Interview with Pastor Dean Jackson, "Peacemaker in Provo"

For a recent research project on Mormon/Pentecostal relations, I had the pleasure of interviewing Pastor Dean Jackson of Rock Canyon Assembly of God church in Provo. If Jackson’s name sounds familiar, it’s probably because his church was featured in the magazine Christianity Today for publicly repenting of its negative attitudes toward Mormons. (If you haven’t read the article yet, I dare you to try getting through it without choking up.)

When I talked to Dean by telephone on May 15 of this year, I asked him about his reconciliation process with the Mormons and how things have gone since the event. He said it’s been everything he hoped and more. He has no regrets, and the only thing he’d do differently is to have done it sooner. He admitted it has been difficult, but also rewarding. His approach is not the norm, but the only negative reactions have come from other evangelicals. To some degree Rock Canyon is a “church without a country”, because it makes other evangelicals uncomfortable.

The process, he said, has opened up opportunities for dialogue. Dean recently finished serving as District Governor for Rotary, so he traveled a lot and got to have a lot of “pretty pointed conversations.” Dean definitely prefers a dialogue format to a debate format. As you build relationships with people, he said, “you’d be surprised the kinds of things they want to talk about.” Dean stresses that Rock Canyon has not compromised its message, but rather has just tried to be loving. “We’re not heaven’s bouncers,” he said. “There is lots of work yet to be done, but it’s easier to draw people than to push people.” Admitting that they haven’t done everything right has created openness and vulnerability on both sides of the conversation.

I asked Dean whether he would say he’s still in the business of evangelizing Mormons. He said that depends what you mean by evangelism. He’s in the business of mentoring and discipling, not so much of trying to convert people from one group to another. He doesn’t think of it as evangelizing Mormons so much as dialoguing. When I asked if he’d place Mormonism within the boundaries of historic Christianity, he said that some Mormons do embrace aspects of historic orthodoxy, and we have to be careful in trying to label people. He suggested that at the popular level most evangelicals don’t know much about historic orthodoxy anyway. There’s a lot of folk theology out there. He prefers to let people define themselves, and tell us what they are. Sometimes, he says, he himself doesn’t particularly want anything to do with the evangelical and Pentecostal labels. He is often embarrassed at the things done under those umbrellas.

I asked if there have been any obstacles to progress. He said that the “evangelical community is a huge obstacle.” There is “so much pulpit-driven prejudice”. This, he says, plays into the hands of theological hard-liners in the LDS Church who want to retain its sectarian, embattled mentality. If Mormons are drowning, the evangelicals are standing by the pool shouting, “they’re drowning, they’re drowning!” and bringing attention to it. Evangelicals are holding press conferences to let everyone know Mormons are drowning. Very few want to actually slip into the pool with them.

The last thing I asked him was whether he thinks Pentecostals have a uniquely adversarial relationship with Mormons or, perhaps, unique opportunities for fellowship. He said the latter. If Pentecostals knew more Mormon history, they’d find they have more in common than they’d like to admit. If pressed, he felt, most LDS would probably point to Southern Baptists as their #1 nemesis. The Baptists are the ones generally out there vocally opposing Mormonism.