Dallas Jenkins, creator of "The Chosen," spoke to the BYU campus community about the importance of submitting to God’s will on Oct. 29.
Jenkins shared how it was not until he was 40 that he learned that his success came by trusting God in times of failure.
To illustrate how he achieved his current success, Jenkins shared about his journey to become a movie producer.
As a young boy, he wanted to be a well-known Hollywood figure. He was motivated by winning awards and being legitimized.
When his movie, "The Resurrection of Gavin Stone," was released in Jan. 2017, it bombed, he said.
Jenkins said he felt that he had gone from being a director with a bright future to a director with no future.
Jenkins said he was up until 4 a.m. analyzing what went wrong with the production. While still awake, a Facebook message from a friend came in on his computer screen.
“Remember it’s not your job to feed the 5,000, it’s only to provide the loaves and fish,” the message read.
When he asked his friend why they had sent him that message, the friend said that God put it in his heart.
Jenkins said he learned that God put him in that place of failure to grow and had a future prepared for him.
“At that moment, all I cared about was God’s will,” Jenkins said.
Over time, Jenkins said he got himself to a place where for the first time in his life, he was truly satisfied with whatever God wanted him to do.
He decided to return to create a short video for his church about the birth of Christ. Although it seemed small compared to his previous efforts, Jenkins said this eventually inspired his idea for "The Chosen."
Jenkins shared that he felt a series like "The Chosen" was valuable because it provided emotional connections that Bible reenactment videos sometimes lack. Angel Studios approached him with an offer that would be funded through crowdsourcing.
Seven years later, Jenkins said that the show has become very successful.
Whether in success or failure, Jenkins encouraged listeners to bring their figurative loaves and fishes to Christ so He can work the miracles.