Dallas Jenkins on Why ‘The Chosen’ Is Not ‘Adding to Scripture’

dallas jenkins
Photo courtesy of The Chosen

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Dallas Jenkins, at age 25, produced the independent feature “Hometown Legend,” which was distributed by Warner Brothers. In the 20 years since, he has directed and produced over a dozen feature and short films for Universal, Lionsgate, Pureflix, Hallmark Channel, and Amazon. His most recent film, “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone” (Blumhouse Productions), was released in theaters in 2017. Dallas is now writing, directing, and producing the largest crowdfunded media project of all-time, a multi-season series about the life of Jesus entitled “The Chosen.”

Other Ways To Listen to This Podcast With Dallas Jenkins

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Key Questions for Dallas Jenkins

-What is your creative process? Are there theological advisors who are helping you?

-How do you deal with the criticism that you get about the show?

-Where can people watch “The Chosen” and what is the best way to keep up with it? 

-How do you plan to handle questions about “The Chosen” and the LDS Church in the future since you’ve already spent a fair bit of time addressing that topic?

Key Quotes From Dallas Jenkins

“You might have already figured this out, but for me it took me over 40 years to figure it out, which is to not care about results and not care about what others think and not focus on what the Bible calls ‘fear of man,’ but instead focus on making sure that when I do provide loaves and fish that I try to make them as good, as healthy as they can be.”

“The failure of [‘The Resurrection of Gavin Stone’] is actually the birth of ‘The Chosen.’”

‘I come from a conservative, Bible-believing background. I’m a strong evangelical who believes that the Bible is God’s Word. So we start with that as our primary source of truth and inspiration, and we don’t change it.”

“Is this plausible? Does this fit within the character of Jesus and the Gospels? And if so, we believe that we have the opportunity to fill in some gaps.”

“My operating principle as I started to develop the idea for this show was if you can see Jesus through the eyes of those who actually met him and identify with their questions and their struggles and their doubts and their expectations, then perhaps you can be changed and impacted in the same way they were and identify with the answer to their struggles and their questions.

“I get recognized now in public quite a bit. And it’s very rarely a celebrity type of response. It’s…people feeling the need to say thank you. And I would say probably a third of the time someone just starts crying.”

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Jessica Lea
Jessica is a content editor for ChurchLeaders.com and the producer of The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. She has always had a passion for the written word and has been writing professionally for the past five years. When Jessica isn't writing, she enjoys West Coast Swing dancing, reading, and spending time with her friends and family.

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