Episode 143: A conversation with 'The Chosen' creator and show runner Dallas Jenkins

When Dallas Jenkins, creator, principal writer and show runner for The Chosen spoke at Oklahoma Christian University, The Christian Chronicle's Bobby Ross, Jr., got a chance to sit down with him for a conversation. Carla Hinton, faith editor for The Oklahomanand The Christian Chronicle's CEO Erik Tryggestad joined them. 

In this interview, you'll hear Jenkins talk about:

• The experience of filming the sixth season of The Chosen, which is all about the crucifixion of Jesus. 
• How he handles the expectations of politicians that he (and his show) will be a platform and voice for their particular views.
• Why he chose to make The Chosen a TV show instead of a movie.
• The impact that The Chosen is making on Christians and non-Christians alike all over the world.
• How he chose Jonathan Roumie to play Jesus of Nazareth.
• The extreme personal and professional challenges of creating and sustaining The Chosen.
• How the broader entertainment industry has responded to, and been changed by, The Chosen phenomenon.
• The challenge and opportunity of interpreting Scripture through an artistic medium like television.

Link to Bobby Ross Jr.'s Christian Chronicle story about his interview with Dallas Jenkins.

Link to The Chosen

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Healing Hands International will give you or your congregation a community and a direction to put the life and work of Jesus into practice. Learn more at hhi.org.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why The Chosen Unites Churches
• 2:24 Season Six: Locations And Suffering
• 4:45 Portraying The Crucifixion Differently
• 7:45 Matera, Italy And Production Choices
• 8:43 Faith, Politics, And Staying Focused
• 11:20 College Audiences And Gen Z
• 13:55 Funding, Scale, And A Global Release
• 16:21 Why A Series Beats A Movie
• 19:30 Casting Jonathan Roumie As Jesus
• 24:13 Industry Attention And Prime Video
• 26:40 Family Influence And Left Behind
• 28:48 Mark Green, Come And See, And Languages
• 30:43 Global Impact Stories And Gratitude
• 32:38 Old Testament Threads To The Cross
• 34:58 Closing Credits And Listener Support

Transcript

BT Irwin: 0:04

Family and friends, neighbors, and most of all strangers, welcome to the Christian Chronicle Podcast. We're bringing you the stories shaping Church of Christ congregations and members around the world. I'm B.T. Irwin. May what you are about to hear bless you and honor God. I visit a lot of Church of Christ congregations, and one thing that I discovered over the last couple of years, many of them make the hit streaming show The Chosen part of their adult and or youth classes. The remarkable thing about it is that I find this to be the case for what we might call conservative or traditional Church of Christ congregations and the ones that are more quote-unquote progressive. I've been to a Church of Christ congregation that still uses the King James Version for preaching and scripture readings, and the old red hymnal for congregational singing, yet when they gather for Wednesday night Bible study, they watch and discuss the chosen. So the show has achieved something remarkable beyond its widespread popularity and use in Church of Christ congregations. It's an innovation, if you will, that seems to unify Church of Christ congregations all along the conservative to progressive spectrum. Now, in case you aren't one of those Church of Christ folks who knows much about the show, The Chosen is what Wikipedia calls a quote Christian historical drama television series, in quote, that is now in its fifth season. The Chosen follows the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth through the eyes of the people who interacted with him. What started as a crowdfunded show, available only on the Vid Angel platform for subscribers only was released for free during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and quickly found its way to the mainstream. It eventually moved to Netflix and is now available on Amazon Prime Video. As of 2025, over 280 million people worldwide have streamed the show, including all of those Church of Christ folks watching it in fellowship halls and youth rooms every week. Dallas Jenkins, the creator, principal writer, and showrunner for The Chosen, recently spoke at Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Christian Chronicle's own Bobby Ross Jr. walked over to the school and managed to get some time alone to interview Jenkins. We took Bobby's recording of that conversation and turned it into this episode, you're about to hear. You'll also hear our own CEO, Eric Trigostad, and Carla Hinton, who is the faith editor at the Oklahoman, the big daily newspaper there in Oklahoma City. So enjoy Bobby Ross Jr.'s interview with Dallas Jenkins.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 2:29

So I guess you just wrapped up season six. Can you talk about, I guess, kind of the process of season six? And you went to three different cities, I think.

Dallas Jenkins: 2:39

Three, yeah. Well, two in two different countries. So season six was by far the hardest season we've ever filmed. One of the hardest things I've ever done. It included filming in Utah, Texas, and Italy. We were in Italy for a month. And we did I think season six was meant to be hard. It was the longest season of filming. Yeah, the hottest, the most physically challenging. I think when you're capturing the crucifixion, which is what season six is, it captures essentially around 24 hours Jesus Jesus' final hours. And I think that God wanted us to get a little taste of some suffering and sacrifice for the purpose of capturing this. I think a lot of the strain and challenge and uh even at times desperation that we had while we were filming comes out on screen. It it it I think it was it was very visceral. And uh I think it's gonna it's gonna turn out to be our best season as well, but it was definitely our hardest.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 3:41

So will it debut in March of next year?

Dallas Jenkins: 3:44

No, it'll be it'll be a while. It'll actually be late fall of next year. It'd be Kelda. The the time there the the separation between the previous season is longer because a it was longer filming. We have we our hope is to translate this into several dozen languages and to release it all at once in those multiple languages, and that takes a long time. So a lot of times we've just released it in English and Spanish, maybe, and then the other languages catch up. But this time I really want to do it at the same time. Uh the first six episodes will come out to streaming, and then the finale is a is a big kind of supersized theatrical experience. So that'll be released all over the world at the same time in early 2027.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 4:33

So I I guess I worked for the Associated Press when The Passion of the Christ came out. I remember I covered like that first day when that came out. People were coming out of the theaters with like red eyes, and it was just a really emotional experience. You may remember that for from seeing it yourself. I'm wondering, do you expect what I guess how do you expect your version of the crucifixion maybe to be the same and different from what we saw with Mel Gibson's portrayal?

Dallas Jenkins: 5:04

So there's two ways that I think we're going to be different from The Passion of Christ. Number one, we have more tools in our tool belt than he did by the fact that we have five seasons leading up to this. So he was using a lot of violence and visual uh uh intensity to try to capture the reality of the crucifixion and the weight of the crucifixion. But it was a movie, so we only had a limited amount of time. So uh we don't need to do that to communicate just how visceral and intense a crucifixion was, because for many people, just a simple reaction from one of Jesus' closest friends is gonna break us because we've known these characters for so long, so it has even more emotional weight because of the backstories that we've had for over five years. Uh the second thing is it's just not gonna be quite as uh explicitly violent. Mel did it did it already. I feel like I don't have anything new to add to the physicality of it. We've seen dozens of portrayals. Mel's was the most violent. I think we've got an idea of what that looks like. I don't think I need to go into that and to make it almost. I mean, sometimes it's almost like a documentary if you want to capture it accurately. And I feel like for this, the storytelling that we're doing, we're trying to tell a story not just of the crucifixion, but of the history of humanity. This movie is going to cover and and remind you of the history of from the creation of the universe all the way to the crucifixion to help establish the need for the crucifixion. So we're we're coming at it from a little bit more of uh I think an emotional journey and a spiritual journey than a than a physical one, if that makes sense.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 7:01

Yeah, but I would assume that people coming out of your theater, it's going to be an impactful experience. I sure hope so as well.

Dallas Jenkins: 7:09

I sure hope so. I mean, I it's it's definitely as we were filming it, we couldn't get through the days without taking turns having some sort of emotional breakdown. I had my first experience on set where I couldn't get myself together emotionally. But I can't I can't predict exactly how everyone's gonna react, but it's for for us and for what I believe we're capturing and the story that we're telling in the truths of the crucifixion, I think it's gonna be easily the most uh emotional impact our show has ever had.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 7:45

And y'all did film in the same general area as The Passion was filmed?

Dallas Jenkins: 7:49

Yeah, so The Passion was filmed in Matera, Italy, which is a city that is still preserved its thousands of years old status. I mean, it's the only place we could find where the horizon line still looked like the first century. And so m several crucifixion projects have filmed there, all the way back to from to the Passion of St. Matthew in in a Pasolini's film in 19 the 1960s. So there's a reason why multiple projects have filmed there. And so we were, I think our our crosses were set up about 50 yards from where Mills were. And he's actually filming the resurrection ruby there as well, right? So very, very gel overlap anyway, you were no, no, no. Uh but yeah, we gave give each other space. But but there's it's a very, very special place, and uh it was clear to us that it was the only place we could that that that was right for this project.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 8:42

I read that you knew Charlie Kirk and that you were, I guess you were filming season six when you found out about what happened to him. Could you talk, I guess, about I guess how you did know him and maybe how you approach politics. And I know maybe you all have some similarities, but maybe also some differences and how you approach those kind of conversations.

Dallas Jenkins: 9:04

Well, I I I will say I wasn't close. I I I knew I knew him a little bit. We had a lot of mutual friends, and we were in our last week of filming when we found out I think the differences between what we're doing, what Charlie's doing, of course, is Charlie was, I think, kind of used politics as an on-ramp into discussions of Christianity. We are kind of the other way around. I mean, we're we're talking about the stories of Jesus. I'm focused on the stories of Jesus. We don't get into the political realm as a show, even though many people want us to from both sides. The story of Jesus is oftentimes used for political purposes. Uh, one side likes to quote Jesus to support some of their political ends or their um uh policies that they're wanting, and then others, the other side will use other quotes to support their policies. What we're trying to do is just tell the stories in Jesus and how people react to that is up to them. It's between them and God, them and their families, them and their church. Uh, we're just trying to authentically portray the stories of Jesus as much as possible. I used to be a little bit more politically active on social media. Since I've started doing The Chosen, I've dramatically slowed that down because I feel like by telling the story of Jesus, I kind of want to follow kind of his example of, hey, look, I'm here about your heart. I'm here about Jesus was here about the heart. And he was always speaking to very diverse groups of people. And how sometimes he was divisive in his claims of uh salvation, and other times he was unifying, but it was always the unification or the division was always on the spiritual level, not the political level. Now, of course, he you know would upset people sometimes because of politics. But I just found that what my job is is different from other people in the public sphere. Because I'm just trying to tell the stories of Jesus as authentically as I can, and then the response is not up to me. He was a little bit more like looking for a response, looking for a to for engagement on the political sphere, and that's less my interest now.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 11:18

You've been to Oklahoma before?

Dallas Jenkins: 11:20

I have been to Oklahoma. I have not been to Oklahoma Christian before. This is my first time visiting this campus, but I've been I was at the Dead Center Film Festival like 15 years ago. I mean, I live in Texas now, and you know, of course, Texans believe Jesus lived there, which is why we that film the show there. Oklahoma's a little different, but the fact that the the high heat and humidity even in October is familiar as a uh living in Texas now.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 11:47

But I love Oklahoma. Lord, do you live in Midlothian or Midlothian? Yeah.

Dallas Jenkins: 11:52

So that's where we film. So I moved uh moved to Midlothian a few years ago. So we have how old are you? I'm 50. I turned 50 this year. 50.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 12:00

Oh, congrats. That's young. I'm 57. So you have four ground children?

Dallas Jenkins: 12:04

Four four children, yes. Two uh two getting married, one one already married this year, the other one getting married later this year. So they're all uh they're all grown up.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 12:13

Do you do a lot of appearances like that you're doing here at Oklahoma Christian?

Dallas Jenkins: 12:17

I used to do more. Now that the filming has really become comprehensive, I don't do quite as many. But uh I have so you know, come and see is the nonprofit that finances our show. And Mark Green started Come and See, so the Green family's here. So I actually get out to Oklahoma City every now and then for them. So that so it made sense for me to come here. I accepted this request to come speak because then I also spoke yesterday at North Church and was able to spend time with people from Come and See. So it was it makes sense. Oklahoma City is becoming a little bit of a a second office. Oh, okay. So Okay.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 12:57

What excites you about coming to a university like Oklahoma Christian?

Dallas Jenkins: 13:01

Well, I love college students. I I think in many ways the chosen was is made for for the college age me. When I was in college, as a believer, I just didn't have there wasn't much other than my veggie taste. There, there wasn't much in the way of media that spoke to my experience and my faith. And I was always frustrated by that. And it's taken a long time for faith media to catch up, but I feel like now what I'm excited about is being able to speak to college students and also make the chosen, hopefully for them, saying, Yeah, even at your age, someone who loved this generation, of course, loves tell you know media, social media, television, and movies. And even at 50, I feel like I can I can serve some media that's going to speak to their experience as much as possible. So I love I love coming to college campuses because I think that this is the generation that we sometimes complain about because Gen Z is so different than than we are, but this is an opportunity to perhaps learn from each other. And you mentioned Come and See, is that the name of the Come and See is the name of the nonprofit that finances the church.

Bobby Ross, Jr.: 14:13

And y'all were trying to raise 30 million for the crucifixion?

Dallas Jenkins: 14:17

For the crucifixion movie. And you've got like 25 million? Yeah, I think we're run, I think we've gotten to the to I think by the time the week is over, I think we're gonna have reached our goal. But they finance everything. So this year was more because the crucifixion is so big. Crucifixion movie is so big, and going to Italy and all these things were so much bigger production-wise than we normally do. Come and see agreed, we need to go all in, we need to make this as big as possible. So this is our most expensive season as well.

Carla Hinton: 14:45

Well, so one of the things that I was interested in, and I know the first time I watched the shows, and I thought, okay, and TV series, how's this gonna work? You used to sing movies, let's just face it, right? And then I saw how you you you got into it, and I thought, this is genius. Why did you do that? What made you think TV show as opposed to movie?

Dallas Jenkins: 15:04

Because a movie has a limited amount of time, and so they always movies about Jesus always tend to go from miracle to miracle, Bible verse to Bible verse, and you don't actually get to connect with the people who are impacted by what Jesus is doing. You're seeing it through his eyes. So it's like uh he heals this person, and then he goes to this person and and heals them of their anxiety, and then he encounters the religious leaders, and so it's kind of like uh it almost feels like montage of Bible verses set to fill. Uh Television show allows you to go deeper into these stories. So we get to get to we get to know the apostles, we get to know the enemies of Jesus, we get to know the people who are healed by Jesus, who are changed by Jesus, people who reject Jesus. So the to me, long-form storytelling is something that hadn't been done in the Jesus story, and I think it demanded it. And I think that's what people have been responding to is saying, okay, I get to know Peter, I get to know Matthew, I get to know Nicodemus, I get to know the high priest Caiaphas, I get to know the Romans who are opposing it, like Pontius Pilate. That allows the moments of scripture to be even more impactful because there's stakes involved. It's not just, and then this happened. It's, ooh, I want to know what happens to this person. Oh, that's right. This moment from scripture that's so famous impacted these people, and we know these people.

Carla Hinton: 16:20

Well, so knowing that you were coming, I'm acting based in the first couple of uh shows, just to kind of remind myself, hey, this is how it all started. And the the moment when Mary Imagining comes out, comes from that corner, and Nicodemus is like, he's trying to drive out the demon that you're like, listen, you're not gonna be able to do it. And I just got chill about that. Oh, God. Remember this. And so you're right, it does bring you into those stories in a way that a movie can't because it's going on.

Dallas Jenkins: 16:47

So the Bible when it says, or introduces Mary Magdalene, just says, who was possessed by seven demons, changed. Well, there's that's all it says. The by the gospels were essentially designed, written to be Jesus' greatest heads to prove that he was the Messiah. But there's not it's not really telling you the deeper stories of the people involved. And so by the time in episode one, we really take you into Mary Magdalene's past so that when she's redeemed, it actually really means something. It's actually impactful. And people can identify it. But we've had in fact, I just heard yesterday, it was very moving to me. There's a a shelter in Bangladesh that helps women who had been trafficked. And it's a horrible, horrible experience, but this place helps them. And they said that the chosen has so impacted them because they see the first the first episode shows Jesus helping a woman like us, right? And so I think when people can identify with the struggles that some of these people faced, then they can identify with the solution to those struggles.

Carla Hinton: 17:58

I was at an interfaith alliance of Oklahoma dinner the other day, and they were, so we were all at tables, I'm a Christian, but there were people from different uh faiths, and they, you were talking about you're coming, and some does then follow you. And one of the lakes who's built the Pife said she has all of her books that, you know, uh Christian books, and she's trying to follow along to see how effort you are here. She says she's just fascinated by what you've done. And had you ever thought that this would might uh appeal to people who aren't necessarily Fristian, but who were interested in Jesus?

Dallas Jenkins: 18:28

Well, that that that was the hope was that I'm just gonna tell the stories of Jesus. And and I'm gonna, I just decided early on, I'm not going to have an agenda in mind. I'm just going to tell the stories as authentically as I can, and then leave the response up to God and to the audience, right? And so we have people on our cast and crew. I mean, over half of our cast and crew are traditional believers. And I think that is they they came because they really just loved the show. They loved the historical drama on it. And I think that's what is allowed a lot of people from different faiths or lack thereof, people of no faith background, to appreciate the show is it even though we see Jesus, all the we see Jesus even preaching, they'll say it doesn't feel preach, it doesn't feel like it's an agenda. It just feels like a drama that's accurately capturing the stories of Jesus. But I think sometimes we take on too much responsibility to try to convince people of our faith as opposed to just maybe taking away some of the hurdles through an authentic portrayal of Jesus and then letting letting them respond accordingly. But that's not up to me.

Carla Hinton: 19:33

When did you know that crowdsourcing was going to be the way to go? Or did you do that part?

Dallas Jenkins: 19:38

I'm still that part of I never fully believed in it and still because it's it's been so difficult. But I I thought the idea of crowdfunding uh was ridiculous. I I thought there's no way it's gonna work. I mean, the all-time crowdfunding record was at the time was five and a half million dollars from projects that had huge fan bases, and I had no fan base that was coming off of a big career failure. So I thought there's no way this is gonna work, but I didn't, you know, I thought, well, it's none of my business. Let's just try it. And we we put this short film out, and I people watched the short film and I said, hey, if you want to invest in this show, here's the opportunity. And when it generated over $10 million for 16,000 people, I was as surprised as anybody. And it's still, we just decided, you know what, there's something about the fact that the show is free and the fact that the people are involved, people that love the show are giving back to it. It has really generated a lot of heat for the show all over the world. And so, you know, the fact that probably less than five percent, sorry, less less sorry. I don't know how I say this. Oh less than five percent of the people who watch the show actually pay for it. And there's something actually really beautiful about that, that there's this group of people that that say we're gonna keep this show free for the rest of the leader. And so people all will be able to watch the show for free. So it's not easy, but it's certainly been beautiful to watch.

Carla Hinton: 22:34

You may have talked to people about this before, but how did you find the the actor? Thomas Atrey, Jesus, yeah, what happened?

Dallas Jenkins: 22:41

So 10 years ago, gosh no, now it's probably one though, it's probably 15 years ago. I did a short film for my church on Good Friday about the crucifixion from the perspective of the two thieves on the cross. And Jonathan auditioned for one of the two thieves because the part of Jesus was so small in the short film. He didn't show up until the very end. So I had all these great actors auditioning for the two thieves, and all the people auditioning for Jesus were horrible. So I'm like, well, I need someone who's good for Jesus, even though it's a small role. So I said, but Jonathan, he did a good job because one of the thieves, let's have him audition for Jesus. And 10 seconds into his audition, I saw what everyone else sees when they watch the show. I'm like, my goodness, this guy's incredible. And so we filmed that sure filming a rock quarry in Elgin, Illinois. And it in in the spring of no, it was in the fall of sorry, winter of like 2012, it was freezing. And uh after that, we did multiple short films and vignettes for my church with Jonathan. And it was almost like a training round. It was like a test case for what we ended up doing. So we got the opportunity to do the show, he was the first person cast.

Carla Hinton: 23:51

So what's been the biggest challenge, would you say, making chosen? Everything, everything. Is that your outbreak?

Dallas Jenkins: 23:59

Look, I mean, the chosen is the most uh the biggest blessing that I'd ever had. Of course, it's a tremendous privilege to be able to tell this story, but from the moment we started doing it, it's like everything conspires against this. I mean, my family health crises have started and been nonstop. From the moment we started to to to to to today. The challenge of the growth has been difficult because now it's you know, 200 casting crew members every way on the set. And uh while also trying to generate crowdfunding, while also trying to, in many ways, make some of this up as we go along. Not the story, of course, but the the how to sustain ourselves doing this project outside the system allows us a lot of freedom and a lot of ownership, but it's also very difficult because nothing we don't have a studio or a network behind us that has billions of dollars at their disposal that they can just kind of keep things eas make things easy for us. So from the fact that we've kind of created it from scratch to the fact that uh feels like everything is difficult in in even just my personal life with my family, that's been a challenge when it's also tremendous summer to ready.

Carla Hinton: 25:08

You just touched on something I wanted to ask you. How do other people in the industry talk to you guys? Had had they react to you, like you've photo what you were trying to do.

Dallas Jenkins: 25:17

Well, at first there was no reaction, no one knew who we were, no one cared. The industry certainly does didn't have a hallway for the kind of thing we were doing. A a Jesus show, B, Crowdfoot, C, kind of building this audience from scratch, uh, releasing it. We again we kind of made up our own platforms and our own ways for people to watch it on a free app that they could connect to their television. Now, of course, the industry is all over it. I mean, they're they're the you know, every streamer was interested in in the show and is also trying to is interested in how we did what we did, kind of building an audience from scratch, our social media engagement strategies. So now it's been a cool thing because because we had several years of all group to begin with, we can still maintain that the studios don't want to change our the content. They're like, all right, you've clearly fit me something out. We don't want to mess with that, but we want to put some gasoline on the fire. So now that we have a relationship with Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video, it's actually really cool because they let us do what we do best and then we use them for what they do best. But at first, there wasn't they I I would say they weren't if they weren't uh rejecting us, they didn't even care. So they didn't even care enough to or know enough to even be mean about it. It's just they didn't notice. So we said, all right, we'll do it ourselves.

Carla Hinton: 26:30

Was there any one thing that lets you know that you on their radar?

Dallas Jenkins: 26:34

Well, in in season two, when the show really started to hit a tipping point during COVID, and we were the first, we were the only project in like in in America to be filming during COVID. And we kind of invented our own COVID protocols. That's when the industry started to go, okay, because all the all the unions, like the actor unions and stuff like that, they had the rules about it. So then when when the headlines and in all the industry magazines are about to show this, that's filming, they're like, oh, what's this show? And then they discovered, oh my goodness, it's got tens of millions of viewers all over the world. What's going on here? And then they said, Oh, wait, why don't you come on our platform? And we said, No, we're good, we're doing it ourselves. So that was when I think it was around when COVID hit, was when things started to reach a little bit more awareness.

Carla Hinton: 27:20

Okay. So you come from a family of of uh people who take the Bible seriously and who have maybe reached out to people through different avenues like the book, yeah, the left behind series. How did that influence you or did it?

Dallas Jenkins: 27:35

Yeah, so I think the concept of taking Bible stories on Bible, in my dad's case, was left behind books for Bible prophecies, and making them uh palatable to a modern audience is clearly something that I've been influenced by. Yeah. My dad is not a preacher, I'm not a preacher, we're not theologians, but I think we do understand storytelling. And so taking these biblical concepts and turning them into something that the modern audience can can relate to, and maybe bringing the words off the page, making them feel accessible, is something that I definitely was influenced by by my father. I think a love of scripture, a love of storytelling, undoed something obviously different than he did, but but I think it's the same idea as we're we're here to tell stories. And and and we're gonna take the greatest story ever told and and remind the world that this is this is something that's accessible, that you can actually get it as well. And that's what we heard from people laughing the left behind books is oh, okay, now I understand the book of Revelation better. And people are coming to me saying, Oh, now I understand the gospel better. So I think that's we're certainly a little bit of like follower likes on there.

Carla Hinton: 28:49

You talked about North Church, and I know if I'm not mistaken, I think Mark Green goes to North Church. Tell me a little bit about your relationship with him, if you don't mind, because I know I know him probably the the the most.

Dallas Jenkins: 28:59

But first so Mart saw the chosen and it really tremendously impacted him. And he felt led to just help us in some way. And so he started reaching out to people saying, Do you know Dallas Jenkins? I'd like to get a hold of him. And he was he had the poll, he was asking a few of his friends, he said, because he's like, I don't know him, but I have you know friends who do. And literally on the day that he was asking people, how do I get to find Dallas Jenkins, he saw on his phone a little notification popped up on Facebook, and it was me reaching out to him because I was we were looking to build this first century campus, a first century set. And I I knew that the Green family had done the Museum of the Bible and had had had, and I thought I reached out to him because I thought, uh, would you guys be interested in being involved in this first century set? Because we could also use it as kind of an educational tour. And Mark goes, well, that's my brother, that's not me. But some reason I've been led to try to find you, and right on the day that I was looking, you found me. And so that yeah, he heard me speak. And my wife, my here, my wife and I speak, and we and he heard us say, our goal is is to just reveal the Bible. We're just a TV show, we're not the Bible. And something about that really spoke to him, and his specialty is like languages. He's getting the Bible translated into the thousands of languages. He thought, I'll just help down translate the show into as many languages as possible. And and then he got sucked into the vortex, and now he's that would be possible. He and his uh organization are financing the whole show.

Carla Hinton: 30:41

I love that. Okay, okay. One other thing, you talked about listening, being blessed by being able to do this. Can you expand just a little bit more?

Dallas Jenkins: 30:48

Because I came in uh on the TLN to um well to be tasked with portraying the greatest story ever told for a new generation and to be allowed to steward this project that's in literally every country in the world is an immense challenge and it's an immense responsibility. But when you hear from people in third world countries who are telling you that the show changed their life, where that you're hearing from there was a screening for uh 300 orphans in Madagascar. It was translated into their language for the first time, the first time television had been translated in their language. They never seemed Tellers before. And they're watching these orphans are watching episode three of season one of Jesus with the children. And some of their comments were Oh my goodness, this is a god who's like me. He he brushes his teeth in the stream and he makes his own food just like these orphans in Madagascar. It is the greatest thing in in the world. I mean, there's nothing more beautiful than that. And so the the challenge is, of course, getting it done, but the blessing is people who tell you that their lives have been changed by it in every country in the world in dozens of languages. I'll never do anything in my life besides my family as as meaningful as that.

Carla Hinton: 32:11

Thank you so much.

Erik Tryggestad: 32:13

I got a quick question in your mind. You grew up here in the story of Jesus' crucifixion, right? I mean it's very familiar to you. Do you have any new insights on it now that you've attempted to recreate it and film it, something you maybe had to consider it before?

Dallas Jenkins: 32:35

Yes. I mean the and and you'll see that in our movie, which is when we were looking for ways to tell this story in a way that hadn't been told before, because I've seen it, I've seen you know a dozen crucifixion projects. Like, well, what what can we say that's different but that still honors the actual story itself? And it's when you start to connect the old testament, when we start to go back all the way to the creation, the creation story and Moses you start to realize that the crucifixion in many ways both meaningfully and visually has connections that have been prepar that have been leading to the crucifixion for hundreds and hundreds of years. I mean, even just you know, the the blood on the doorpost that it put to so that the angel of death would pass over their houses. I mean two two blood two blood marks on the sides and one on the top, and then you look at the cross of Christ and you see there's two blood marks on the sides and one on the top, and and uh you see that what he's doing as a sacrificial lamb is the same thing that Passover was. And you go, wow, this is a story that's that's was was thousands of years in the making. And so that hasn't been portrayed on film before. It's about probably been preached about, but it has been portrayed on film, and so that's something that was really exciting was to not just tell the story of the crucifixion, but to tell the story of all Germanity. That's awesome.

Erik Tryggestad: 34:12

Above my girls, I got a 17-year-old and a 12-girl. They loved the show. First time my 17-year-old saw Jesus, she said, Oh, that's the guy from Dog with a Blog. Oh my goodness. Yes, that's a that's a keeping. The fact that he was able to play out of that stereotype, I think, is really for doing the Messiah is really uh credit his acting.

Speaker 3: 34:33

Yeah, well, you can be uh a French doctor on the dog with a blog, and you can play the Messiah of the Universe. Uh, great story for the dude paper tonight.

Erik Tryggestad: 34:50

Oh, yeah, I usually so embarrassed when they tell her ass you can say.

Dallas Jenkins: 34:57

That's one of my favorite things to hear when you when I hear that 12-year-olds are sudden being while they act the show. That's not what I was thinking when I made it. Um but I think there's something about authenticity that even young kids appreciate, especially now. And uh my favorite thing to hear.

Erik Tryggestad: 35:15

Good. Thank you.

BT Irwin: 35:21

Many thanks to Dallas Jenkins for sitting down to visit with the Christian Chronicles Bobby Ross Jr., and many thanks to Oklahoma Christian University for helping us get this interview. In the show notes, we'll post a link to Bobby's story about his conversation with Dallas Jenkins, and we'll also post a link to uh The Chosen in case you haven't watched it yet. You can go check it out. We hope that something you heard in this episode encouraged, enlightened, or enriched you in some way. If it did, thanks be to God. And please pay it forward. Subscribe to this podcast and share it with a friend. Recommend and review it wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Your subscription, recommendation, and review help us reach more people. Please send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcasts at Christian Chronicle.org. And don't forget, our ministry to inform and inspire Christians and congregations around the world is a nonprofit ministry that relies on your generosity. So if you like the show and you want to keep it going and make it even better, please make a tax-deductible gift to the Christian Chronicle at Christian Chronicle.org slash donate. The Christian Chronicle Podcast is a production of the Christian Chronicle Incorporated, informing and inspiring Church of Christ congregations, members, and ministries around the world since 1943. The Christian Chronicle's managing editor is Calvin Cockrell, Editor-in-Chief Bobby Ross Jr., President and CEO Eric Trigestaff. The Christian Chronicle Podcast is written, directed, hosted, and edited by B.T. Irwin and is produced by James Flanagan at Podcast Your Voice Studios in the Motor City, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Until next time, may grace and peace be yours in abundance.