In today’s episode, we delve deep with Chad Gundersen, co-creator of The Chosen, to explore the challenges and triumphs of producing a show that’s transforming the perception of Jesus in media. Chad offers a unique look into the making of the show, sharing personal anecdotes and insights into how divine inspiration and a commitment to follow God’s whispered dreams have led to groundbreaking success. This is a must-listen for aspiring dreamers and creators who seek to align their work with their faith.
Welcome, everyone, to The Calling’s radio show to all the dreamers. I’m your radio host, Chrysandra Brinson, founder and CEO of The Calling. It is such an honor to be with all of you today. You know, at The Calling, we have realized that so many people are afraid to go after the dreams that God has put inside each one of our hearts. because they are afraid to fail. And that’s just plain wrong, because if God has given us a dream and we’re not living it out, we are wasting it and we do not want to die with regret. That’s why we love to inspire, empower, and equip people to live out God’s dream on their lives to reap the best harvest of a long-lasting legacy and have immediate impact on their families and communities. We are thrilled to do this through custom programs and giving tools of confidence through conferences, seminars, speaking engagements, as well as this radio program to all the dreamers and having incredible guests like we do today, having the one and only Chad. And Chad, thank you so much for coming on here. And Chad, I should have asked this earlier, but how do we say your last name correctly?
CHAD GUNDERSON :
Gundersen. Yeah, we’re Danish, not German. So we’re a bunch of Vikings. So thank you for having me.
CHRYSANDRA :
Yes, we’re so glad to have you, Chad. And we are just honored. I think a lot of people have already heard your name and it sounds so familiar. But for those that have and just need a little bit of an introduction, can you just share with us your roles just as a husband and a father and what Jesus has you leading right now?
CHAD GUNDERSON :
Well, thank you. Yeah, so I am a father. I have two amazing children. My son, Kai, is 17, and my daughter, Kinley, is 13, going on 25. And they are awesome. And then I have my beautiful, lovely wife, Amanda. We are going on 19 years being married. and we live in a small town, Texas. But within that same note, what I do for a living is by no means a small town, Texas. I produce movies and television. My production company is called Out of Order Studios. My business partner, Chris June, and I started that company about seven years ago now, but I’ve been in the industry for about 25 years. And I would say the the largest thing on my plate right now, I am myself and Chris are the producers of the TV show The Chosen. So that that takes up the majority of my time now is producing that amazing show.
CHRYSANDRA :
And you guys just have the most golden of hearts. And it’s just been so neat to be able to see how God has just dropped this right into your lap. You know, I think that God just allows us to be able to hear his heart on what his dreams are for humanity. And he gives us a whisper. And it’s because he trusts us to be able to live it out. And so, yeah. Thank you to you and Chris for being so obedient to do that and to start this only seven years ago and now to be producing The Chosen. Can you just tell us like a few of the statistics, Chad, just the most recent ones of the impact that it’s having on humanity right now?
CHAD GUNDERSON :
Sure. Well, The Chosen is kind of a first of its kind. It’s a TV show about the life of Christ. So it’s the first TV show on the life of Christ. There’s been movies and kind of miniseries and things like that. But this is going to be a seven season TV show on the life of Christ. We are also the largest crowdfunded media project of all time. And when Dallas brought the project to me years ago, we kind of joked and said, yeah, we’re going to try to crowdfund this. Crowdfunding never works, so this probably won’t work. And here we are getting ready to start season four. We just finished season three. And season three, episode one and two is currently in theaters. And we have broken many box office records for something small and independent like this. We’re the largest Fathom event ever. And so Fathom obviously has been an amazing partner through that process. But, you know, a TV show going into theaters is not very common. So that in itself is a big thing. And God just continues to bless and do just crazy things that honestly are We just, we don’t understand it. And I would say one of our biggest little sayings right now is, Lord, please don’t let us screw this up. Whatever you’re doing with the show, continue to do and just let us do our part and be obedient and continue to push forward.
CHRYSANDRA :
It’s been awesome. Chad, Dallas came to you and how did he present the project to you? Were you excited about it or what did you think about it?
CHAD GUNDERSON :
Actually, no, no, we weren’t. So Dallas and I, we actually go, we go quite a ways back. His first directed film was my first produced film. And this was almost 20 years ago, around 2005 or so, a film called Midnight Clear. And that’s how Dallas and I got connected. And funny enough, we haven’t worked together since that show. Now we’ve stayed in touch over the years. What are you doing? What are you working on? You know, we got to find something to do together and just never connected. It wasn’t like we didn’t want to, we just couldn’t. couldn’t find the right project for whatever reason. And then I guess it would have been late 2017. Dallas was basically kind of a media director for a large church up in the Chicagoland area. And he had literally made a short film for his church’s Christmas Eve service. And it’s called The Shepherd, which obviously has now kind of been our unofficial pilot to the entire Chosen. Well, that short film kind of caught the attention of some other folks. And these other folks were like, hey, We’d love to kind of look at a crowdfunding opportunity here or option here of turning this into a TV series, which was a vision of Dallas was doing a TV series about the life of Christ, but told more from the perspective of people like the disciples and Mary Magdalene and his mother and some of the Pharisees and things like that, which obviously if you’ve seen the show, you kind of know that that’s kind of the process that we do. And so after that short film had done so well, he did. He called me up and said, hey, there’s this group, which was Angel Studios, which is, you know, a big part of the show distributor for the show. They want to do this crowdfunding thing. And he did kind of laugh and he goes, that’s probably not going to work. I mean, you know, we’ve all seen crowdfunding projects. They never really work. I mean, even me personally. crowdfund, help me out. And I’m like, look, if I gave to every crowdfund project I was approached with, I’d be broke. Cause I just couldn’t keep up with them all. I even, I had kind of a rule of like, I don’t do crowdfunding. I love you. I’ll support you. I’ll promote you. I’ll do all those things. But if, even if I gave 10 bucks to every one of them, I’d just be broke. And so, um, so we kind of joked and we’re just like, yeah, it probably won’t work. Well, that turned into raising over $10 million to help us make season one. And we became the largest crowdfunded project ever in the history of crowdfunded media. I think the largest at that point was about five or six million. And those were on shows that had massive followings and huge fan bases. And obviously we have the Bible, so we have a pretty big fan base. And that turned into season one. And then it just kind of continued to grow and just continued to just do the weirdest, craziest, wackiest things of how we distribute it and how we came to the decision to give the show away for free, which is a big, big thing for us that the show will always be free on our platform or somewhere. Um, even in the midst of doing a theatrical release or, you know, we’re out now we’re on all major platforms. We’re on Netflix, Amazon prime Peacock, obviously our own app is the biggest place. And so, so the show is just everywhere. Um, and, uh, season three will continue to release and, uh, and we’re moving into season four pretty soon.
CHRYSANDRA :
Oh, my gosh. This is so exciting. And so there’s so much that we want to know about the chosen. But we first we want to know about you and just your amazing heart. Just when you were little, how did you know that this this is obviously what God has called you to do? This is your God given dream. And when you were little, how can you see God just starting to pour into your life? little boy’s heart just these dreams and these aspirations for what would to come what would be
CHAD GUNDERSON :
Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s so funny and it’s even how you and I got connected. I mean, I can’t tell you how much I preach chase your dreams. I mean, every, I speak all the time and I get asked to do things and it is my, even sitting in a living room talking with people about just the show or, or just, or whatever. And my wife gets onto me all the time. I literally just did this yesterday where people will reach out to me and just want to meet and have coffee or whatever. And my wife’s like, you can’t spend all your time just having random copies of people. but I love to hear people’s dreams. I love to encourage them. I mean, because I mean, and even as part of your intro, when you said, you know, the comment about failing, I mean, I am such a huge fan of failing. Right. And I say that in a, in a positive way, I say that in a way of, I have failed way more than I’ve ever succeeded, obviously. And to be honest with you, I think if you look at my, many people that have succeeded at whatever level, most likely their story will entail more failures than successes. Right. And even kind of like talking, you know, Michael Jordan has different quotes and stuff, how he’s missed more shots that he’s made and he got cut from his high school basketball team and just all these things. Right. And so, so I just love that process and be honest with you looking back and you don’t see a lot of things when you’re growing up, but when you look back, you can kind of go, Oh, oh, God was doing that there and God was doing this here. And I was, I was kind of that kid that I didn’t like to be told that I couldn’t and kind of overcame, you know, various things and not like hardships. I mean, we definitely grew up Yeah, I would. Honestly, we grew up poor. I know we grew up poor, but we grew up poor just because I have amazing parents and they just kind of, you know, full of love and a great household. And, you know, God was always present and all those things. But but looking back and especially within this industry, I never saw myself getting into this industry. um in college i was a biology major coming out of high school i played sports in high school and played sports in college and um in sports medicine is what i wanted to do and it was honestly kind of the goal that i had um and honestly i was well on my way you know school and biology major and all these things but while i was in college um i basically i had done a lot of theater and stuff growing up so i had done some acting and print work and you know and things different things like that. But again, never really thought of it as a career. I was even a projectionist at a movie theater when I was 15. So I see all these things of God kind of going, I’m preparing you for what’s to come. And so then in college, God just kind of slapped me. I mean, it was just one of those, wait a minute, you want me to do what? Like, do you want me to make movies? And so literally I remember after a long story there, but I had quit sports, come home. I was playing sports out in California, playing football and volleyball out in California. And obviously when you quit sports, the money disappears. And so that was a big moment with God of, am I really supposed to be here? Why am I here? All those kinds of things.
CHRYSANDRA :
And I remember-
CHAD GUNDERSON :
I love it. I love it. Of course.
CHRYSANDRA :
We’re right in the middle of this story because we’re figuring out how God led you into your dream and how you have always been God’s dreamer. We thank everyone for tuning into all the dreamers radio show. We are here with Chad Gunderson. He is lead producer of the chosen and we are so excited for him to be on with us. Stay tuned. Twist and shout with Lee & Co. They are the premier oldies band delivering the rock and roll vibes you’ve been missing. Great songs, great memories. Book them at LeeAndCo.com. Hi guys, this is Chrysandra Brunson, host of To All The Dreamers. I am so happy to introduce personal training, nutritional guidance, and behavioral change coaching. Healthy, happy, and heavenly for your wellness, spirit, soul, and body. Contact Mimi Kroger at healthyhappyandheavenly.com. Continue to grow in the calling God has for you through ORU online.
CHAD GUNDERSON :
You can earn your degree without changing your busy schedule. 100% online and 100% on your time. Learn more today, oru.edu slash calling.
CHRYSANDRA :
At Ignite Brilliance Coaching, you will get 34 years of science teaching, a decade of university-level instruction, and over 10 years of instructional coaching to empower educators with the tools, mindset, and confidence to thrive. Contact Ignite Brilliance Coaching on Facebook. We are back. Thank you for tuning in to all the Dreamers radio show. I’m your host, Chrysandra Brunson, and we have the one and only Chad Gunderson on with us, producer of The Chosen and God’s Dreamer. And we are right in the middle of the most amazing story. And I’m so sorry to pause you, Chad, but you were just telling us about being in sports and this journey of going after dreams. How God led you to go after your calling?
CHAD GUNDERSON :
Yeah, so I was playing sports out in California. And while I was there, I actually ended up being an extra in a couple of pretty big movies out there in Hollywood. And so I remember sitting on set going, oh, people do this for a living, right? Like I never really thought about the filmmaking process as a living. And that was kind of the start. So kind of fast forward, I quit sports. Of course, money disappears. Came back home, was going to go down to Texas A&M with my brother and continue to study biology down there. But I was a transfer student at that point, not a new student. So and I was one credit short of being a transfer student to get to A&M. So I ended up going to a college closer to home, University of North Texas. And University of North Texas is a big liberal arts school. It’s like the number one jazz school in the world. Huge theater department, film department, all those kinds of things. And literally my first semester there, I got cast in like five of the student films. So I got thrown into their film department and just started doing that. Right. And so, again, still a biology major. I literally didn’t switch to a film degree until my senior year. and so started literally in college i think i was 19 i started my first company and a friend of mine and i he was more of a writer director and i was the actor and we just started landing these kind of cool local commercials music videos for local bands things like that and And he was the writer director and I was the actor. I was the guy holding the burrito or the voiceover guy or whatever it was. And so by default, our company didn’t have a producer, didn’t have kind of this leading charge. And that was just kind of my personality coming from sports and captain of the football team and just all those things. I was always kind of a leader by nature. by proxy I guess because I never I never sought to be a leader but you kind of just were a leader you know sometimes and many leaders are just you’re just put there right you don’t really have much of a choice and you end up there um and so I became a producer um and it just really took off and that was really about the time where God’s like this is what I want you doing and I remember going to my parents going I think I’m gonna not do the whole science biology sports and they’re like wait what you want to you want to make movies which i joke and say now 25 years later my my mom still goes now exactly what does a producer do chad like what is it that you do you know yeah um and so and that’s kind of when it started and just kind of learned the trade by just learning the trade i didn’t go to school for it even though i did switch to film my senior year um and got a degree in film from unt um and then started out right away again music video short films And then and that would have been about 2000, 2001 when I graduated college. And by 2005, that was when I made my first large feature film. I had done a lot of short films and various other things between those two points. And then 2005 is, like I said, when I met Dallas and we made that film. And then it’s just been feature films, TV shows, all kinds of different things since then. and obviously turned into a pretty great career. And so so, yeah, to your point, I just I love it. I love people chasing dreams. I love encouraging people in that. But there’s also a practicality to it. I mean, and I say this about the film industry all the time. You know, it’s it’s you know, it’s, it’s the film industry. There’s the, everybody likes to talk about the film part and we’d like to talk about the industry part. Right. You know, there’s, there is, there’s a business to it, right. There’s, there’s a movie business to it. And a lot of creatives and a lot of artists, I run into this a lot. They are great artists, but they have no business sense. And I say this all the time. I wish I had gotten like a minor in finance or a minor in business or something like that. Because I see a lot of dreamers on the artistic side of things. Obviously you can dream about a lot of different things, but on the artistic side, they’re crazy, amazing artists. But to be honest with you, that’s why people like me are here. And I’m kind of this weird balance of both the business side. I mean, I’ll build a multimillion dollar budget in a couple of weeks. But then I also love the creative and working with the artists and working with the actors and all that sort of thing. And so, yeah, So, yeah, that kind of led to here. And now, obviously, The Chosen has turned into something that none of us ever expected.
CHRYSANDRA :
I think, Chad, you have such a special pulse on humanity right now and what the Lord wants to do, what Jesus wants to do. You know, you’re capturing Jesus’s heart through these actors. And, you know, I love that, like, some of them do know Jesus, some of them don’t. But the essence of the show is showing humanity. it’s showing Jesus to the world. And what do you feel like Jesus wants to do in people’s hearts right now that you would want us to know that are all tuning in?
CHAD GUNDERSON :
Yeah. Well, I mean, you’re, you’re spot on with the cast. Literally when I texted you before I came on and I was running a few minutes late, Jonathan had called me. So Jonathan, and obviously there’s a million things going on in all of our lives and he had called on something kind of specific. And so I was chatting with him and, and he is the prime example. I mean, he takes, uh, playing this character so very seriously and his faith is amazing and it’s sweet and it’s genuine and it’s just it’s an honor to be able to work with not just him but the entire cast and the entire crew and you know but at the same time we have believers and non-believers alike on this show. Um, at the end of the day, what Dallas, myself, Chris, the other producers, we all say this all the time. We want the best person for the job. Right. And God knows who that is. Um, and that isn’t always necessarily going to be a believer. Um, you know, what, what the show does, we have no control over. Honestly, how big it becomes, how many people it impacts, that is not on us. Whatever God’s doing with it, you know, we kind of joke and we say, God, just don’t let us screw this up. Whatever you’re doing, don’t let us screw this up.
CHRYSANDRA :
I think it should be for all beings.
CHAD GUNDERSON :
Yes, it’s true, right? I mean, it’s always up to us, right? He’s just kind of sitting there laughing going, well, whenever you’re done with whatever you’re doing, let me know and we’ll move on. But one thing that we can control is kind of what we do on a daily basis. Right. And for us, it’s making this show. So while we are amazed and honestly pretty humbled to see that we are now in every country in the world, I can’t even tell you how many language we’ve been translated into and dubbed in and all those types of things. And so we can’t control all those things. All we can do is kind of continue to try to hold on and keep pushing and get it out there the best we can. But what we can control is again, the daily basis type thing. And so how we interact with our cast, how we interact with our crew, how we interact with the community that we shoot in all these kinds of things. And so the fact that we don’t have all believers on our show, that is something that, and this has been, a mission field for myself and my wife, Chris and Dallas and their families will say the same thing. One of the biggest mission fields that we have is how we impact the cast and crew, especially within this industry. I mean, at the end of the day, the film and television industry is one of the roughest brutal cutthroat kind of things. Right. And it’s every stereotype, all the stereotypes you hear about the industry, they’re all true. Right. And and that has been a big thing for us is how do we interact with those people? And I can’t tell you how many times we get approached and I can only speak for myself, but this is true for so many others where cast and crew come to us and just go and there’s just something different about you. There’s you’re not a typical producer. You’re not what I’m used to. You’re not what I’ve worked with before. And that’s kind of our giant swinging door to just be able to talk about who God is to us and all those kinds of things. And how often we’ve been able to pray for people and how often they come to us and ask to close the office door and go, Hey, I’m, I’m going through something and I don’t know what, but I just feel like I need to come to you. Right. And, and, and I, ask questions and lean on. And that’s just been a big thing for us. And again, my wife gets those experiences all the time where she comes to set and she’s like, well, I prayed with so-and-so and so-and-so is going through this. And she told me about that. And, and so it’s just become a big thing for us to just be able to witness and, and. and to encourage those dreamers because a lot of those are dreamers as well, right? They want to be in this industry and it’s such a tough, tough thing. And we’re very fortunate to do what we do. It’s not a normal thing, but it’s also not as glorious as everybody says. There’s a lot of work that gets done. And so that’s a big, big focus for us is just how do we treat people in the industry how we act within this industry um and then obviously the the show is going to do what the show is going to do but like i said god is uh for whatever reason chosen to bless the show well beyond what we ever anticipated and uh and like i said we’re we’re not even halfway through with uh with the goals of what we plan on doing with it with all seven seasons so
CHRYSANDRA :
Yeah, seven seasons, guys. That’s amazing. And I just love that you guys are starting right at home within the cast of just being able to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And just that humility of you guys don’t even know what God’s going to do or wants to do in Jesus. in and through this show to be able to touch hearts everywhere to know that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Chad, what would be your one piece of wisdom? We are coming up towards the end of our time together, but we would love to have you back sooner than later. We would love to hear your tip on how someone can go after their God-given dream and what would be your piece of wisdom if it was your last breath.
CHAD GUNDERSON :
I think one of the biggest things about dreams is most people are embarrassed about them. I mean, it’s embarrassing to say, I want to be a movie producer. It’s embarrassing to say that I’ve got this invention that I’ve, that I’ve always thought would work, but I just haven’t gone after it. It’s embarrassing to be, you know, online and do a podcast. It’s embarrassing to say it out loud and to do that. And so I just want to encourage people that if it’s there, it’s there for a reason. Right. You most likely if it embarrasses you, you probably didn’t make it up because you would probably make up something that makes you feel cool and makes you feel awesome and all these things. But if it if it’s if it’s hard, if it’s embarrassing, if it feels like there’s no way, then nine times out of 10, that is from God. And you need to go after it and you need to change it. And I would also say it’s fine. People that will encourage you in that. and not discourage you in that, right? You hear it all the time. It’s who you surround yourself with. So embrace the embarrassment maybe is the way to say that. I love it.
CHRYSANDRA :
I love it. And really fast chat if you can. Our coin question, what would you do if you knew you could not fail? Hmm.
CHAD GUNDERSON :
That is a tough one. I would say be a better man. And I think there’s so many things within being a man. And that’s it’s tough right now. Again, being a father, being a husband, being in this industry, all those things. And right now, I think manhood is being very discouraged in our society. society, some of it rightfully so. Right. There is this toxic masculinity. There is some truth to that. And normally there is truth that gets twisted into something weird. And I think it’s very much been twisted because I think masculinity and manhood is a good thing. But I would say to be a better man than than what we think it is. Right. And most likely you’re going to go to the word to find those things. And so and I know it’s a little cliche to say that, but I mean it when you apply it to all those things, because it’s one thing to say, I want to be a better father, want to be a better husband, want to better be a leader, boss, all those things. But I think you can encompass all that and just be a better man. That would be it. That strikes me. There you go. Be a better man.
CHRYSANDRA :
Yes. Yes. Well, Chad, we just we love and appreciate you so much here at The Calling. And I do. And we want everyone to be able to stay in touch with you. How can they do that to be a part of this incredible, epic journey with The Chosen, with you, your teammates? What’s the best avenue?
CHAD GUNDERSON :
Yeah, well, I mean, the good thing about The Chosen is we are freaking everywhere on social media. So go find us on any of those platforms. So just go search The Chosen. If you don’t have the app, go download the app. It’s totally free. We won’t bog you down with emails or anything weird like that. The show is free and will always be free there. It’s obviously in a lot of other places as well. And then myself and my business partner, Chris, Out of Order Studios. You can search that, all the socials, all those kinds of things. So Out of Order Studios.com. And of course the chosen and there’s a, there’s a whole lot more coming. So be ready.
CHRYSANDRA :
Out of order studios, you guys. So please stay in touch. These guys, Chad is a man of God that everyone can look up to. And yeah, We’re just so excited for all this to come. Thank you for being a world changer, God’s ultimate dreamer, Chad. And we welcome everyone to get in touch with Chad at thecallingnonprofit.org to be able to hear and pass on today’s show. We’ll be able to have it on there to hear again because we know that you guys want to hear all this wisdom. We thank everyone for tuning in today. Till next time, dreamer. Keep dreaming big.
