Dude Perfect’s Tyler Toney Credits Jesus for Group’s Success: ‘This Platform Is Not for Us’
Michael Foust
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By Michael Foust, Crosswalk.com
One of the members of Dude Perfect says the group credits all its success to God – and that its members share the gospel at the end of every show as a way to tell the public about the source of their peace and joy.
Tyler Toney opened up about the faith of the sports-comedy group during an interview with the Bible Caddie Podcast, saying the group’s success defies conventional explanation – and that the only explanation is the favor of God.
Dude Perfect is a five-member group of friends who rose to fame through trick-shot videos on YouTube – but since has expanded into a global brand with live tours, merchandise and media projects. The Bible Caddie Podcast is hosted by Webb Simpson, Ben Crane, and William Kane.
“There's no reason that 38-year-old guys should still be popular on YouTube, making videos that kids want to watch,” Toney told the podcast. “But for whatever reason, God has allowed us to continue to do this for so long.”
All five members of the group are Christians. Without that common bond, he added, “over the last 17 years, this thing would have fallen apart 15 times.”
“Our faith in Jesus,” he said, has bonded the men.
“This platform is not for us.”
He added: “Dude Perfect would not be in business if we did not have our Christian faith to fall back on.”
The group began sharing the gospel at their tour stops in 2021 after Toney felt prompted by God to take a step of faith and speak openly about their beliefs during the shows, he said.
“I remember I was driving on the tollway, and I called Coby [Cotton], … and I said, ‘Hey, I'm driving to the office right now, but I just felt like I needed to call and tell you that I feel like God's putting on my heart that we need to share the gospel on tour. I don't know how, I don't know when, I don't know where – I don't know what's an appropriate way to do that. But I felt like, if I didn't call and tell somebody that, then I would 100 percent try and get out of it, dismiss it.”
Toney and the other members of the group, though, wrestled with how to do it in a way that felt genuine and respectful to their audience.
“I remember sitting in the venue before the [first] show, we were all up in the stands talking about – ‘How are we going to do this?’ Like, ‘What is this going to look like? Do we do it at the beginning of the show? Do we do it at intermission? At the end?”
Toney didn’t want fans without faith to feel as if they were “tricked into coming.”
“What we basically landed on that day was we were going to finish the show just like normal, and then we would tell people at the end: Hey, if you guys have got time to stick around, some of you guys in here already know this, but the five of us are Christians – our faith is very important to us. It's the reason we feel like we're still doing this today. We're going to run backstage real quick, grab a drink of water and come back out, and we're just going to share that with anybody that wants to hang around.
“So we did that – kind of stopped and like, nobody gets up. This is an arena of 10,000 people.”
The arena remained packed.
“So we go backstage, and we go out there, and I just share a very simple presentation of the gospel and ‘this is why we believe what we believe.’”
Toney remembers walking off stage that day and weeping, realizing God had moved in a way he hadn’t expected.
“We've done that every tour since 2021,” he said, adding that the gospel presentation has drawn strong response and good attendance, even in less religious regions like the Northeast and the West Coast.
“It's been really, really cool to see God use that.”
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'Faith in Jesus' Is Secret to Dude Perfect's Success, Group Says in YouTube Film
Photo Credit: Getty Images / Savion Washington / Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
Listen to Michael's Podcast! He is the host of Crosswalk Talk, a podcast where he talks with Christian movie stars, musicians, directors, and more. Hear how famous Christian figures keep their faith a priority in Hollywood and discover the best Christian movies, books, television, and other entertainment. You can find Crosswalk Talk on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an interview that will be sure to encourage your faith.
