Over the past seven years, the TV series “The Chosen”, which artistically depicts the life of Jesus Christ through the eyes of those who knew Him, has reached many milestones of success. It dominated the box office and reached hundreds of millions of viewers on streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime, Peacock and Netflix. It has become one of the most watched TV series in the world and one of the most translated TV series in history.

“From prisons to government buildings, in every corner of every country,” said Dallas Jenkins, the show’s creator, director and executive producer.

Evangelist Jenkins spoke to the Brigham Young University campus community during a forum on Tuesday, October 29. In his speech, Jenkins described the journey of the show, which began as a crowd-funded project, and his own spiritual journey. path. But instead of discussing what might be considered the pinnacle of his career, Jenkins said he wanted to talk about something he wished someone would talk about when he was a college student: failure.

“I want to tell you my story of how we got here today,” Jenkins told the audience. “And this is actually a story rooted in failure.”

On a blustery fall morning, thousands of students and faculty packed the Marriott Center on the Provo, Utah, campus for worship, and thousands more watched online.

Jenkins, who thanked the university for the opportunity to speak, noted that approximately one-third of the show was recorded on the Church’s Jerusalem set near Goshen, Utah. “You were always so warm and welcoming,” he said of the Latter-day Saints, and joked, “You know, you’ve been coming to my house two by two for 40 years, so it’s about time I came to your house, too.” .”

need for recognition

An aspiring filmmaker, Jenkins began his career by making several independent films; this meant that the projects were financed and distributed by a studio or company outside of Hollywood. But deep down, he said, he longed for the Hollywood film industry to be recognized. “I would like to say that (God’s) kingdom motivates me too. “I wanted to do a good ‘king job’.”

Jenkins said he often tells himself that success will give him a voice or platform to help build God’s kingdom. “I think there’s some truth to that, but… what really excited me was the possibility of winning awards, being in the top five at the box office, and being legitimized by Hollywood companies.”

After working in Los Angeles for 10 years, Jenkins moved to Illinois, where he was hired by a large church in the Chicago area. One year he shot a short film for the Christmas Eve parade. Eventually the film was noticed by a Hollywood producer and another entertainment company who said they wanted to make a film with it.

Jenkins thought he got what he wanted: “legitimacy, approval and attention from some major Hollywood companies and producers.”

They made a movie with a gospel message, written and directed by Jenkins. The day the film was released in theaters, “everyone was so optimistic,” Jenkins recalled. However, the first day’s figures showed that “the film was an absolute bomb, beating even the lowest estimates.” This meant that the companies he worked with would no longer support future projects.

Lessons learned from failure

Before this, Jenkins had felt God’s leading and was doing what God wanted him to do. Then the movie bombed. Feeling heartbroken and confused, Jenkins said he was “wounding in my sorrows” when his wife walked in. “I know God has put this on my heart as clearly as an almost audible voice: Read the feeding story,” he said. Out of 5,000 and ‘I’m doing impossible math.’”

Jenkins said he didn’t know what any of this meant. So he and his wife opened their New Testament Bibles to the story about the miraculous feeding of 5,000 people and saw something they hadn’t noticed before.

When the disciples came to Jesus and told him that the people were hungry, He was not surprised. “He’s the one talking for three days. He can see them. …He brought them to the place where He was the only thing that could satisfy their hunger or despair; a miracle.”

Jenkins said he and his wife feel encouraged. “God brought us to a place of despair and hunger. Okay, now we are ready to feed.” But later the film’s numbers got worse.

“It was as if God was saying, ‘This is not the message I’m giving you right now,'” Jenkins recalled.

By 4 a.m. the next morning, Jenkins was writing a memo analyzing the mistakes he made with the film and ways it could be improved. She was on page 15 of the note when she received a message on Facebook Messenger from one of her Facebook friends, Alex, whom she had never met in person and spoke to about once a year.

The message simply said: “Remember, it is not your job to feed 5,000 people. Just to provide bread and fish.”

Jenkins immediately responded to the message, saying, “Can I ask why you’re telling me this?”

Alex said God put it on his heart, but he resisted. Alex said: “No, I barely know Dallas. “That’s a pretty condescending thing to say to someone who’s had a huge failure.” But the feeling persisted, and Alex finally decided to send it at 4 a.m., thinking Dallas probably wouldn’t see it.

“That moment changed my life,” Jenkins said. “I still didn’t know what impossible math meant in that situation, because success wasn’t on the horizon, but all I cared about at that moment was God’s will.” and so I surrendered, probably for the first time in my life. I broke down and thanked Alex, put the note aside, and came to a place where I was truly resigned to whatever God wanted for me.

God’s impossible mathematics

Facing an uncertain future in his career, Jenkins said he returned to work at his church and eventually produced a short film about the nativity from the perspective of the shepherds. They filmed it at a friend’s farm. Jenkins said he felt like a loaf and half a fish at the time. But “I’ve never felt more in my zone when I was doing this, everything felt natural and right. … And while we were making that short film, I remember coming up with the idea for ‘The Chosen Ones,’ and I said, ‘You know what? In 20 minutes on this short film about the nativity, I feel like I’m learning more and more involved in this story than ever before.’”

The short film eventually ended up in the hands of a company in Provo, Utah. They saw the movie, loved it, and heard Jenkins’ idea for “The Chosen” and loved it. “They said, ‘We want to do your show.’ And I was really excited. They said, ‘We want to raise money through crowdfunding.’ And I got really depressed because crowdfunding rarely works,” Jenkins said.

But he reminded himself: “Loaves and fishes, man. It’s not my job to feed 5,000 people, so these were my loaves and fishes.”

They released a short film online and added a presentation at the end telling people how they could invest in the project. “Then something special happened,” Jenkins said.

In January of the following year, Jenkins was sitting with his wife when they saw they had raised $10 million, breaking the crowdfunding record. Jenkins said he looked at his wife with tears streaming down his face and reminded her, “I’m doing impossible math.”

“It was very easy to realize at that moment: ‘Okay, this is not us. This is impossible mathematics. This is the kind of mathematics that God is a part of,'” Jenkins said. … He takes what is small, what is broken, what has surrendered, and he does something.”

In case of failure or success, Jenkins told students to remember the five loaves and two fish. “When you submit it to Him and He deems it worthy of acceptance, the transaction is finished. If you make seven loaves, you won’t be loved more. If you make three fish, no more people will be fed.”

Bring what you can, give it to God, and let Him provide the miracle, Jenkins said. “So I implore you from now on – do not wait until you are in your 40s – have God break you, bring you to your knees and surrender. Starting now, come to this place – actually this superpower – that comes from leaving it up to God. It’s not your job to feed 5000 people. Just to provide bread and fish.”