Dallas Jenkins Shares Biggest Lesson He’s Learned from THE CHOSEN

Published: June 13, 2024

Dallas Jenkins Shares Biggest Lesson He’s Learned from THE CHOSEN

By Movieguide® Contributor

Seven years after he first created THE CHOSEN, Dallas Jenkins shared that the biggest lesson he’s learned from the show is the importance of surrendering to Christ.

“Surrender always needs to come before positive or negative moments in life,” Jenkins told CBN News while on the red carpet at the KLOVE Fan Awards. “I think if I would not have been forced by God to surrendered to Him, I don’t think I would have been ready for something like this, both the positive and the negative, because I cared what people thought of me.”

“And, so, it become really a superpower when you stop caring what people think and you care more about what God thinks,” he added.

Only months before Jenkins began working on THE CHOSEN, he had the biggest letdown of his career when his first big-budget movie flopped at the box office, bringing him from a rising star to a massive failure in just a few short days. As he faced this disappointment, Jenkins and his wife, Amanda, felt a tug on their heart that God was about to do something big, if only they would trust Him.

“God then laid on my wife’s heart the story of the feeding of the 5,000,” Jenkins recalled during a panel last December. “She didn’t know why, but she decided to read the feeding of the 5,000 and so we read it together. We’re trying to figure out what we could glean from it, and in that moment, we thought, ‘Oh, here’s what’s interesting, Jesus is the reason those people were so hungry. He brought them to the place where they needed a miracle. He’d been talking for three days; it was His fault they were so hungry.’”

“I know what He’s going to do,” Jenkins continued, explaining what he thought at the time. “He’s going to do a miracle. He’s going to turn these box office numbers around. He’s going to multiply. He’s going to do this math. He’s going to do what He does, and tonight, we’re going to be able to tell this story to all those Godless people in Hollywood who have never seen anything like this before. That night, the [box office] numbers got even worse.”

While God didn’t move in the way Jenkins and his wife hoped, the lesson from their reading of the feeding of the 5,000 set the foundation for the kingdom math that was to come months later when THE CHOSEN began to take off. While the show’s popularity has only continued to grow, Jenkins has faced negative situations as well.

“Sometimes it’s frustrating, because you wish you didn’t have to defend something or talk about something that you think maybe is unfair,” he said of speaking transparently with fans about controversies. “But, at the same time, I always see it now as an opportunity. These are important conversations. We’re talking about Jesus. We’re talking about the Savior of the world.”

Keeping Christ at the center of his focus has allowed Jenkins to overcome these obstacles and remain humble in his success, allowing the Lord to be continually glorified and bringing millions deeper in their faith.

“We’re seeing people all over the world [who are] telling us, ‘I know Jesus more. I love Jesus more. I’m reading my Bible more than ever because of the show,” Jenkins told CBN. “If that continues, there’s nothing greater than that.”

Movieguide® previously reported:

Due to the unprecedented success of THE CHOSEN, creator and director Dallas Jenkins has been recognized as one of the most influential showrunners in all of Hollywood.

Every year, the Hollywood Reporter creates a list of the most influential showrunners in Hollywood, and Dallas Jenkins landed a spot within the top 15.

“The man behind THE CHOSEN may have launched his Bible series outside the system, but Hollywood has since swooped in. In fact, the most successful crowdfunded TV series of all time is now available not only on a cadre of independent apps – where it’s been watched 600 million-plus times – but also on Peacock, Amazon Prime Video and The CW,” the Hollywood Reporter said of Jenkins.

“A full-blown phenomenon in many corners of Christian culture, the faith-based drama created and directed by Jenkins has spawned best-selling books, DVDs and loads of merchandise…Lionsgate, which distributes THE CHOSEN globally, had already lined up the suddenly red-hot Christian filmmaker to adapt THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER for film,” the outlet continued.