At ChosenCon, Dallas Jenkins describes the purpose of ‘The Chosen’

ORLANDO, Florida — The clock had barely struck nine in the morning and thousands at “The Chosen” Insiders conference were on their feet as Phil Wickham gave a live performance.
Most mornings at conferences don’t start out with a lively Christian contemporary music performance followed by a sermon, but that’s how Chosen Con rolls. Almost everyone in the room stayed standing for the half an hour performance and even sung some of the words.
The lyrics appeared on the screen and the crowd followed along singing, “I follow Jesus. I follow Jesus. He wore my sin, I’ll gladly wear His name. He is the treasure. He is the answer. Oh, I choose the Jesus way.”
Hands shot up in the air when Wickham asked who felt like they needed to surrender to Jesus. Some audience members could been seen holding each others’ hands or wiping away tears.
Many people in the audience believe in Jesus Christ, though they belong to different churches and denominations. But the mood and atmosphere in the room was one of unity and appreciation in a shared celebration of belief.
“When we’re in heaven, we’re not going to be watching TV shows,” said Dallas Jenkins, coming out on stage after the performance. “We’re not going to be listening to me doing livestreams. We’re going to be doing that.”
Jenkins, the creator and director of “The Chosen,” speaks frequently about his faith (he is an evangelical Christian) on social media, to the press and at events. Saturday morning, it seemed to be a real focus for him as he said what he thinks the purpose of the show is and offered a state of the union for “The Chosen”
Reflecting on many in the audience worshiping Jesus, Jenkins said that it was the end game. “The purpose of ‘The Chosen’ is to get you to do what the third song said, ‘I choose the Jesus way.’” Over the weekend, Jenkins said he has met many people who have found Jesus and started reading the Bible because of the show.
“That is why we are here,” said Jenkins to loud audience applause. The live performance by Wickham was followed by a sermon from a Montana pastor named Levi Lusko. His sermon drew inspiration from several Bible verses and Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”
Pastor Lusko pointed out how all the sight lines in the painting point toward Jesus, drawing your eye to him.
“May that be your story,” said Pastor Lusko. “May every line in your life, may every angel in your life, may everything in our lives point to Jesus.”
It was a message Jenkins said resonated with him. He and Derral Eves, executive producer of “The Chosen,” went on stage Saturday morning to talk about how the show started and where it was going.
Calling Eves a co-founder of “The Chosen,” Jenkins said they have been on the same page and of the same heart for the audience on the projects they spend their days and years working on. So, they decided to have a “family chat” with the audience.
The two spoke about some of the new projects 5&2 Studios have coming up, including the newly announced kids show “The Chosen Adventures.”
“We don’t care about the same things that the world cares about,” said Jenkins, explaining they tell new potential partners that. “We’re not trying to just do shows because we can or because there’s a financial opportunity.”
He said they even had a couple other projects in development they thought about announcing, but held off because they’re not ready.
“We don’t want to announce them or even plan on doing them until we know for certain that they are going to honor the character and integrity of Jesus and the gospels,” said Jenkins.
With the expansion of “The Chosen,” Jenkins said Eves gets to focus on what he does best — creatively thinking about the next steps to bring the show to more people and to reach new audiences.
“I get to have these exercises with our team of how we can leverage ‘The Chosen’ to build the kingdom,” said Eves, adding he wants to do things that are “disruptive.”
“Disruptive” is one of the company’s four words that they use to encapsulate what they do, said Jenkins. They focus on being disruptive, intimate, authentic and playful.
“We take the work seriously, we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” said Jenkins. “That’s because we know the difference between the show and the Bible. We know the difference between us and God.”
Though the two expressed gratitude for what the show has become multiple times, they also opened up about the hardships they have experienced. Jenkins has a family member who is struggling with a chronic illness and Eves has a family member who is currently in the hospital.
But the two of them also said they have seen God’s hand and presence in their lives as they have worked on the show.
Jenkins said he wanted to tell a story from the time he and Eves went to Israel. While in the city of Magdala, he was near a synagogue that had been recently unearthed. On the floor were markings of fishes and loaves.
Though he had already written the script with Mary Magdalene’s initial appearance, he said it did not feel right. In fact, Eves’ first note on it was how Mary Magdalene was written did not feel right. Eves said he knew it in his spirit, but was unsure of why he felt that way.
Jenkins said he asked God to help get Mary Magdalene right.
“And I really felt God’s presence,” said Jenkins, explaining he did not have very many moments like this. In that moment, he felt like God told him people all over the world will associate “The Chosen” with his followers. And that God told him he wouldn’t let Jenkins ruin it.
Several times throughout the conversation, both Jenkins and Eves emphasized the only way the show could be ruined is if they messed up and forgot the bigger picture. So, they said, they try every single day to remember that it is the story of Jesus and scripture that matters.
What will bring the show down is “if we start to care about the cameras being on us and not reflecting what we’re trying to point people to,” said Jenkins.
Before “The Chosen,” Jenkins said he cared about box offices, awards, big press events and premieres. It is something he has spoken about before to the Deseret News, too. When he cared about those sorts of things, he made a movie called “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone” and it flopped at the box office. Then, something had to change for Jenkins.
“I promise you, that as of this moment, the only thing I see (those things) as is either a measure of what God is doing or an opportunity to get it in front of more people,” said Jenkins to the audience.
“And for us, the universe revolves around Him (God),” said Eves. “He is the universe. He is everything. And that has to be our focus.”