At least that's what Dallas Jenkins said. Like others have said, I think it's part of how they're able to function outside of the normal studio world (and thereby maintain creative control still).

On a semi-related note, one of their main producers, Derral Eves, is a YouTube expert. So, my guess, is that part of his influence has been encouraging them to use social media, videos, posts, etc. to keep people interesting, find new audience, and make some extra revenue, too. They are doing it constantly and Jenkins is posting almost daily (at least his account is). If you listen to some of the older Dallas Jenkins interviews you'll see that he's not really an Influencer by trade and that this is more of a role he's taking on to help his show.

I'm not really interesting in merchandise, per se, but The Chosen is one area where we've bought a few things and will happily support them financially.