From Fox News · Carly Mayberry · · 2m
She prayed for Hollywood for 25 years
Karen Covell built a ministry on one idea: pray for the people the church wrote off.
In brief
Karen Covell built a ministry on one idea: pray for the people the church wrote off. If you pray for someone, you stop being able to hate them. That works on whole industries, not just individuals. Originally reported by Fox News.
The town nobody blessed
Plenty of Christians have condemned Hollywood outright. Karen Covell spent 25 years asking them to pray for the people working there instead.
Story is everything
Screenwriters have said it for decades. If stories shape meaning, emotion and identity, Hollywood is the biggest mission field going.
“story is everything”
From one idea to 42 countries
The Hollywood Prayer Network launched in 2001. It now runs 170-plus chapters in 42 countries and just marked 25 years with a Gatsby-themed gala in downtown LA.
More than prayer requests
HPN offers intercessory prayer, professional discipleship, Bible studies and networking for actors, writers, directors and producers.
“We have a beautiful community here. You couldn't get me out of this place for anything.”
One foot in each world
Covell and her composer husband Jim saw people of faith stuck between church and industry, with neither side liking the other. Everyone freelances, everyone is hunting for work.
They arrived already beat up
People coming out of the church and into Los Angeles showed up wounded. Families, pastors and friends had warned them the city was Satan's pit.
The church did the damage
Covell is blunt about why Hollywood distrusts Christians. Boycotts, thrown-out TVs, burned books, skipped movies.
“I believed if you pray for somebody, you can't hate them”
Built to be creative
Her answer to the warnings was flat refusal. She wanted a bridge between the American church and Hollywood, starting with the church understanding why the place matters.
“This is ridiculous. We should be storytellers. We should be creative. God created us to be creative.”
Britney, Paris, Robert Downey Jr.
HPN prays for people whether they believe or not. Spears during the tabloid years, Downey through his addiction, Perez Hilton after his livestream and hospitalization.
Praying for the kids first
A monthly Kids Prayer Calendar called "Ones2Watch" puts child and teen actors on members' lists before the industry pressure hits them.
What actually hurts artists
Covell names three enemies: isolation, discouragement and fear. Groups for directors, dancers, writers, comedians and AI workers exist to break all three.
“Those three things can all be combated in community.”
The slowest-growing ministry
She quit producing last year to run HPN full time. Twenty-five years of asking one person at a time, and the growth finally came.
“Would you pray for Hollywood? And I just kept going.”
The short version
If you pray for someone, you stop being able to hate them. That works on whole industries, not just individuals.
