TV and film director Dallas Jenkins has forever etched a name for himself in Hollywood history with his record-breaking creation of “The Chosen,” the Jesus-themed series that has taken the world by storm.
But Jenkins recently recognized another dream of his: bringing author Barbara Robinson’s 1972 novel “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” to the big screen. The film by the same name, which released Nov. 8 in theaters nationwide, was very literally an answer to Jenkins’ long-uttered prayers.
The director recently appeared on “Higher Ground With Billy Hallowell” to share how his faith and the power of prayer led to some truly incredible events and, ultimately, the making of that film.
According to Jenkins, he simply felt called by God to make the movie.
“The difference between my own desire and God’s desire … one of the best tests of that is … when you first have an idea or … something God puts on your heart, and if it just doesn’t let go of you … I think that’s one of the best signs that it could be a calling from God,” Jenkins said. “And there’s others as well.”
He said he immediately knew after reading the novel that he was “born to make this movie.”
Hear Jenkins share the powerful story:
“I just said, ‘I believe this is a movie that I was born to make,’” Jenkins said.
He immediately began reaching out to the rights holders to share his vision and heart for the movie, but he soon discovered they were already working with another studio.
Jenkins was saddened but undissuaded.
“Every year, I would check in,” he said. “Every year, I would bug them, and every year the answer was the same.”
During that time, Jenkins also did something else: he created a recurring calendar reminder on his phone and laptop that included just three words: “Pray for Pageant.” It was a reminder for him to take time each and every week to pray for God to open a pathway to make the movie.
“I’d love to tell you that I prayed the holy prayer of, ‘Whatever God’s will is, I’ll be happy with,’” he quipped. “I was praying against this movie being made by anyone else. I was praying that God would let me have it, and I’m being a little lighthearted, but, ultimately, I really did believe God was putting this on my heart.”
After five years, Jenkins found out the studio looking to make “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” wasn’t working out. Sadly, though, yet another big studio jumped into the mix, once again axing his ability to get the rights to the film.
“I went and told my wife, and we were so upset, and we had tears in our eyes,” Jenkins recapped. “And I really felt like it was over, and I went to my computer to sit down and get some work done and, ‘ping,’ [the calendar invite pops up] taunting me, ‘Pray for Pageant.’”
He continued, “And what are the odds? What are the odds? … I grabbed the mouse, I moved the cursor up to the delete button, and I was gonna delete this prayer prompt, because I said, ‘I can’t do it anymore. I can’t keep getting my hopes up. If this isn’t for me, I need to stop.’”
But Jenkins said he felt God telling him not to click the delete button and to keep hoping.
“I wanted to delete it and God just wouldn’t let me,” he said, noting that he opted to once again pray.
Jenkins was already working on “The Chosen” at that time, with the series quickly blowing up into a phenomenon. Still, his thirst to make “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” progressed.
Eventually, he reached back out to the rights owners and learned the film was again stalled. And that’s when the story truly gets interesting.
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“He says, ‘You know what, Dallas? It’s kind of a funny coincidence you reached out, ’cause just last week, the studio forgot to renew the rights. We got them back. They’re asking us to renew, but we haven’t been happy. They’ve been taking too long. And just a couple of days ago, my mom reached out to me and said, ‘Have you seen this show called ‘The Chosen?’ and I said, ‘Oh, that’s funny, the creator of the show is always bugging me to watch it, and always bugging me for the rights to this movie.’”
The rights holder’s mother, upon hearing this, told her son to give Jenkins the rights and the rest is, well, history. Jenkins was granted the rights, the film was made, and it has now grossed more than $25 million at the box office.
Jenkins believes it’s a remarkable testament to the power of prayer, trust, and God’s timing.
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