: the writings of the Apostles (Scripture), the oral teaching of the Apostles (call it Tradition) and an ordained Magisterium comprised of the Apostles, the Elders or Bishops, with the Deacons.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue to look at evidence for justification being by the legal imputation of Christ's righteousness in the Bible, this time diving into the New Testament.

The theology of the Reformation, crafted and put forth by leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin, argues that when God saves someone, He credits His righteousness to their account. Catholics, Orthodox, Wesleyans and a number of other groups of Christians believe that when God saves someone, He actually forgives them and empowers them by grace to truly *become* righteous.

So what does the New Testament teach about how God saves someone? Matt and Ken explore the evidence in the latest episode of On the Journey...

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley conclude their series on the Reformation by looking at how the movements and ideas that took root then have influenced the way the modern world looks today. In many ways, the factors that drove the Reformation -- technology, individualism, a plurality of ideas -- are the same factors that characterize contemporary culture. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard continue their series on the Church. In this episode, they walk through the Catechism’s section on the Church’s Origin, Foundation and Mission. Here we see the Church born of the eternal plan of God, developed in the Old Covenant people of God, instituted by our Lord Jesus in the New Covenant, revealed by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and finally perfected in glory. We learn that Jesus didn’t simply call disciples to follow him; he founded a Church. Watch more episodes: https://www.chnetwork.org Our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org Support our work: https://www.chnetwork.org/compass

Matt Swaim continues to interview former Baptist pastor Ken Hensley about his path to the Catholic Church. Having shared how he first became a Christian, Ken Hensley shares how he began to feel God's call to study Scripture and theology, and how that eventually led him to pastoring a Baptist congregation for several years. He also shares how while at Fuller Seminary, he struck up a friendship with a passionate Calvinist firebrand named Scott Hahn, who wouldn't show up in his life again for several years. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Former Baptist pastor Ken Hensley and former Evangelical musician Matt Swaim continue their discussion of how they came to believe Catholic teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  This time around, they focus on the pattern of “miraculous meals” in the Bible, from the manna in the desert up through the multiplications of the loaves and fishes by Jesus, to look at the similarities between the way God fed his people in those circumstances and the way He feeds us today in Holy Communion. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

A special Summer message to our On the Journey family: Over the Summer, we're taking a short break from recording new episodes while we plan our next big series, which will be all about The Church. Since Ken and Kenny were both Protestant pastors before they became Catholic, we'll talk about how they planned church services, what they meant by the word "church," and what they thought about the fact that there were a whole bunch of people in their towns who went to church, but didn't go to *their* churches. From there, we'll move on to spend some time looking at what the Catholic Church teaches about, well, the Catholic Church. In the meantime, be sure to check out some of our other great Coming Home Network content: Deep in Christ: https://www.deepinchrist.com

Insights: https://chnetwork.org/insights

Signposts: https://chnetwork.org/signposts-home

CHNetwork Presents: https://www.chnetwork.org/presents

Our written conversion story archive: https://www.chnetwork.org/story

Also, for those of you who are priests, deacons, or Catholic religious educators, we've just created a *brand new brochure* which we're offering free to parishes, that lets people who are interested in the Catholic Faith know what free resources we have available for them.

We'll even print up labels for you that you can put on the back of the brochure with info about who to get in touch with at your parish with questions about the Church!

If you'd like us to ship you some of those, send an email to info@chnetwork.org, with the subject line "brochure," and we'll set you up. Finally, Summer will be done before you know it, and with the start of Fall comes the start of parish OCIA programs to help people into the Church. If you're entering one of those, we want to hear from you, either by email or in our online community, which you can join for free at https://community.chnetwork.org. And if you're helping out with one of those programs at a parish, be sure to let everyone there know that the Coming Home Network was founded to help people like them, and we know what it's like to have a lot of mixed emotions about joining the Catholic Church, because we've been there! Finally, all these resources are made available to you for FREE because of the generous support of faithful donors, and you can add your gifts to theirs at https://www.chnetwork.org/compass.

Thanks so much, and have a great Summer!

Matt Swaim continues to interview former Baptist pastor Ken Hensley about his path to the Catholic Church.

Ken shares some of his experiences in seminary formation, and later, as a Baptist pastor. He looks back at the kind of things he was focusing his preaching and ministry on, and even his impressions of Catholicism at the time, based on his experience of monastic retreats. Ken also shares the conversation with a member of his congregation after church one Sunday night that would turn not just his ministry, but his whole life upside down.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue their series comparing their own experiences of leading Protestant worship gatherings with what they experienced when they began going to Mass.

In this episode, they look back at the process of how Communion was distributed and received in the various contexts they came from -- Baptist, Pentecostal, Nazarene, and others -- and compare that with the way that the Eucharist is distributed and received in the context of a Catholic Mass.

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Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard continue their series on the Church. “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.” - St. Augustine How would Ken and Kenny have reacted to a statement like that when they were serving as pastors of Protestant congregations? And how does the Holy Spirit serve not only as a teacher and guide, but also a principle of unity and animating force in the life of the Church? More episodes: https://chnetwork.org/on-the-journey-show/

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Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their series looking into ways to reframe conversations about faith with people who doubt or deny the existence of God.

If our universe is governed purely by the laws of physics and biology and chemistry, and actions producing reactions in a world without meaning, does free will even exist? Is our perceived ability to make free choices only an illusion that we've adapted along with everything else?

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley unpack the question of the existence of free will in their ongoing discussion about how to reframe conversations about God when talking to atheists.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their discussion of how they wrestled with the question of Christian authority on their way into the Catholic Church. This time, they take a closer look at the way the papacy developed in the early Church. The Catholic claim is that the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter, is the head of the Church. But how that came to be involves a process of development that helps us understand how the Holy Spirit continued in the promise of Jesus to lead the Church into all truth.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

After several weeks discussing Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley conclude their discussion of how they wrestled with the question of Christian authority on their way into the Catholic Church.

Infallibility is one of the most misunderstood concepts in all of Catholic teaching, and to both Matt and Ken as Protestants, it sounded completely insane and unbiblical. They share some of the misconceptions they had about what the Catholic Church actually means by infallibility, and how it's not based on the administrative skills and talents of any particular pope or bishop, but on the very promise of Jesus Himself.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue to discuss how they went from Evangelical Christian understandings of authority to embracing what the Catholic faith teaches about the relationship between Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium.

Moving on from the New Testament to the first generations after the apostles, Matt and Ken look at how Christian authority was preserved in the doctrine, life and worship of the churches the apostles founded. Just as in the Old and New Testaments, the early Church upheld a threefold understanding of authority that included Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their series looking into ways to reframe conversations about faith with people who doubt or deny the existence of God.

Atheism that relies on pure scientific materialism has a morality problem.

That's not to say that atheists have a problem being moral; in fact, many atheists have an extremely well developed moral sense and care deeply about right and wrong. The problem is that pure atheistic materialism itself doesn't provide any kind of satisfying foundation for establishing moral categories.

Matt and Ken discuss how the tension caused by this dilemma can serve as a way to open deeper conversations about the basis for understanding morality, and the intrinsic value of the human person.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

In a new series of On the Journey, Kenny Burchard begins to share with Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley the story of his journey to the Catholic Faith.

Kenny starts at the very beginning: from being given up for adoption by Catholic parents, to being adopted by parents who didn't practice religion at all, to growing up around Mormons in Utah and eventually having a "born again" experience in the 1980's that changed everything for him. 

It's a great story, and we look forward to sharing more chapters from it over the next few weeks!

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Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their series looking into ways to reframe conversations about faith with people who doubt or deny the existence of God.

If there is no God, and there are no moral absolutes, then any attempt to say that one take on morality is better than another take is more of a statement of preference than a statement of value.

Matt and Ken look at how, though it might seem appealing on its surface, the idea of people living as true moral relativists is a terrifying prospect.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

In a special behind-the-scenes episode of On the Journey, Matt, Ken and Kenny talk a bit about their roles at The Coming Home Network, the way their experience as converts has informed their approach to the series, and how the pastoral care mission of CHNetwork sets the backdrop for the unique way they go about planning episodes.

Support The Coming Home Network at https://chnetwork.org/compass/

Kenny Burchard continues to share with Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley the story of his journey to the Catholic Faith.

As Kenny tried to find his way in his new life as a Christian, the question of where he fit among fellow believers became front and center.

He started to realize that there were lots of different interpretations of Scripture, and lots of different potential voices to follow.

He began to wonder: with all the options out there, what kind of Christian was he?

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If the Reformation doctrine of justification by "faith alone" was, as Protestant scholar Alistair McGrath describes it, a "theological novum," then what did Christians believe about salvation and justification prior to Martin Luther's revolution of 1517?

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their discussion of what led them to see that sola fide was an inadequate and incomplete description of how God saves His people, and share what picture began to form for them as they began to dive into the Old and New Testaments with a fresh set of eyes. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney

In this final episode of the series, Ken Hensley describes how he and his family found a home in the Catholic Church in the years after he stepped down as a Baptist pastor.

In the moment, all Ken could see were the difficulties. The wonderful things God had had planned for him -- and for his ever-growing family -- could only be seen with the benefit of hindsight.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Kenny Burchard continues to share with Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley the story of his journey to the Catholic Faith. Kenny shares the series of experiences and the process of discernment that led him to step away from ministry as a pastor in the Foursquare Church. He discusses three watershed moments that led him to believe that whatever God had in store for him, it was somewhere besides a Pentecostal pulpit. More episodes of On the Journey: https://chnetwork.org/on-the-journey-show/ Our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org Support our work: https://www.chnetwork.org/donate

Before moving on to a discussion of Christian authority from a historical perspective in the next episode, Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley bring together some of the most important points about what Scripture tells us in regard to authority, and discuss how those pieces fit together to give us a picture of how the early Church thought about itself. For both Matt and Ken in their Protestant backgrounds, the Bible was considered the sole and sufficient rule of faith, so understanding the overall Scriptural sense of authority was central in their approach to considering the claims of the Catholic Church. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard begin a new OTJ series on the Church. When Ken and Kenny were Evangelical pastors, what did they mean by the word "Church?" When Matt was attending different congregations, how did he understand them in relation to one another? Where did each of them get these understandings of what "the Church" is and how it works? Matt, Ken and Kenny kick off the series by sharing the general ecclesiology of the Christian backgrounds each of them came from, and how they each began to see a need for a richer understanding of what Christ meant to do when he founded His Church. More episodes: https://chnetwork.org/on-the-journey/ Our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org

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Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their series looking into ways to reframe conversations about faith with people who doubt or deny the existence of God.

If God is dead, as some atheist materialists claim, or if at the very least, our idea of Him is dead, then what next? If there is no God, then what is the basis for attaching meaning to anything at all?

Or are we left with Neitszche, asking, "Has it not become colder? Is not night and more night coming on all the time?"

Matt and Ken look at the difficulty that atheism has in establishing a basis for meaning and purpose in life.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley begin a new series on the question of Christian authority, and the role it played in their own journeys to the Catholic faith. In this episode, Matt and Ken look at the classical twofold understanding of how God reveals Himself to us: through creation in General Revelation, and more directly through Divine Revelation. And while Protestants and Catholics differ greatly on how to guard and interpret that knowledge of God, there are some surprising commonalities when it comes to what Christians of all backgrounds believe about the basic foundations of authority. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Ken Hensley concludes his discussion with Matt Swaim about the process that led Matt to the Catholic Faith. To wrap things up, Matt looks at some of the things that were most important to him as an Evangelical Christian: Scripture, unity among Christians, care for the least of these, and more, and how all of those things were fulfilled and elevated by what he discovered in the Catholic Church.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Ken Hensley and Matt Swaim continue their series looking at the life and thought of Martin Luther, and how his experiences shaped him to become the initiator of the Protestant Reformation.

How did Luther, Calvin, and the other reformers respond to the theological chaos that followed from their own teaching of sola Scriptura and the right of private judgment?

In this episode, Ken and Matt discuss the dilemma faced by the Reformers, and faced by every Protestant pastor: how to maintain commitment to the truth that, as Luther said, every Christian is “his own pope and church,” and at the same time to maintain unity in the Protestant movement.

For more episodes, visit http://www.chnetwork.org/onthejourney

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Ken Hensley and Matt Swaim continue their series looking at the life and thought of Martin Luther, and how his experiences shaped him to become the initiator of the Protestant Reformation.

In this episode, Ken and Matt turn their attention from the material principle of the Reformation (sola fide) to the formal principle of the Reformation (sola scriptura) and discuss how Luther’s insistence that Scripture be taken to be the “sole infallible rule of faith and practice” for the Church and the individual Christian led to an unraveling; an unraveling in the realm of truth even more devastating than the unravelling of the doctrine of justification by faith alone led to in the realm of morals.

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Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard continue their series on Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council's document on Divine Revelation. What does it mean to say that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh? And how does that inform the way that Catholics approach the reading and proclamation of Sacred Scripture? Matt, Ken, and Kenny discuss the similarities and differences between this approach and the way they themselves thought about the Word of God as Evangelical Protestants. More episodes of On the Journey: https://chnetwork.org/on-the-journey-show/

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The question of the meaning of Baptism has been a great source of debate among Christians since the Reformation. Even Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley in their previous Christian traditions, not only disagreed with the Catholic take on Baptism, but disagreed with each other also! Was Baptism always a subject of debate in Christianity? What did the earliest Christians believe? Matt and Ken look at the record of the earliest centuries of Christianity, to see what the consensus was in the Church on the meaning of Baptism. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Kenny Burchard continues to share with Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley the story of his journey to the Catholic Faith. When Kenny, who had been a Pentecostal pastor, told some friends he was considering becoming Catholic, he was asked why he'd want to join a church that had gone through so many scandals. For Kenny, this was a question that hit close to home, because every Christian group he'd ever been involved with had gone through scandal after scandal, and split after split. And given his experience of those heartbreaking realities, especially as a former Protestant pastor, it was something he had certainly thought about when considering the Catholic Church. More episodes: https://chnetwork.org/on-the-journey-show/ Our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org Support our work: https://www.chnetwork.org/donate

Ken Hensley and Matt Swaim continue their series looking at the life and thought of Martin Luther, and how his experiences shaped him to become the initiator of the Protestant Reformation. In this episode, Ken backs away from Luther’s story to tell another story — the story of how he, a Protestant for 20 years, and a Baptist pastor for part of that, came to leave behind Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone. For more episodes: http://www.chnetwork.org/onthejourney Our online community: http://community.chnetwork.org Support our work: http://www.chnetwork.org/compass

Matt, Ken and Kenny continue their series on what it means to follow Christ and be transformed into his image in the process.

In this episode, we follow the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tested and tried and changed in the process. Immediately after Our Lord’s baptism, he was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert.

It’s no coincidence that the Israelites' experience was the same; from their baptism in the Red Sea, the Holy Spirit led them into the desert. What was true for Jesus, and true for the Israelites, is true for us: the path to the Promised Land is a path that leads not around but through the desert.

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Our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org

Please consider supporting our work! Go to https://www.chnetwork.org/compass and enter promo code OTJ 3141 when you make your donation, and we’ll send you a free copy of Marcus Grodi’s book, “What Must I Do to be Saved?”

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue to look at the Reformation doctrine of sola fide, or justification by "faith alone." While Ken was still a Baptist pastor, he began to find that the more he searched the Scriptures, the more it seemed that sola fide wasn't the best way to articulate how God saves His people. In this episode, Ken shares with Matt the seven key realizations he had along the way that caused him to realize that "faith alone" was an inadequate way of explaining the Biblical understanding of salvation. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Having spent several weeks looking at how they began to rethink Christian authority as Evangelical Christians, Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley begin to unpack the three-legged stool of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium that function as the guiding authority for the Catholic Church.

The three cannot be separated. Sacred Scripture is preserved and interpreted through Sacred Tradition, and then taught actively by the Magisterium. Pull any of those legs off of the stool, and division and chaos ensue.

For more episodes, vist chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their series looking into ways to reframe conversations about faith with people who doubt or deny the existence of God.

In a purely scientific materialist view of the world, how can anyone assert that human beings have any more value than any other species? And in a worldview that only takes evolutionary priorities into account, how can an argument be made for defending the "weaker" members of the species?

Matt and Ken look at the difficulty that a purely scientific materialist worldview has in establishing a basis for human rights.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard continue their series on what it means to follow Christ and be transformed into his image in the process.

In this episode, as they follow the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tested, tried and changed in the process, Matt, Ken and Kenny look at three gifts that God has given his people to help them on their journey.

More episodes: https://www.chnetwork.org

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Please consider supporting our work! Go to https://www.chnetwork.org/compass and enter promo code OTJ 3141 when you make your donation, and we’ll send you a free copy of Marcus Grodi’s book, “What Must I Do to be Saved?”

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their discussion of how they wrestled with the question of Christian authority on their way into the Catholic Church.

This time, they look at the kind of Church that Jesus intended to establish, and what St. Paul says about how that Church is supposed to teach, lead, and unite believers with one another and with Christ.

As Evangelical Protestants, both Matt and Ken conceived of the church as an invisible reality, made up of all who believed that Jesus is God, and came to save us.

But the pages of the New Testament, and especially the teachings of Jesus Himself, show that it was always intended to be much more than that. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard continue their series on the Church. When they were Evangelical pastors, how much did Ken and Kenny think about the Church as a continuation of the covenants God had made with his people throughout salvation history? Focusing on Catechism paragraphs 781-786, they share which Catholic teachings about the nature of the Church they would have affirmed wholeheartedly as Protestant ministers, and which aspects of those teachings were new to them once they began exploring Catholicism. Watch more episodes: https://chnetwork.org/on-the-journey-show/

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Ken Hensley turns the tables on Matt Swaim to ask him about the process that led him to the Catholic Faith. There is a lot of discussion among those who grew up Evangelical, especially in the 80's and 90's, about "deconstructing" their Evangelicalism. Matt shares how that process took place for him through his experience of Christian music subcultures, scandals in church leadership, and the Christian bookstore industry, and caused him to rethink his whole concept of what it meant to follow Jesus. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue to discuss how they went from Evangelical Christian understandings of authority to embracing what the Catholic faith teaches about the relationship between Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium.

The Catechism tells us that "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other." (CCC 80) Tradition isn't an alternative authority, but an authority that only makes sense in light of Scripture, and vice versa.

And without Scripture and Tradition working together, each believer is left to figure out for themselves what it means to be a Christian, and the natural outcome is a deeply divided and individualistic Christianity.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their discussion of how they wrestled with the question of Christian authority on their way into the Catholic Church. Why is it reasonable to believe that the early Church continued to guard and keep the deposit of faith handed down by the apostles, even after the death of the apostles? Matt and Ken look at a number of reasons why it makes sense that the Church would have continued to be led by the Holy Spirit, including the most important reason: the fact that Jesus promised it would.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue their series comparing their own experiences of leading Protestant worship gatherings with what they experienced when they began going to Mass.

This week, they talk about a major aspect of the Mass that helps shed light on what Catholic worship is: anamnesis. What exactly are we doing when, at Christ's command, we celebrate the Last Supper in "remembrance" of Him?

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Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue to share what they used to believe about Mary as Protestants, and how they eventually came to believe Catholic teaching about her. The first Marian dogma they tackle is the question of Mary as Mother of God. But before a proper discussion can be had about that, Matt and Ken and Kenny explain why it's important to understand first what a dogma is, how it comes to be, and why the Church makes such strong statements about certain questions in the first place. Watch more episodes: http://www.chnetwork.org/onthejourney

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Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue their series on "Dei Verbum," the Second Vatican Council’s document on Divine Revelation. They continue their discussion of how God's Word should infuse, inform, and inspire God's people, not only through the formal liturgy of the Church, but also through private study and devotion. Matt, Ken, and Kenny look at how official Catholic teaching puts to rest the oft-repeated myth that the Church doesn't want Her members to understand the Bible. Watch more episodes of On the Journey: https://chnetwork.org/on-the-journey-show/ Our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org Support our work: https://www.chnetwork.org/donate

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue their series on Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council’s document on Divine Revelation. What purpose does the Old Testament serve to Christians, who follow Jesus as the fulfillment of the law? And how does the narrative of salvation history illustrate that the incarnation has been foreshadowed from the beginning? Watch the episode.

Matt, Ken, and Kenny share how they understood the Old Testament when they were Evangelical Protestants, and what they found when they began to look at what the Catholic Church teaches about it.

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Kenny Burchard continues to share with Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley the story of his journey to the Catholic Faith. As Kenny discovered more and more divisions among Christians, he became increasingly unsettled by them. He and his wife got into ministry together in the Pentecostal world, but their experience of everything from Christian radio to Christian bookstores and more overloaded them -- was it even possible to know which take on Christianity was the correct one? Could there ever truly be Christian unity? More episodes and resources: https://www.chnetwork.org

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Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard conclude their series comparing their own experiences of leading Protestant worship gatherings with what they experienced when they began going to Mass.

To finish things off, they look at the Concluding Rites, what's being said in them, and what they say to the gathered congregation about what has just happened, and what their Christian responsibilities are moving forward.

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Matt, Ken and Kenny continue their series on what it means to follow Christ and be transformed into his image in the process. In this episode, they continue exploring the practical steps involved in the process of sanctification by looking at what happened to us in our baptisms. How exactly do we begin to break the hold that our unhealthy attachments, addictions and idols have on us so that we might attach ourselves more closely to Christ? And what can we learn about all of these questions from the story of God’s deliverance of his people in the Exodus? More episodes: https://www.chnetwork.org

Our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org Please consider supporting our work! Go to https://www.chnetwork.org/compass and enter promo code OTJ 3141 when you make your donation, and we’ll send you a free copy of Marcus Grodi’s book, “What Must I Do to be Saved?”

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their discussion of how they wrestled with the question of Christian authority on their way into the Catholic Church. In this episode, Matt and Ken look at the necessity of tradition when it comes to the interpretation of Scripture. All Christians look to some kind of tradition when they approach the Bible, even if it's just their own personal set of experiences and priorities. But if we want to access the tradition that best interprets the Scriptures, we should look to the early Church, those generations converted by the apostles themselves and entrusted with guarding and passing on that proper interpretation. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue their multi-part series discussing what they used to believe about Mary as Protestants, and how they came to believe Catholic teaching about her.

Kenny, Ken, and Matt discuss the third Marian dogma, the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Rooted in the biblical story, Mary is presented in the New Testament as “Woman, par excellence” — the fulfillment of God’s original created intentions for woman. The biblical mega-theme of Woman is traced through Genesis, seen in the biblical types of the Old Testament, and ultimately fulfilled in Mary, the New Eve.

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Matt Swaim continues to interview former Baptist pastor Ken Hensley about his path to the Catholic Church. Ken shares some of the questions that he began to mull over once he realized he'd never really spent any time thinking about the arguments for the Catholic Church. He talks about how he wrestled with the questions of justification, baptism, and the meaning of Church history, and how what he found kept steering him more and more toward Catholicism. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their series on Catholic and Protestant views of justification with a look at the concept of divine sonship.

In some ways, the Catholic understanding of justification is like a person who owes a large amount of money being forgiven a debt; in other ways, it is like a criminal being absolved in a courtroom. But ultimately, it is most like a wayward child being welcomed back into a family.

This concept of divine filiation, held not only by Catholics but also many other Christians, is distinct from the Reformed notion of imputed righteousness; and, as Ken explains, was a key realization that began to lead him closer to the Catholic Church while he was still serving as a Baptist pastor.

For more episodes, visit www.chnetwork.org.

Ken Hensley and Matt Swaim continue their series looking at the life and thought of Martin Luther, and how his experiences shaped him to become the initiator of the Protestant Reformation. In this episode, they walk through Luther’s “discovery” of the doctrine of justification by "faith alone," the article of faith, Luther said, upon which the Church stands or falls, and how this answered his struggle to find peace with God. For more episodes: chnetwork.org/onthejourney

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue to discuss how they went from Evangelical Christian understandings of authority to embracing what the Catholic faith teaches about the relationship between Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium.

To better understand the Catholic take on authority, Matt and Ken unpack what the Catholic Church means by the word "magisterium," and look at the way authority functioned through law, tradition and teaching authority with God's covenant people in the Old Testament.

And while those who wielded that divine authority in the Old Testament were sometimes holy, and sometimes far from it, God never decides to abandon His chosen people due to their sinfulness and start from scratch with a new people. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard continue their series on the Church. In this episode, they begin to examine the Catechism’s treatment of Article 9 of the Apostle’s Creed, “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church,” focusing on the Church’s inner nature. What is communicated by saying that the Church is the called out assembly of the Lord, the sheepfold of Christ, the vine of His planting, a temple for God’s dwelling? Is there anything here that Matt, Ken and Kenny would not have said they believed before they ever thought of becoming Catholic? More episodes: https://chnetwork.org/on-the-journey-... Our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org Support our work: https://www.chnetwork.org/compass

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley and Kenny Burchard continue their series on the Church. In both Scripture and the writings of early Christianity, the Church is repeatedly referred to as "holy." How are we to understand that, if we know that it has been full of sinners from the beginning? Matt, Ken and Kenny look at the ways the word "holy" is used in the Bible, and how it has been used as a descriptor for the Church ever since. Watch more episodes in this series: https://chnetwork.org/on-the-journey-show Our Online Community: https://community.chnetwork.org Support our work: https://www.chnetwork.org/donate

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue to share what they used to believe about Mary as Protestants, and how they eventually came to believe Catholic teaching about her. In this week's discussion about Mary's perpetual virginity, Matt and Ken and Kenny discuss the reasons why they used to reject this dogma, and what they discovered in Scripture and history that led them to eventually accept the idea of Mary as ever-virgin. More episodes: http://www.chnetwork.org/onthejourney Our online community: http://community.chnetwork.org Support our work: http:///www.chnetwork.org/COMPASS

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue their series on the doctrine of Sanctification, asking the question: What is the process by which we as believers in Christ are changed into His likeness "from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18)? 

Ken digs into some foundational concepts related to what it means to be made in God's image (Gen 1:27), and why a God who doesn't need anything would create anything in the first place. But since He *did* create us, what were we created for? And is happiness a part of that question?

Ken (former Baptist pastor), Kenny (former Pentecostal pastor) and Matt (from the Wesleyan Holiness tradition) discuss how they viewed this question in their own traditions, and how they view it now as Catholics.

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Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue to discuss what they used to believe about Mary as Protestants, and how they came to embrace Catholic teaching about her. Beyond the dogmas, there is the question of Marian devotion, and especially the idea of asking her intercession. To answer that, Matt and Ken and Kenny drill down on the concept of the Communion of Saints, and how Mary's unique role among the saints makes her a treasured advocate in heaven.

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Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley conclude their series on the Catholic view of justification and the Reformation doctrine of "faith alone" by looking at one of the most controversial and misunderstood parts of the debate: the concept of merit.

Do Catholics believe they need to earn their salvation? At the end of time, does God merely ook at a list of our good deeds and bad deeds, and judge us according to the balance? Matt and Ken look at what the Catholic Church actually teaches about the idea of "merit," an idea that is often misunderstood even by Catholics.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org.

As Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley have been discussing in this series, there were many historical and cultural factors that caused the Reformation to happen when it did. But it is impossible to overstate the impact that the hypocrisy, greed, and arrogance of Catholic leaders at every level had on the revolution that Christianity underwent in the 16th century. The rot in the Church was so bad that even some of the saints who lived at the time discouraged believers from going to Rome, lest they have their faith destroyed. Matt and Ken look at how this corruption in the Catholic Church served to further feed the chaos of the Reformation. For more episodes, visit http:///www.chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim, Ken Hensley, and Kenny Burchard continue their series comparing their own experiences of leading Protestant worship gatherings with what they experienced when they first went to Mass.

In this episode, Matt, Ken and Kenny look at the Introductory Rites that take up the opening few minutes of the Mass, and discuss how they set the stage for the way that the liturgy will unfold.

They also look at the role of Scripture in this part of the Mass, and how Catholic worship today connects back to the worship of the first Christians.

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Ken Hensley continues to interview Matt Swaim about the process that led him to the Catholic Faith.

Having shared some of the key reasons he became Catholic, Matt now shares what some of the key struggles were for him on the way into the Church.

From getting accustomed to liturgical worship, to sorting through seemingly thousands of devotional options, to the pressure put on new converts to be ideal Catholics, Matt discusses what for him were the biggest adjustments when he started out in the Catholic Church.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Matt Swaim continues to interview former Baptist pastor Ken Hensley about his path to the Catholic Church. As Ken continued to pray and study, it became more and more apparent that Christ was calling him, a Baptist pastor, to enter the Catholic Church. Ken shares some of the most important realizations that led him to step down from ministry and enter the Catholic Church. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

Ken Hensley and Matt Swaim continue their series looking at the life and thought of Martin Luther, and how his experiences shaped him to become the initiator of the Protestant Reformation. As Luther's doctrine of justification began to spread, it brought with it a moral unraveling that Luther lamented, but also admitted resulted from the widespread preaching of “faith alone.” Ken and Matt discuss some of Luther's own statements about the implications of this doctrine, and his frustration with how many were using it as an excuse to act immorally. For more episodes: http://www.chnetwork.org/onthejourney

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