Episode 98 - Crowdfunding and The Chosen with Dallas Jenkins
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If you haven’t yet watched The Chosen, we would highly recommend putting it at the top of your to-binge list. It’s an amazing narrative of the life of Jesus that has enjoyed significant popularity. Dallas Jenkins is the creator, director and co-writer of The Chosen, which in addition to being the first multi-season series about the life of Christ is also the most successful media crowdfund of all time.
All opinions expressed on this podcast, including the team and guests, are solely their opinions. Host and guests may maintain positions in the companies and securities discussed. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as specific investment advice for any individual or organization.
Episode Transcript
Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it.
Dallas Jenkins: I reached a point in my career shortly before the chosen, where I was genuinely OK with never making another movie because my movie failed. The movie that I had done, I had finally gotten to this place where Hollywood wanted to make movies with me, financed my movie, produced my movie The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, released in theaters. Everything was great. They wanted to make multiple movies with me over the next ten years. I was a director with a very bright future, and then my movie completely bombed. And in my lowest moment, confused wondering why God allowed this to happen, wondering where my future was. I genuinely got to a place where I didn't feel responsible to feed the 5000. I only felt responsible to provide the loaves and fish.
Rusty Rueff: If you're listening today to our podcast that you haven't yet watched the chosen, well, we would highly recommend putting it at the top of your to binge list. It's an amazing narrative of the life of Jesus that has seen increased popularity recently, and today we're talking to the man behind the show. That's right. Dallas Jenkins is the creator, director and co-writer of The Chosen, which, in addition to being the first multi season series about the life of Christ, is also the most successful media crowdfund of all time. Let's hear from Dallas and let him explain how all of this has come to be.
Henry Kaestner: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur and at Faith Driven Investor podcasts were really fired up about today's guest. I mean, any time we have a crossover podcast when we're talking to Faith driven entrepreneurs and Faith Driven Investor, it's kind of a big deal around here and it's a big deal for me as a father of three teenage boys. It is definitely a big deal for William. If you're not seeing this on video and this is an audio podcast, so we'll do some video snippets. We put up on the website. William is sporting a t shirt today. What is the t shirt say? Get used to different, get used to different. And I think that if there's something that you are more of a fanboy about other than Alabama, everything, it may be the chosen.
William Norvell: It very well could be. This is one of the highlights. This is definitely the first time I've ever worn a podcast t shirt to his interview and not really being ashamed about it. Like, you know, there's certain times where you're like, You know, I know I'm doing it and it's going to be weird, but it has had such a profound impact on my life. I am so grateful for the work the Dallas has done and is a slogan get used to it. I ordered so many things with us because it it motivates me every day as as so many things throughout the series is done and just change my family's life, the conversations we have and my walk of Christ profound way. So yes, I am wildly excited about today's episode.
Henry Kaestner: So Dallas, thank you. Everybody now knows who our special guest is. It's Dallas Jenkins, creator of the chosen Dallas. Thank you very much for being on the program.
Dallas Jenkins: Oh, I appreciate that and you look great. I know the listener can't see it, but get used to different t shirt. Looks great, and that is based on episode seven of season one, when Jesus says that to Simon Peter, so get used to different. And that phrase really has become, I think, a calling card and a call to action for the show and for people who watch the show because I think it applies to Jesus, his ministry. I think it applies to everything that we've done with this show from day one. Everything about it has been different. So I feel like it's something we say to the audience. It's something Jesus says to us, and it's something we say to ourselves. So I love that you're that you're bringing that T-shirt onto the podcast. I think it's actually appropriate.
Henry Kaestner: MIT indeed. Indeed. OK, we like to do this with every podcast guest that is to understand a bit of your background, who you are, where you come from, the things that led you up until your creative career. Just give us five. Or please.
Dallas Jenkins: Well, my father is Jerry Jenkins. She's the author of the left behind books, and even before the left behind books exploded in popularity, sold 70 million copies by the time I was getting out of college. He had written well over 100 books before that as well. So I grew up in a storytelling family. I grew up in a very strong conservative, fundamentalist Christian home, and I was actually sheltered a little bit from movies. Even my dad happened to be a big movie buff, but when I was growing up, they kept a pretty tight rein on things. I wanted to kind of protect my innocence until I got to about middle school when my dad started introducing me to some of the great movies of all time. So the storytelling side of me was developed from a young age, but the movie side of me didn't come until I was in high school when I was growing up the
Henry Kaestner: set of those movies. I'm sorry to interrupt, but there's a number of parents are listening to this and say, Oh my goodness, Jerry Jenkins Dallas Jenkins the inspiration in his he's holding up dad. I want to see these movies, and then all of a sudden there's like 12 that he's kind of held back. And now, Son, I'm going to sit you down and we're going to watch it. And maybe no one's not the godfather. Where are they?
Dallas Jenkins: No one was The Godfather. Actually, I was actually literally going to say, Well, the first one was The Godfather, and that was when I was about eighth or ninth grade, and my dad started to say he basically started telling me, I'm a big movie buff. I watch all the movies just, you know, and I'd seen some as well. It's not like my parents had me for movies and they were pretty. They're pretty strict about what I watched. And then it became movies like The Godfather, and
Henry Kaestner: that makes me feel so much better about that being my number one. This is like, this is cathartic for me, so thank you. But he wanted
Dallas Jenkins: to introduce me to some of the great movies of all time. And I remember when I was a freshman in high school, I saw the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and that movie is what changed my life. It was there's a scene in One of the Cuckoo's Nest where Jack Nicholson is denied the opportunity to watch the World Series. And so he's so angry about it. He goes over to a TV and just stares at the blank screen and starts broadcasting his own made up World Series game, and all of the other patients at the mental institution start getting into it and cheering and going crazy. And that scene, I was so emotionally engaged and I was so inspired watching it. I thought, whatever that is, I want to do that. I want to arouse in audiences the same kind of response that this scene is getting in me. And I thought in all the faith based movies or shows that I've ever seen, that never happens. I'm almost never moved emotionally. I'm almost never inspired. Sometimes I enjoy them. Sometimes I don't. But I'm never emotionally engaged in biblical projects in Faith-Based projects, and there weren't actually all that many back when I was growing up. So that's when I turned from being an athlete, which was always kind of my goal and maybe a sports broadcaster to, OK, I want to make movies. I want to tell stories. And that's when everything kind of changed in my life. And then when the left behind books exploded, when I was in college, I had the opportunity to work for the company that was going to make them into movies, just a small production company out of Louisville. And they were the ones who got the rights and were developing. And I went to work for them as a low level secretary, and I was just like an entry level, almost like I was like a paid internship. But over the first three and a half years or so, I worked my way up to help them with a lot of the things I really just decided while I was working there. I'm going to make myself valuable. I'm going to make myself irreplaceable. And so I'm going to try to find the things that they don't understand or don't know or need help with in the business, and I'm going to learn those things. And then by the time that they were ready to make the first left behind movie, I actually and my dad realized this movie isn't actually going to be what we were hoping it was going to be. And maybe let's do our own thing. So my dad and I started Jenkins Entertainment, which by that point he had the financial means to do something like that because of the success of the books. And so we decided to make our own movies. And that was the thing that we noticed really quickly. While we were kind of getting involved in the Hollywood scene was in the independent world at least. There were lots of people who were talking about making movies and developing movies, but there weren't a lot of people actually making them. So we figured we could set ourselves apart by just going ahead and making one. So I was twenty five years old and we went ahead and produced my very first film. Hometown Legend High School faith based football movie before high school, faith based football movies were cool. We were a little bit ahead of our time and the movie didn't do extremely well, but it got picked up by Warner Brothers, which when you're an independent filmmaker, 10 percent of movies get picked up. I mean, most of them, don't we? Right out of the gate got picked up by major studio, which is really cool, and that kind of began the last 20. I'm forty five now since twenty years ago that all that happened. So but that was that was the beginning that was kind of the Reader's Digest version of how this all got started.
Henry Kaestner: What was it that you saw back then in just every action was about trying to solve a problem and lean into an opportunity? And just like the guys in the Cuckoo's Nest are just trying to create their own experience and trying to to make something happen. There must have been something that you looked out there and just saw. Gosh, nobody's doing things this way. We need to tell stories that do this with this type of quality to tell this type of story. What was it that drove you to that? What was it that you didn't see with a company that was trying to do that with left behind? What was it that fueled you into this entrepreneurial space?
Dallas Jenkins: Well, yeah, it just seemed to be all or nothing. I mean, it was either movies coming from Hollywood that had a completely agnostic, atheistic secular. I don't like to use the term secular too often, but when I would watch movies or television shows, I never saw myself represented, I never saw faith represented. It didn't reflect the world that was. Not only did it not reflect my world, I don't think it reflected the world at large. Art is supposed to reflect society in some way. And when you know, half the country, maybe a little bit less of the country are Christians, or at least have some sort of faith journey. And then the world of art and popular culture have none of that represented, just like 99 percent coming from one political, socioeconomic and religious worldview or lack of religious worldview. I just thought there needs to be more in that. There needs to be something involved in the pop culture conversation that includes faith or it includes my experience when it does happen, when it did happen, usually in the independent world, because the gatekeepers on the large scale pop culture world just had no interest in it, nor should they ever it wasn't. I don't expect them to necessarily care about a world that they don't really participate in. But it was always really low quality or it was cheesy, or it was so Christian that it didn't really connect. And I just thought there has to be room for a movie or movies that feel like normal movies. They just happen to have people of faith or happen to have a spiritual journey in some way that's accurately presented. And so that was the hole that I was willing or eager to fill. Now the problem was, I don't think I was good enough when I first started to make a movie that could truly compete on the pop culture level. So when I made this movie, Amen legend and Warner Brothers picked it up and I'm like, Oh great, a big, major studio. Well, the first thing who they wanted to do was try to appeal to a niche market, one that they didn't understand, which was the faith based market or faith based market that hadn't really evolved yet. The Passion of the Christ hadn't come out yet. Left behind was popular, but that was on the book side of things. No one had really cracked the code. And so my movie was fine. It was good, but it wasn't good enough to really break out into kind of the mainstream. So anyway, I ended up for the first, you know, kind of 15 years of my career operating in the faith based space and just coming to the conclusion that, all right, maybe I'm not going to reach kind of the pop culture mainstream, and that's OK, but I'm going to at least do my very best to make the faith based media world as good as it can be, or at least what I can do to make it as good as it can be. So that was that was part of my journey and those were the holes I was trying to fill in. They tended to change over a couple of years. I think my calling shifted a little bit. At least my understanding of what I wanted to do shifted a little bit until probably twenty six or seven when I really felt God calling me to not try to shift any of my content. I'm just going to be unashamed and, you know, do content that brings people closer to Christ that isn't trying to be cute or nuanced. While nuanced. I shouldn't say that I'm trying to be nuanced, but I'm saying it's not trying to apologize for its faith. Content is going to be unabashedly Faith-Based.
Henry Kaestner: So it's clear that you've got a creative drive, and we did talk a little bit later about this on the podcast on a focus on excellence, but I'm intrigued by the relationship that you have with your father. It's not often that an entrepreneur with a lot of vision and a passion gets started in a business with their dad, particularly one that's a creative one like yours is. What was that like? There must have been a view that he had of what society needed in the stories it needed to be told, and you must have had the same or the same general concept. But what was it like starting a business with your dad when your dad had already been creative and maybe you wanted to taking a different direction? And, you know, left behind has a stern view on some aspects of theology. And one of the things that comes through now through the work that you've done is a more holistic view by, of course, examining the Gospels with so much more that's in there. But what did that look like starting a business with your dad? And I shouldn't ask a leading question as to presume that there are differences because maybe there weren't but talked to us through that process.
Dallas Jenkins: Yeah, I wouldn't say there were strong differences much. I mean, I didn't have the same passion. I mean, left behind. We really wanted it to be a big movie that could really compete in the mainstream. We knew that it wasn't necessarily going to be a movie for nonbelievers too much, but we really wanted it to kind of really be out there and be high quality, and we thought that that wasn't going to happen. I think both of us had the same passion just to create something that felt like the kind of movie we would want to go see in theaters. And we didn't get there initially. I mean, we didn't. I don't think we accomplished that for a little while, but I think we had the same passion. I mean, my dad is a genuine movie buff. He sees almost everything. And we had the same taste, for the most part. But he recognized that he was hands off when it came to the content for the most part, I mean, he would speak into the storytelling, but he recognized that there's a big difference between writing books and making movies. And so that was really the only difference. Otherwise, he's always been extremely supportive and has always been on my page when it came to the kinds of movies that we wanted to make. So my dad and I have been very, very close. As long as I can remember, I mean, I think he was always my dad, of course. But when I got into college is when we became friends as well. And we've just always kind of had the same passion, the same desire to impact the world. We love the same Jesus. We read the same Bible and want to make Jesus known. In the most fascinating thing is the journey that I've been on, that he's been a part of and been able to watch in many ways to watch what has happening with the Chosen Today and how the left behind series came out 25 years ago. And to see it kind of follow a similar track, you know, to get out into pop culture relevance and to do that, it was not at all trying to be pop culture relevant. It was solely focused on like the left behind books were just solely focused on telling the story of the gospel in an interesting way, and that's what the chosen is trying to do. So that may be a scattered answer to your question, but I don't think we've ever really been in opposition to what our goals are, what our mission is.
Henry Kaestner: So as you look at taking on the gospel and you start off with some more general storytelling and then you get into like the greatest story ever told, I think about a staff meeting we had the other day. And William, who's about to come on here in a second, was talking about how powerful one of the episodes was that he's watching in season two. And one of the people that was on our staff, me said, Don't tell me what happens. And then he realized, actually, I know what happened, right? Because we all know the story. And yet the way that you're able to bring that out is done so well. And so it's a question of like, how do you do it? And you know, is there going to be something that's so memorable that creates this new shirt like, you know what we've got with season one, episode seven? Talk to us about that initial process, though, as you go ahead and say, we're going to take on the gospel. Was that like, super intimidating?
Dallas Jenkins: Well, that's a really good question. Yeah, I guess I have a bit of a superpower in that I don't really care about the response to my work other than I want to have impact. I want to impact people's hearts. And when I say I don't care, of course, I don't mean that in the arrogant sons. It just means that if I believe I'm doing the right thing, if I believe that God has called me to do something, and at that point, the train has left the station, so I'm not intimidated by it. I get excited by it. And I reached a point in my career shortly before the chosen, where I was genuinely OK with never making another movie because my movie failed. The movie that I had done, I had finally gotten to this place where Hollywood wanted to make movies with me, financed my movie, produced my movie The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, released in theaters. Everything was great. They wanted to make multiple movies with me over the next ten years. I was a director with a very bright future, and then my movie completely bombed. And in my lowest moment, confused wondering why God had allowed this to happen, wondering where my future was. I genuinely got to a place where I didn't feel responsible to feed the 5000. I only felt responsible to provide the loaves and fish. And so all I cared about was making my five loaves and two fish is good and healthy as they could be. And when I really got to that place mentally, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, all of that and I genuinely believed that all I cared about was that if I handed my loaves and fish to God and he deemed them worthy of acceptance, the transaction was over and I was comfortable with that. So. I wasn't intimidated by doing this because I was like, what have I got to lose? I mean, it's all gravy from here. I didn't expect any of this to work. I mean, I did a short film for my church's Christmas Eve service about the birth of Christ. From the perspective of the shepherds who was only going to be seen by my church. I shot it on my friend's farm in Illinois, 20 minutes from my house, and there was no pressure. And while I was making it, I had this idea for the show. And so then when the opportunity came to release the short film to the world and to ask if people wanted to crowdfund season one of a show about Jesus, I figured we'd raise, you know, fifteen hundred dollars. And when we ended up shattering the all time crowdfunding record and raising over $10 million from 19000 people. I'm like, What the heck is going on here? Like, OK, fine. Sure. All right, let's keep going. I haven't had time to be in Tim Keller. I've had time to stop and think about it. And every time I sit down at a blank screen, the blank screen for season three, which we're writing right now, doesn't give a crap about how successful season one was or how much people love season two or anything. I just haven't had time to care about those things. All I have time to do is make sure that what I'm doing is as good as it can be and as pleasing to God as it can be. So I'm not intimidated by the critiques that I've gotten. I don't. Every day I'm called a heretic or blasphemer or a cult leader, and then that doesn't bother me. And then every day, I'm also called by some people, the greatest filmmaker who ever lived in making the show that's changed their lives. And that doesn't impact me either, other than to just make me really humbled and grateful that I'm part of something that God is doing. So I hope I'm coming across OK because I don't mean to sound arrogant and I don't mean to sound condescending. It really just is a I feel like I'm playing with house money here. I know maybe a worldly gambling term isn't great for a spiritual experience like this, but I just don't like how I'm intimidated. I don't know this God's doing so many cool things. I just think it's really exciting and fun. So that's really what's been part of it for me.
William Norvell: I think that's amazing and that amazing perspective. I love how you said just like, yeah, it's just about offering the loaves and fishes and what God does with it. And that's every entrepreneur's journey, right? If you don't get to that point, if you don't find your identity there, you're going to find it and everything else, and that's always going to ultimately disappoint. And so I think,
Dallas Jenkins: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Go ahead. I'm reading a book right now called Billion Dollar Loser. It's about the rise and fall of WeWork, which was, you know, this unicorn company. And then it completely collapsed. And the founder, you know, collapsed and all that. And I'm early in the book, but I read a lot of books like that, you know, books about the rise or the rise and fall of certain entrepreneurs. And it strikes me that so many people seem to build companies with the goal in mind of, you know, changing the world. And I think we do that ministry to I think faith based ministries or faith based entrepreneurs tend to have the same kind of goal. And it's a good goal because you're thinking, what's wrong with wanting to change the world for Christ? The problem becomes when you are thinking about the result and when you are thinking about the number of people who are going to be impacted instead of thinking about the very first step that you're taking and make sure that it's grounded in what God wants from you. And I've read all about, you know, be bags, and I've read all about the five year plan and all of that. And you know, Sylvester's book me, myself and Bob, which is one of the top five books I've ever read. And for any entrepreneur, any business leader, any ministry person, anybody, I mean, I think it's great book for anybody. But if you want a book on a blow by blow account of what it looks like to rise and fall and rise and fall and be steered and go your own way and all this stuff, I mean, it is an extraordinary book. Phil Fisher, the creator of VeggieTales and he's the one who said Where you're at and five years is none of your business. And that is in the same universe as it's not your job to feed the 5000. It's only provide the loaves and fish. And when you truly get to that place and it's hard to get there, and sometimes you may have to fail to get there, but when you truly get to that place, I'm telling you it is life altering and freeing and exciting and not intimidating, and it makes the journey exciting and fun, regardless of whether you have success or not. I have been preaching the same message for the last three years, including before the chosen even existed. I was telling people I found joy, I found this freedom and that it's not my job to feed. The five thousand is only provide the lowest dish. I have no idea what's going to happen next, but I'm telling you I'm in a better place than I've ever been in my whole career, and I'm at my lowest point in my career. And that was before the chosen even existed
William Norvell: at this school. How did that play with your family, with your friends? So I'm hearing that and I'm inspired. I'm interested. I'm listening to entrepreneurs out there. Is that something that they heard and said, Yes, Amen. Or did they fight that? How did that message eventually take root? What was that? An encouragement discouragement? How did you walk that journey?
Dallas Jenkins: Well, that is a great question, and my family's involvement in this is really cool because there's an episode in. Season one of the chosen where Simon is home. Seven Peter and his wife, Eden, who's not explicitly discussed in scripture other than to say that Simon had a mother in law, but she is really upset at Simon because she can tell that he is straying from his faith. He's trying to do things his own way. He's trying to solve his own problems, and he ends up staying up all night, trying to solve his own problems, fishing all night and he can't catch a fish. And the next morning he encounters Jesus and Jesus. You know, does the miracle of the fish. It's a famous story in the Bible, and it fills two boats full of fish, and all Simon's problems are solved from a fishing standpoint, and then Jesus asks them to give up everything and follow him. So Simon comes home to his wife, and he has to explain to her why he's literally giving up everything and to follow Jesus and their earthly possessions might be in trouble because he doesn't have a source of income anymore, and he expects her to be really upset and she starts crying and he's like, Why are you upset? She's like, I'm not upset. This is the man that I married, and she gets emotional and she's like, This is what I wanted from you all along. And for my wife, Amanda, I wouldn't say she was necessarily. Wanting for me all along to not have a future in this business, she was just as crushed as I was. But when we were sitting there crying together. It's not a negative memory, but I get emotional thinking about it because we were home alone and just so confused and so broken, and God was pushing us to read the story of the feeding of the 5000, it was my wife who we pushed to read that story. And we were trying to figure out what he had for us in that story. At four o'clock in the morning when I was writing a 15 page memo on everything that had gone wrong and everything that I had done wrong and every choice that I had made that was wrong. And how could I avoid doing this again? You know, the mortem that most of us do after a success or failure and a man across the world who was in Romania, God laid it on his heart. Kal Dallas, it's not your job to feed the 5000. It's only to provide the loaves and fish, and he's like, really, god, that's what you want me to tell them. And it's like, Yes. And he told me that at four o'clock in the morning, just out of the blue, I put out a Facebook message and I. For a moment, I wondered if my computer had been recording what my wife and I had been talking about all day long is the feeling at five thousand. Yeah, exactly. Bill Gates has been tracking us all along. So then he says, Yeah, it wasn't me. God just wanted me to tell you that. So my wife was completely on this track of we don't know the future, but we just want to be in God's will. One hundred percent. One hundred percent. And then I resigned from my job for lots of different reasons. I was working at this church and there was a scandal and it was all a big deal. And so I resigned from my job and didn't have income, didn't have benefits, just had this hope that the chosen would in fact crowdfund millions of dollars so that we could make a multi-season show about Jesus based on a short film I did on my friend's farm. None of it made sense, but my kids were certainly confused and a little nervous, and we sat them down and we said, Here's what God we feel is leading us to do, and we are not going to have benefits. And yes, a month into our not having benefits, we had gotten this Christian Health Care Ministry. We had applied for that. This called Samaritan Ministries. And I'm not trying to do a plug for them, but it's one of those ministries where you, you know, everything is self-pay and and it's not official health insurance. And that's what we were doing us all we had and that's what we were able to afford. And I didn't have I didn't have a job, so I wasn't on a health plan. And within the first couple of months, we had more health problems than we'd had in the previous 20 years combined literally $100000 worth of things from like me having a appendectomy to my daughter shattering her collarbone. I mean, everything went crazy and I didn't have a job, and we just sat our kids out here like we believe that the church is going to provide. We believe God is going to come through and let's just walk through this together. And it's been so cool to watch my kids get a front row seat to not only God showing up for our own family, you know, and through this amazing Christian Health Care Ministry taking care of everything. But to see the chosen do what it's doing and every now and then when I'm able to read to them someone saying my entire family has been transformed because of this show or someone in Iran saying, because you've done this show and because you guys have made it free and because you know, you've put it on an app, I mean, a country hostile to Christianity, and I was able to download it and save my soul. I'm able to read that to the kids and go to remember three years ago, it was just three years ago when we were sitting at the table and had no idea what our future holds. I encourage people to when they are in God's will or when they are following a spiritual path as opposed to just doing it on their own. I encourage them to include your children in that process so that when God provides that, it may not be financial, it may not be physical. But when he shows up and you see the consequences and the results by consequences, I mean, in a good way of surrendering to God and not caring about earthly success, it can be a really beautiful thing for your family to experience.
William Norvell: Hmm. Hey, man, thank you for sharing that. I imagine lots of entrepreneurs that have felt similar feelings and been in that moment because as we know, this is not a journey where everything works. You know, obviously, I don't think we have time to go into the whole story, but you mentioned pieces of it. I've heard you talk before. I think people could look at the success that you get. Wow, viral hit. You know, he did it. And you know, really, your story's more of a 15 20 year overnight success of a long obedience to the same direction. And I think you even met Jonathan Rumi. Wasn't he one of the thieves in your short video? Yeah, you had met him years before even God was sort of riding that path.
Dallas Jenkins: Yeah. So Jonathan Rumi, who plays Jesus in the chosen play Jesus for me eight years ago when I was doing short films and vignettes for my church, I was doing it for Good Friday services. And I did one about the crucifixion of Christ to the eyes of the two thieves on the cross. Jonathan played Jesus. He was only on screen for about five minutes and I thought, My goodness, this is the best depiction of Christ they've ever seen. Like his performance, I just loved it. And then we started doing it each year for Good Friday. And so when I had the opportunity to make the show, he was obviously the first person cast. But yeah, I'm telling you, sometimes it's easy for people to go well, yeah. Viral hit. It's easy for you to say now that you just trusted God, you just submit to do as well. And then, look, now you've got this international success and everything seems to be going well. I'm just telling you, I was giving the same message when I had no job. I mean, I remember I gave a speech to a Christian film festival and I was speaking to 750 people and was sharing the story of how God had worked in my failure. And I got up and I said, Look, I can't give you much advice on filmmaking right now because I coming off of my biggest career failure. And the only thing I just did a couple of weeks ago was a short film for my church. But the. Birth of Christ. So all I'm just telling you is I have more joy than I've ever had, and I understand how God works more than I ever have. And you know, I feel like my whole career I've been seeking the wrong thing. I think I've been trying to be approved by Hollywood. I've been trying to be successful. I've been trying to be impactful. I've been thinking about the results and now I'm in this place where I don't. I just I don't care about that anymore as long as I'm going to God what he wants from me. And I think it's two years later, I came back to that same festival. And it's like, funny story since I talked to you last time, look at what's happened. And they were they had already known they'd seen it, they'd seen the results. It was just so cool for the people at that festival, for my family, for friends to see this journey and to see what it looks like to be broken by God and to be surrendered to him and to not care anymore what your results look like. And then the cool thing to see what happens next and it won't happen for everybody, you know, at least in terms of the results financial of the results being successful. But I do believe that there's freedom and joy in that.
William Norvell: It's amazing. And I want to switch to one thing we haven't touched on much. You had the greatest crowdfunding campaign in history. Talk us through a little bit of that. Why did you do crowdfunding? Why was that the decision? Right? I mean, there were lots of different ways to fund this operation. You've been making movies. You had tons of connections. Why? Why did you go this direction and kind of what have been the results of it?
Dallas Jenkins: Well, I didn't have tons of connections at the time because the movie that I'd made it failed. So all the companies had wanted to make future movies with me, you know, backed out, and I didn't have much of a future. So the crowdfunding idea certainly wasn't my idea. I thought it was ridiculous and I didn't think it would work. You know, typically, the all time crowdfunding record was $5.7 million from projects like Mystery Science Theater. 3000, which had big crowds already behind them, had a big fan base, and I was coming off of a career failure, and our Facebook page that we started for the show had a couple of hundred people and it just friends and family. And it was Angel Studios, the company that saw my short film were blown away by it, heard my idea for the show really wanted to do it. And they said, We want to raise the money through crowdfunding, and I was like, Oh, that's ridiculous. Now, crowdfunding doesn't work. You usually see it on social media. People are trying to raise money for some small project or some little thing that they're doing for their friends. And you never see the bar get all the way to the end because they never quite raise enough money. And I'm like, We need a few million to do a show like this to do it right. And the all time record is 5.7 million. When the world are, we think it's going to happen. But I was in this loaves and fishes state where I'm like, Well, it's not my job to worry about. That's not my job to feed the 5000 that bringing my loaves and fish, my loaves and fish happened to be a short film on my friend's farm in Illinois. So, you know, we'll see what happens. And then I think what happened was, you know, because people have asked me, Well, how did you do it? You know? What's the secret sauce? And I think the secret sauce is you do have to have, you know what we would call a proof of concept. And now our proof of concept, for whatever reason, was guttural, impacting people. I mean, the people, the 19000 people who invested, some of whom I mean the minimum was $100. And some people said, and I've never done this before. They don't even have hundred dollars typically to put into something like this. But when they watch the short film, something about it compelled them. They just felt like when they watched it, something happened. Something supernatural happened, probably. And they just thought I had to contribute. I had to be involved in this. God was just like hitting me with a sledgehammer. And I don't know why that is. You know, I don't think I'm someone special who I don't think I'm capable of doing something transcendent. And I think God had something to say. You know, I hesitate to say things like that because I don't want to claim spiritual authority, but it sure does feel like God is doing something. And the proof is in the fact that through the show, people are reading their Bibles more than ever. People are praying more than ever. We're just hearing that over and over again. And I think, OK, that seems to be the proof text that God has something to say and want something to happen as opposed to just doing it on my own, if that makes sense.
Henry Kaestner: At the outset, you talked about the fact that there are 19000 or there were 19000 that were involved in the crowdfunding, and there's something really powerful about that and it hits home for me because we've run a ministry called Faith Driven Investor and Faith Driven Investor. So much of what we do there tends to be focused on the qualified purchaser or the accredited investor. And yet we know that it was the what owner might that really had the gift that really mattered to God. And what crowdfunding means to me is that faith driven investing doesn't need to just be the purview of the rich young ruler. It's something that can now be democratized as somebody that received money investment money from 19000 people. Can you just speak to that? A little bit more about what that means for you as you get out there and you rally the crew together and you focus on, let's go ahead and let's produce some more. What does it mean for you to have that many people rooting for you with real skin in the game?
Dallas Jenkins: Yeah, that's such a great point. Yeah, I've talked about in that first round that we did for season one out of the 19000 people. There was one who invested $300000. There were a few others who did 100000, several who did 50000. The ones that meant the most to us and that were the most humbling. Like, we got one investment of two hundred and fifty two dollars. You know, clearly that woman she was from the Midwest, that was kind of the last of her disposable income for the month, you know, because it was such a specific figure. That meant as much or more than the gentleman who gave $300000. We think about that often, you know, we think about the people who are paying our salaries. I think there's something really special about that. And when we got investors, you started to approach us and say, you know, we think we can get $30 million for you to do the next couple seasons and not have to worry about raising money all the time because it doesn't stop there. Once we start doing season one, if we want to do future seasons, we have to continue to crowdfund. And this is a whole nother story of our decision to make the show totally free. But when we made the show totally free and now have to rely on people choosing to pay it forward if they want to, you know they don't have to. We don't force them. The show is totally free, but to keep the show going, they need to pay it forward if they so choose. And so we still have to pitch if for lack of a better term, our future seasons. And so yet when people came forward and said we want to invest, we just didn't feel right about it. We didn't want to diminish the share value of the nineteen thousand. It's what keeps us up at night is making sure that we are honoring their faith in us. I mean, and they did that based on this short film that I did. They didn't know if the show was going to be any good. They didn't know it was going to be what it is. And I would say every single one that I've met has said, I don't care about the return. I don't care about the financial gain of it. If there is any, I'll probably just put it back into the show and now their investment. I mean, we have done a valuation, a hardcore valuation, but their investment is probably worth five to ten times what they put in. The widow's mite is going to return to them in a significant way. And there's just something really beautiful about it, like you said, and it does remind me every day, you know, gosh, this is just something that we can never take for granted that our financiers are people who are not the kind of people who you'd normally expect. There's a few of them, of course, but that's not why they did. It is to make money. And that's just so cool.
William Norvell: I mean, yeah, we are some version of that family. Our listeners may know I'm living with my in-laws right now, and we have lots of DVDs of the shows in here, and I'm not sure we have a DVD player. It is in the pay it forward mentality of my father in law just keeps buying them because he so wants to hand it to other people to let them know the story that you're telling. And yes, this is not a promotional, but I'm going to promote it. The story of the disciples. I'll let you tell it. Tell us a little bit. Give us a couple of minutes as we come to a close on why you chose to tell, like so intricate stories of the disciples and kind of their interactions with Jesus.
Dallas Jenkins: Yeah, I believe that if you can see Jesus through the eyes of those who actually met him, you can be changed and impacted in the same way that they were. If you can truly connect with one or more of our main characters, whether it's Simon, Peter and his desperate attempts to provide for his family while being oppressed by the Romans and overtaxed and financially struggling. Matthew, the tax collector or someone who we portray as being on the autism spectrum and who is an outcast because he's hated by the Jews for being a tax collector and disrespected by the Romans for being Jewish. Mary Magdalene, who's oppressed by demons, has vices, has addictions, has fallen away completely from her faith. Nicodemus, a lifelong religious believer and leader, even someone who knows the scriptures and who is now coming face to face with something and someone who is turning his world upside down and wants a personal relationship with him, something he's never had. If you can identify with their struggles, if you can identify with their questions, then you can hopefully identify with the answers to their questions and the solution to their struggles. And that's why we take the time that we do. I mean, the first episode of season one, if you haven't seen it yet, it's been confusing for a lot of people, especially Christians. Non-Christians seem to have no problem with it. Because they watch it like they do any other show. Christians are like, wait a minute, what versus this based on? I don't recognize this Bible verse. Who's that guy? Where's Jesus? I thought this was a Jesus show because we take the time to show you who these people are before they encounter Jesus. We take the time to establish their personal lives or personalities, their struggles, their story arc. And I think that's what makes the show unique. And I think that's what makes season by season shows unique multi-season shows as the characters. You really want to fall in love with these people so that you can engage with them over the course of multiple seasons. And so I just think that's good television. I think that when you just take the time to really develop a story arc and a character arc and a journey for all of these people, it's just that much more engaging than if you're just strictly plot driven. Or in the case of the Jesus show, you're just going verse to verse Bible, verse, the Bible, verse, miracle to miracle, and you don't get a chance to understand or know anybody who is the recipient of these miracles. So there's really no emotional connection. There's not much you can learn from it. You're just basically watching a reenactment of something you've already read. And I think that's what sets our show apart and can sometimes be uncomfortable for people. You know, sometimes people are like, Wait a minute, that's not in the Bible. You're not supposed to add to the Bible, what are you doing? And we just have to remind people, this isn't the Bible. Your Bible hasn't changed since the show came out. This is a historical drama based on the people of first century Galilee, with using the Bible as their primary source of truth. And I think that that has been what has unlocked for people. So many of these stories and we hear constantly the Bible once one person said something we really loved. I felt like the Bible was in black and white, and now it feels like it's in color. And it's not because we've changed anything. It's just because they've now, for some reason are understanding it better and being able to picture it now so that when they do read the Bible, it feels more alive than they did before they they understood it like they are now. So that's a long answer to your question. I'm sorry, most of my answers have been long, but but that's the why. That's the reason is we want people to be more engaged when they read scripture Amen.
William Norvell: Now it's a perfect answer. And you know, I can think of so many scenes from the wedding scene that I now see differently to the unbelievably dramatic conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus to the latest episode five where my brother texted me it got real. You got to watch it now. And, you know, unfortunately, we have to come to a close here, which means we may have to beg you for before
Henry Kaestner: we do that for you, I
William Norvell: might get a producer come in. We're not. No, I'm
Henry Kaestner: not the executive producer. But I have a question that I love yet. It's really very clearly it's not all of it's not scripture. Anybody who's read scripture in the Gospels knows that some of the dialog you have is not part of the canon, right? And yet, because this is a tool that helps people to understand the God who loves them so much, you have decided to broaden these characters out so that people now watching it might be able to identify with them. But that's some pretty heavy stuff, right? To be able to actually think about who this, you know, upon this rock, I'm going to build my church. I mean, this is Peter. I mean, he's not supernatural and self, but I mean, he's a pretty major historical figure, an incredible figure in the early church. And you're endeavoring to understand what he look like, how he dressed and just the things that he wrestled with. What's the process? You go by to just pray about that, to think about that, and then you're the guy now who's, you know, kind of defining for a lot of people what these Bible characters look like. How do you stay humble and all that? And that's two questions the first good podcast host. I want to ask two questions all at once, but I'm trying to squeeze them in at the end. I'd love for you to go on a little mini recession on that, if you can.
Dallas Jenkins: Yeah, that is the scariest part. But I remember several years ago I was in Israel doing the research for the show, and I was in Magdalen, which is the birthplace of Mary Magdalene, and I was at a synagogue that had been on Earth. You know, just two decades earlier, they had found this synagogue under the Earth that had existed for 20 years. And I felt God laying it on my heart, and I don't say that lightly. I say that with actually trepidation because, you know, how do you ever know fully that it's God and not your own brain? And I didn't hear an audible voice, but I felt God laying it on my heart that in several years, when people picture these disciples and Christ followers that the chosen is going to be what they have in their mind. And there hasn't been up until now a definitive portrayal of these people like I didn't have before the chosen, I didn't have a picture in my mind of anybody other than Jesus, occasionally from a few movies. And you know, at the time when I felt, God blame it on my heart, I don't know, you know, of course, at the time, I wasn't sure if that was really God or just kind of my own thoughts. And I just thought, Wow, that's really weighty, and I feel the weight of that and the pressure of that. But I felt also God kind of letting me know I'm not going to let you screw this up. This is going to be this is too important. And flash forward to now, and I hear every day someone will post on social media or send a note or something that says, this is who I picture when I picture the followers of Christ. And that is extraordinarily humbling because it makes you on one hand, you go along, that's really cool. On the other hand, you go, Oh my goodness, I really need to be cautious. And we try to be cautious. But you mentioned episode five just now. You know, someone said it's got real. Well, we made the choice to portray Mary Magdalen, who's been delivered from demon possession. We made the choice of her to to backslide, to show her getting triggered by multiple things and backsliding and relapsing, basically. And if you haven't seen episode five yet, I guess that's a spoiler, but we give hints of it in the trailer and all that stuff. The Mary struggling. And for a lot of people, not the majority, but a lot of people really uncomfortable to really upset by it. Some people offended enough to claim they're not going to watch the show anymore. And that decision took place on the front end. That's where the prayer comes in. That's where the consulting with our Bible experts and my pastor and, you know, our cultural and historical experts and biblical experts to go. Are we because we're doing something that's not in scripture, which is most of the show, really, if you think about it, if you just do the math. Ninety five percent of the show is probably not directly from scripture, because every time we show someone saying hello, it's not from scripture, because scripture didn't have anyone saying hello. So we're always walking a fine line. We're always having to be really cautious in making sure that we never violate the intentions or character of Jesus or the Gospels. So it is a lot of work on the front end to make sure that we're staying within certain boundaries and making sure we're not violating the character intentions. But then once we do it, I mean, there's really no turning back. So the criticism is kind of what we expect anyway. We know it's going to happen at some point from somebody. I'm sure even you as a fan of the show, if you haven't already, you will have moments where you go. I would have done it that way or that doesn't feel like the Jesus or the Peter or the Mary or whatever that I've read in the Gospels. I'm sure that's going to happen, but hopefully. We just look at this as a this is a show that is attempting to be plausible, but it's not a documentary he doesn't claim to be scripture where is doing the best we can to portray plausibly an authentic version of what would have happened in these people's lives during this time. So, yeah, it is a great weight and responsibility, but it's also really fun, to be honest with you.
William Norvell: Am I allowed to go to the close now? Let me think about it. Yeah, I'm just going to close. I'm just waiting. I'm just waiting. You know, we're we're still in more Dallas this time, and that's Crowd-Funding time. You know, he's got things to do. Dallas will
Henry Kaestner: make it up to him then and make sure that you alluded the fact that he's still doing crowd funding for season three, making it while
William Norvell: he is I, you know, and you can buy hats, you can buy shirts. I've got the hat on now you can buy DVDs or you can just give money and not profit off of it like I did, and I'm sure that that would probably go further. That's probably his preference. But we are so grateful for your time. The number one thing we like to do at the end is try to bridge our audience and our guest and through the word of God. And so we love to ask at the end, you know, if you wouldn't mind sharing something that God has taken you through, you've told us so much. But just maybe it could be something you came out today could be something you've been meditating on for a while. Just just where does God have you in his word today?
Dallas Jenkins: Yeah. I've already shared, I think, quite a lot of what God has shown me through this project, and I think that number one thing is the whole story of the feeding of the 5000. I want to read a verse that has become my life verse over the last five or six years, and it's Psalm. Thirty four five. And it says those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. And I think that's just so much in that verse. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. I can think of all the time that I've been ashamed in my life, and it's never been what I've been looking at. God. It's always been because I've been looking at myself. I've been inward focused. I've been lusting. I've been seeking fleshly desires. But when I look to God. And of course, now being in the presence of God can shame you in the sense that you feel human and you feel sinful. But when you're really looking to God for your guidance, when you're looking to him for your fulfillment, when you're looking to him for your identity. And that's the path that you are taking. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall not be ashamed. That's where we need to be on a day to day basis are looking to him. That's where we're going to find radiance. And that's what we're going to find that lack of shame because shame comes from being alone and doing things that you wouldn't be doing if you were looking to him. So that's been, I think, a life first for me for a while now.
William Norvell: I met a man, well, I don't think we cannot thank you enough for joining us here today and sharing the story and for just all the work you do and how faithfully you go about it and just grateful for your team and everybody tune in if you haven't.
Henry Kaestner: That was. Thank you.
Dallas Jenkins: Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.