On the Journey

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 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.

After exploring Matt's journey to the Catholic Church, Ken Hensley starts to share the beginnings of his own path toward Catholicism. Ken shares how his father became a Christian after his parents got divorced, how Ken himself came to believe in Jesus after years of trying to find fulfillment in music and other pursuits, and how he and his father were able to connect through their conversion experiences. 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 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.

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.

Ken Hensley continues to interview Matt Swaim about the process that led him to the Catholic Faith. Having gone through something of an Evangelical "deconstruction," Matt shares how the debates over what makes music "Christian," as well as the discovery of the thought of GK Chesterton, opened his heart to the Catholic understanding of truth, beauty and goodness. Matt also discusses how his efforts to re-create the early Church from scratch revealed to him the necessity of being part of the Catholic Church. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

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 conclude their series looking into ways to reframe conversations about faith with people who doubt or deny the existence of God. Having looked at various implications of a purely scientific materialist world view on the questions of consciousness, morality, human dignity and free will, Matt and Ken discuss how that kind of worldview, which intends to be based solely on reason, ultimately ends up denying the foundational tools necessary to reason. 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. If a purely materialist worldview means free will is an illusion, consciousness is an illusion, morality and human dignity and knowledge itself are illusions, then what's the point of anything? The atheist worldview, which often begins by asserting the primacy of reason, ends by eliminating the very tools necessary to make rational determinations. For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.