How do you learn the best? How do “kids these days” learn the best? For many years, the American education system has been based on the idea that we learn through reading, writing, and listening to lectures. However, I remember the advent of the PowerPoint, when educators and communicators started to say that adding visual aids greatly increased attention and retention. But now, it seems that not even pictures grab people the way they used to. Instead, it is video clips. Goodbye to text posts on Twitter and pictures on Instagram; hello to Reels, Shorts, and TikToks. Goodbye to podcasts and blogs; hello to video enhanced podcasts and blogs. Goodbye to written instructions; hello to instructional YouTube videos. 

When I took Perspectives over the Spring, this particularly struck me in the lesson on “oral cultures.” Oral cultures are those that pass information through oral means – storytelling, teaching, or even modeling – rather than through written means. For these cultures, a written Bible is nice, but a large portion of the culture may not have access to it. Often, Bible translators and other Gospel workers focus on ways to share the gospel through oral means rather than written. A Bible translation may be recorded and distributed on audio devices. There is also a method called “oral storying”, where the Gospel worker has a set of stories that tell the story of the whole Bible. They teach these stories to key people within the people group, who pass the stories on to others, and in this way the gospel is spread. These stories tell the Gospel message, but aren’t necessarily a “Bible translation.”

As we discussed this in Perspectives, two things came together in my mind. The first was that the United States seems to be moving toward a new kind of oral culture – maybe we could say a “media culture”. Americans today learn best from video and media, rather than from reading and writing. Second is the success of The Chosen. I have heard both criticism and praise for The Chosen, and I think that perhaps this comes from the fact that most depictions of Jesus’ life try to stay as close as possible to the actual text of the Bible, while The Chosen has a different goal. Yes, The Chosen is trying to portray the life of Jesus, but it is trying to portray His life in a way that reaches the American media culture.

Social media in America is where people go for entertainment, for connection, for information, and even to be informed on what behavior is appropriate in our culture. While one could argue that social media isn’t really the best way to achieve most of these goals, the reality is that social media, and media in general, is where Americans turn to find these things. The Chosen seems to have wrapped all of these things into its mission. It is entertainment – the beautiful sets, accents, and clothing set the stage for an experience that can effortlessly transport the watcher back to Jesus’ time. The Chosen is also a source of connection with other Christians. I have heard some criticism of the sort of “groupie” mentality that has sprung up around The Chosen, but I think this mentality comes from a desire to connect with people, and The Chosen gives us a media-based common link (one that even comes with quotes, merch, and viewing parties!). Of course, The Chosen is also informational – it does tell us about the life of Jesus and it shares the Gospel message. And, it teaches us how to live as Christians. We can watch The Chosen and be informed about how Christians act in certain situations.

Some of the primary criticisms of The Chosen seem to concern these last two points. It is informational in that it teaches us about Jesus’ life, but there are some things that are added that aren’t actually in the Bible, and there are some stories that are reordered. It is teaching us how to live, but is it focusing on the message that Jesus taught, or is it taking Jesus’ teaching ironically out of context?

As I have considered this question, it has occurred to me that a large percentage of social media videos are not real either. I recently scrolled across a poorly-acted video of two people arguing in a plane, and the comments proclaimed things like “this is fake!” or “at least TRY to make the acting believable” or “is staging a video on a plane a requirement of film classes?” It made me consider the fact that, if so many videos are fake, the goal of the creators is not to pretend something is real, but to ask the question, “What if this was real?” This is the way social media teaches behavior. These videos will show you how to act in certain circumstances and what to think about certain issues.

The same is true of The Chosen. While not every word of Jesus is taken directly from the Bible, the things he says that are not from the Bible are not claiming to be what Jesus actually said, but rather to raise the question of “how would Jesus deal with this situation?” and then to inform us of how to act in those situations. In that way, The Chosen is seeking to answer the deep questions that Americans have. We don’t really wonder about how to deal with someone who is demonized, but we do wonder how to deal with people who have suffered abuse and deal with trauma. We don’t wonder about how to treat tax collectors, but we do wonder how to treat the autistic and those with mental illness. We wonder if Jesus would take someone back who got clean from addiction and then slipped backward. We wonder why some people are healed and not others, why some people pass away and others live. The Chosen is seeking to answer these questions in both a Biblically relevant and culturally relevant way. It is the Gospel for a media culture. Now, as with oral storying, it is not a Bible translation. Instead, it is a tool to spread the Gospel, and it is specifically aimed at reaching media-driven Americans by addressing their deep questions.

In this way, it seems that The Chosen is filling an important spot in evangelism in American society. It is providing an entertaining and informative way for people to connect with each other and to learn how to live as Jesus would. Of course, any time we hear teaching on the Bible, we need to make sure it is Biblically sound. As we watch The Chosen, rather than asking, “Did Jesus actually say that?” we might ask, “Does what is being said reflect the Gospel?” As long as the answer is “yes”, we can enjoy the beauty and entertainment of The Chosen and, at the same time, take to heart the Gospel. The Chosen gives us a way to think about how Jesus would answer our deep questions. It is a way to reach our media culture with the Gospel!