The Season Three Finale of the critically acclaimed television series, “The Chosen,” was voted by fans as the 2023 K-Love Fan Awards Film & Television Impact award winner, beating out Greg Laurie’s “Jesus Revolution,” Kirk Cameron’s “Lifemark,” and The Skit Guys’ “Family Camp.”
The historic drama created by Dallas Jenkins aims to tell the story of Jesus through the eyes of those who knew him.
Relying solely on crowdfunding, pay-it-forward models, and licensing to fund the show, “The Chosen” is currently in the middle of filming its fourth season.
During this year’s 2023 K-Love Fan Award’s red carpet event, ChurchLeaders asked Jenkins to share some words of encouragement for those who feel like they are living in a world filled with hopelessness.
“Well, the thing is right now, ‘The Chosen’ is capturing first century,” Jenkins said. “It feels like 2,000 years ago, and you realize that when you watch the show—wow, they were going through the same things that we were. Their questions were the same. They were facing oppression. They were facing division. Their doubts were the same. What I’m hoping through ‘The Chosen’ is that you’ll see that the answer is the same 2,000 years ago that it is today.”
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Jenkins continued, “Jesus is the answer, regardless of whether we’re dealing with new types of problems, or the same that we did 2,000 years ago. Jesus is the only answer either way, and that’s what the show is doing for people.”
Actors Abe Bueno-Jallad and George H. Xanthis, who portray Big James and John, respectively, in “The Chosen,” joined Jenkins in the press room following the announcement of the show’s win. ChurchLeaders asked Jenkins which episode over the past three seasons has had the most impact in his own life.
It was Episode Four of Season One, “The Miracle the Fish,” Jenkins said, “when Simon surrenders to Jesus, and when Jesus kind of takes care of all the things that are keeping him from being able to follow.”
Jenkins shared that it was during this episode he realized he wasn’t in control, but God was. “I knew that the show was bigger than I was.”
“When we were filming, we didn’t know how it was going to turn out because a couple of days before filming, we realized through lots of different problems, we didn’t have any fish, we didn’t have a boat, and we didn’t have a lake,” he said, all of which are “really essential” when you are filming a miracle about fish on a boat in a lake.
