On the Journey

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

In this episode, Ken looks at how the whole picture of the Eucharist began to come together for him as he pondered the weight of what he was finding in the Old Testament, the teachings of Jesus and St. Paul, and the witness of the early Church. It wasn't one single argument that convinced Ken or Matt in regard to the Eucharist; it was the accumulation of evidences that led them over time to embrace the faith of the Church on this issue.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

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

Taking into account a broad survey of Scripture and the early Church Fathers, Matt and Ken look at the numerous points of evidence in early Christianity that the first followers of Jesus clearly believed that in the Holy Eucharist, Christ is really and truly present in more than a merely symbolic way. They share what they themselves used to believe about Communion in this regard, and some of the thought processes that led them each to accept the early Christian understanding of the Eucharist.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

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

Matt and Ken explore the idea of the Eucharist as memorial sacrifice. In their Evangelical Christian backgrounds, both of them would have observed the Lord's Supper with reverence, but the idea of talking about it as a sacrifice would have been utterly foreign to them.

They dig into Scripture and the writings of the early Church fathers to look at how they referred to the observance of the Lord's Supper using overtly sacrificial language.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

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

In this episode, they look at the "Bread of the Presence," sometimes referred to as the "Showbread," and its place in the liturgical worship of Israel. What was the story behind this mysterious bread, and how did it point forward to what Jesus would one day be doing in the Last Supper?

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 look at the typology of the manna in the desert that God provided to the Israelites, and look at the ways it's referred to in the New Testament, especially by Jesus, who referred to Himself as the new bread that has come down from heaven.

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.

In this episode, they discuss the defining characteristics of the Exodus and the Passover, and how Jesus both recalled and transformed them at the Last Supper. Matt and Ken look at how especially St. Paul and the Church Fathers keyed in on these themes in their discussions of the Eucharist.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney.

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.

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.

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.

During Matt Swaim's time as an Evangelical Christian, and Ken Hensley's time as a Baptist pastor, both of them observed the Lord's Supper as a memorial event, often using crackers and juice, that remembered Christ's sacrifice. It was a solemn event, but not essential to Christian worship.

Matt and Ken share what they began to discover as they looked at the practice of the earliest Christians regarding their commemoration of the Lord's Supper, and how the sources they found seemed to speak of Holy Communion as something much deeper and more mysterious than anything they had encountered in their various Protestant experiences.

For more episodes, visit chnetwork.org/onthejourney