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Lessons in loaves and fishes: How failure fueled Dallas Jenkins’ success with ‘The Chosen’

During a BYU forum, the creator of the TV series ‘The Chosen’ gave an inside look at the journey of the show and his own spiritual path along the way

Over the past seven years, the TV series “The Chosen” — an artistic portrayal of the life of Jesus Christ through the eyes of those who knew Him — has hit many milestones of success. It has been a leader at the box office and raked in hundreds of millions of viewers on streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime, Peacock and Netflix. It has become one of the most-watched shows in the world and one of the most translated shows in history.

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

Jenkins, an evangelical, spoke to the Brigham Young University campus community during a forum on Tuesday, Oct. 29. In his remarks, Jenkins related the journey of the show — which began as a crowd-funded project — and his own spiritual journey along the way. But rather than discuss what could be considered the height of his career, Jenkins said he wanted to talk about something that he wished someone had talked about when he was a college student — failure.

“I want to tell you my story of how we got to this place today,” Jenkins told listeners. “And it’s actually a story rooted in failure.”

Thousands of students and faculty filled the Marriott Center on the Provo, Utah, campus on a blustery autumn morning for the devotional, with thousands more viewing it online.

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

Students and faculty gather in the Marriot Center to listen to Dallas Jenkins, creator of the hit show "The Chosen, during a BYU forum in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 29, 2024.
Students and faculty gather in the Marriot Center to listen to Dallas Jenkins, creator of the TV show "The Chosen, during a BYU forum in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 29, 2024. | Joey Garrison, BYU

The need for recognition

As an aspiring filmmaker, Jenkins began his career by making several independent films, meaning the projects were financed and distributed by a studio or company outside of Hollywood. But inwardly, he craved the recognition of the Hollywood film industry, he said. “I’d like to say that I also was motivated by the kingdom [of God]. I wanted to do good ‘kingdom work.’”

He often told himself that success would give him a voice, or a platform, to help build the kingdom of God, Jenkins said. “And I think there was some truth to that, but … the thing that really got me excited was the possibility of winning awards, finishing in the top five at the box office and being legitimized by Hollywood companies.”

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

Jenkins thought he had arrived at what he wanted: “Legitimacy and approval and interest from some major Hollywood companies and producers.”

They produced a film written and directed by Jenkins that had a gospel message. The day the film was released in theaters, “everyone was very optimistic,” Jenkins recalled. But the numbers for the first day showed “the movie was a complete bomb, lower than their lowest projections.” Which meant the companies he had been working with would no longer back future projects.

Dallas Jenkins, creator of the hit show "The Chosen, speaks during a BYU forum held in the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 29, 2024.
Dallas Jenkins, creator of the TV show "The Chosen," speaks during a BYU forum held in the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 29, 2024. | Ellie Alder, BYU

Lessons from failure

Previous to this, Jenkins had felt God’s direction and that he was doing what God wanted him to do. Then the movie bombed. Feeling heartbroken and confused, Jenkins said he was “wallowing in my sorrow” when his wife came came in and said, “I know that God is putting it on my heart almost as clear as it’s an audible voice: Read the story of the feeding of the 5,000, and ‘I do impossible math.’”

Jenkins said he did not know what any of that meant. So he and his wife opened the Gospels in the New Testament to the story of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 and they saw something they hadn’t noticed before.

When the disciples come to Jesus and tell Him that the people are hungry, He’s not surprised. “He’s the one who’d been speaking for three days. He can see them. … He brought them to the place where the only thing to satisfy their hunger or desperation was Him — a miracle.”

Jenkins said he and his wife felt encouraged. “God has brought us to a place of desperation and hunger. All right, now we’re ready to be fed.” But then the numbers for the movie got worse.

“It was almost as if God was saying ‘That’s not the message I have for you right now,’” Jenkins recalled.

At 4 a.m. the next morning, Jenkins was writing a memo analyzing the ways he went wrong regarding the film and ways to improve. He was on page 15 of the memo when he received a message on Facebook Messenger from one of his Facebook friends, Alex — someone he’d never met in person and spoke to about once a year.

The message simply said, “Remember, it’s not your job to feed the 5,000. It’s only to provide the loaves and fish.”

Jenkins immediately responded to the message, asking, “Can I ask you why you said that to me?”

Alex responded that God had put it on his heart, but he had resisted. Alex had said, “No, I barely know Dallas. That’s a pretty condescending thing to say to somebody when they are going through a big failure.” But the feeling persisted so Alex finally decided to send it at 4 in the morning, thinking Dallas probably wouldn’t see it anyway.

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

Dallas Jenkins, creator of the hit show "The Chosen, interacts with students and faculty following a BYU forum held in the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 29, 2024.
Dallas Jenkins, creator of the TV show "The Chosen, interacts with students and faculty following a BYU forum held in the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 29, 2024. | Ellie Alder, BYU

God’s impossible math

Facing an uncertain future in his career, Jenkins said he went back to work for his church and eventually created a short film about the birth of Jesus from the perspective of the shepherds. They filmed it on a friend’s farm. At the time it felt like one loaf and half a fish, Jenkins said. But “while I was doing it, I never had felt more in my zone, just everything was feeling natural and right. … And while I was making that short film, I remember the idea for ‘The Chosen’ came up, and I thought, ‘You know what? In 20 minutes in this short film about the birth of Christ, I feel like I’m learning more and engaged more in this story than I ever have.’”

The short film eventually ended up in the hands of a company in Provo, Utah. They saw the film, loved it and heard Jenkins’ idea for “The Chosen” and loved it. “They said, ‘we want to do your show.’ And I got really excited. They said, ‘We want to raise the 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 the 5,000 so these were my loaves and fishes.”

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

Dallas Jenkins, creator of the hit show "The Chosen, receives a standing ovation  following a BYU forum held in the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 29, 2024.
Dallas Jenkins, creator of the TV show "The Chosen, receives a standing ovation following a BYU forum held in the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 29, 2024. | Ellie Alder, BYU

In January of the next year, Jenkins was sitting with his wife when they saw that they had raised $10 million, breaking the crowdfunding record. Jenkins said he looked over at his wife who, with tears streaming down her face, reminded him, “I do impossible math.”

Jenkins said, “In that moment, it was very easy to realize, ‘OK, this isn’t us. This is impossible math. This is the kind of math that God’s part of.’ … He takes the small, the broken, the surrendered and makes something out of it.”

In failure or success, Jenkins told students, remember five loaves and two fish. “When you hand that to Him and He deems it worthy of acceptance, the transaction is over. You are not more loved if you do seven loaves. More people are not fed if you do three fish.”

Bring what you can, give it to God, and let Him provide the miracle, Jenkins said. “So I implore you, starting now — don’t wait until you’re in your 40s — for God to break you down and bring you to your knees and surrender. Starting now, get to this place — this superpower actually — that comes from giving that up to God. It is not your job to feed the 5,000. It is only to provide the loaves and fish.”

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