Karen Covell: Praying for People in Hollywood

Is Hollywood a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah? Or is it more akin to Nineveh and filled with redeemable people? In this episode, we speak with Karen Covell who founded the Hollywood Prayer Network on the premise that the church needs to pray for the people working in the entertainment industry because you can't hate someone you are praying for. Then we see how this relates to the biblical figure of Esther, who rose to a position of prominence in order to save the Jewish people during a time of need.

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Welcome to Eternal HowBiblical Characters and Stories have
Changed Lives Today. I'm yourhost, Aaron Matthew Kaiser. In today's
episode, we are joined byKaren Covell of the Hollywood Prayer
Network as we discuss why thechurch should be praying for the
people working in theentertainment industry. Then we'll

(00:29):
take a look together at theOld Testament figure of Esther, who
is called to a place of prominence.
In a foreign land.
But God had somethingimportant for her to do. I'm really
looking forward to sharingthis episode with you, so let's jump
right into it.
Karen, I want to thank you forcoming onto this episode of Eternal
Impact.

(00:49):
You're so welcome. I love it.I'm glad you asked.
I think a good place to startis to talk about the Hollywood Prayer
Network that you're thefounding director of. For those in
our audience who aren'tfamiliar, can you let them know what
this is?
Absolutely. Well, I'm aproducer. I produce television specials,
documentaries. I'm packaging afeature right now. My husband is

(01:10):
a composer. He writes musicfor films and television shows. And
we have two grown sons in theindustry who are filmmakers. And
we have realized that. Thatthis place in Hollywood is the world's
most influential mission fieldand marketplace. And years ago, I
realized that we were forminga community of Christians who were

(01:31):
in the entertainment industryas professionals in the secular world,
but that there was a gap and adivision between the church in America
and Hollywood. The churchhates Hollywood. Hollywood hates
the church. And we saw this 30years ago. I mean, it's been a problem
for a long time.
Where do you think that started?
Oh, I think it's the enemy. Ithink it started way back in the
beginning of the film industrywhen suddenly the Christians started

(01:54):
feeling uncomfortable that,oh, the films are getting a little
edgy for our beliefs. And sothe belief in the early 1900s was
for Christians to leaveHollywood instead of staying in it
and being salt and light. Infact, Hollywood was started by a
Christian couple wanting it tobe a peaceful place for Christians
to live. And then the filmindustry found that it was a great

(02:17):
city to start film projectsbecause of the weather, because of
the location. And therestarted that divide very early on.
So Christians felt that it wasevil and they needed to leave. And
then it got darker, and thendecades went by of struggle and division.
And I started thinking aboutit in the early 80s and thought,

(02:40):
there's got to be a way tobuild a bridge between the church
and Hollywood. We have a footin both worlds, and neither one really
respects or loves the otherone. Yeah, and our friends were the
same way. So I thought, Ican't get Hollywood to love the church
because the church hasboycotted them, has pointed fingers,
thrown out our televisionsets, burned our books. You know,

(03:02):
I mean, we've just been kindof radically unloving. But I do believe
if you pray for somebody, youcan't hate them. So I thought if
I can get the church to prayfor Hollywood, then they can't hate
Hollywood. Their hearts willstart melting and they'll start understanding
that the these are God'schildren as well and that they need

(03:23):
to really care about who theyare and try to understand more about
what they're creating and whatthey're doing. So I thought, okay,
I'll start the HollywoodPrayer Network, Challenge the church
and mobilize. Challenge andmobilize the church to pray for the
people, the projects and theissues in Hollywood. And then they

(03:43):
might start melting theirhearts and understanding more. And
it's been since 2001, I am notgiving up. It's been a slow challenge,
but we have seen greatchanges. And I now know that we have
a solid group of Christians inHollywood, a community that we know
over 10,000 people at least. Ikeep meeting more all the time. We

(04:06):
encourage community prayer,growing spiritually, getting involved
in churches, having smallgroups. We continue to challenge
Christians on the outside topray for the people here, to pray
for the Christians to have aninfluence, to be great at what they
do, to reach out and sharetheir faith with their non Christian

(04:27):
co workers or bosses orassociates or even neighbors. And
to not judge Hollywood, but tojust pray and let God do his work
here. Because I think when youjudge someone, they can't hear your
message anymore. And so that'sthe whole purpose, the whole foundation.
And I've been committed to itas a producer ever since.

(04:49):
One of the things that hadstuck out to me was when I was looking
over the website, your missionstatement is praying for the entertainment
industry and buildingcommunity in Hollywood. Yes, and
I specifically noted thatthose are two distinct statements
and very important.
And one is not more importantthan the other because you can pray

(05:10):
and pray and pray forsomething, but if you don't take
action, you're not going tosee the results of it. We see the
fruit of people's prayers aswe build community, as we pray for
each other, support eachother, encourage one another, cry
with each other, laugh, youknow, form friendships. Then we start
seeing more Christians indecision making positions. We start

(05:32):
seeing more people sharingtheir faith with those around them
that we call pre Christians.We See God moving as people pray
and we form community.
You were talking about how youstarted formulating this in your
mind 15, 20 years before you.
Actually, about 25 years ago,I started thinking about it and going,

(05:53):
how do I make a difference?How do I build a bridge? And it finally
hit me through prayer. Andactually the thought I had was, if
you pray for somebody, youcan't hate them. We still struggle
with young people who come toHollywood despite the desires of
their family or even theirpastors. There are still Christians
all across the globe who thinkHollywood is some awful, evil place.

(06:17):
And if you come, you'll eitherlose your faith or you'll never get
a job. You'll go broke and starve.
Right.
Or you'll be in Satan's evilpit. And none of those are true.
Yeah, it was kind of powerful.Your website says that you believe
that Hollywood is not Sodomand Gomorrah, which I've heard. I

(06:38):
haven't heard that personally,but I've heard people being told
that it's like, why did youwant to go to Sodom and Gomorrah?
That's it.
But it's Nineveh. It's aredeemable place full of redeemable
people.
That's absolutely what westand on, that God can redeem anyone.
He created us. He loves us.Who are we to decide who has no hope

(06:59):
and who doesn't? It's not upto us. It's up to us to use the gifts
and talents God has given us,to live a life confident in our faith,
and then to share the love ofJesus with other people.
And that's reading further onyour site. It says over the years,
Hollywood Prayer Network hasseen attempts to change Hollywood

(07:20):
fail because Christiansoutside of Hollywood want the content
of the films and TV shows andmusic to change without praying for
the hearts of the peoplecreating it to change.
That's a commitment that wetruly have. The content of anything
won't change until the heartsof the people creating it change.

(07:40):
You can't get someone who'sgot a dark, hard heart to create
a loving, beautiful message ofbeauty and truth and joy. It's just
incongruence. So we have topray for the people, and then the
result of that is the productsthat they create. In fact, I have
a story about that.
Okay.
A friend of mine was sharinghis faith with a TV executive years

(08:04):
ago, and he kept meeting oncea week with him, and the man was
not really interested in God,but intrigued enough to have my friend
keep coming back. So my Friendshared his faith and prayed with
him and told him that, youknow, just don't worry, let go. God
will take care of everythingfor you. And that was a long journey.
But one day my friend cameinto his office and he was on the

(08:26):
phone, and he said, hold onjust one second, and threw him a
script. So my friend waitedwhile he got off the phone and looked
at this script. And the fronthad red all over it. The title of
the of the project was crossedout. It was a TV script. The pages
were bent and red was crossedout and everything. And he thought,
well, why is he giving methis? When the executive got off

(08:48):
the phone, my friend said, sowhat is this about? And he goes,
oh, I just became one of thoseborn againers and I now can't write
this stuff anymore. He wasannoyed that he actually, within
the time that they had met,had become a Christian. And then
he read back on his productand said, I can't do this. Something

(09:10):
changed in his heart becauseit's God who changes us, not other
people. And my friend didn'twant to change him. He wanted to
open up his heart to God andthen let the Holy Spirit do what
he wants to do. And we seethat happen over and over again.
It's really interesting seeingeven as a Christian, as you go through
the process of sanctificationand how things that maybe early on

(09:33):
in your career you might havebeen willing to do. And then later
on it's like, no, I can'treally, I can't do that anymore.
That's not what God wants meto do. Or I'm just not comfortable
doing it. And that can shiftover time.
Oh, yeah.
And it doesn't mean that itwas necessarily wrong beforehand,
but that just God, he'sworking on your heart and he's making

(09:55):
it less comfortable for you todo the things that are pushing things
are not our best. Exactly.
That's it. The thing, thesentence I hear most with people
who become Christians here,the first thing is, I can't swear
anymore. It's so true. It'slike, now I feel bad doing that.

(10:15):
You know, when I became aChristian, I used to speed while
I drove and be pulled over bypolice all the time. And I would
literally think of greatstories to tell them to give me a
warning, not a ticket. Ibecame a Christian, and the first
time I was pulled over, Icouldn't lie anymore. And I was so
annoyed because I got a ticketand I'm like, I can't do this anymore.

(10:38):
It was great.
I am horrible I'm not amorning person. And when I've had
nine to fives, getting thereon time has been a challenge, depending
on when exactly it is. And itwas to a point where even just coming
up with an excuse of, oh,there's a lot of traffic, even if

(10:58):
it was true, there was a lotof traffic, I was like, yeah, but
on top of there being traffic,I got out.
I could have left a little earlier.
I could have left a littleearlier. I didn't. I wanted. I hit
the snooze button 10 times,literally. And it got to a point
where it was just like, I'msorry, yes, I'm late. And I'm just.
I am sorry. I'm not making anexcuse because, A. I don't want you
to be thinking I'm alwayscoming up with excuses and be like,

(11:21):
I don't want you thinking thatI'm making things up, because it's.
Going to sound that waywhether you convince yourself otherwise
or not.
Exactly.
Well, a friend of mine said hethinks one of the most powerful things
a Christian can say is, I was wrong.
Yeah.
What an amazing freedom to beable to say that, knowing it's not
us. Our reputation is built onour faith in God, not on what we

(11:43):
do or how we act or how wecome across. And so we can die to
ourself and we can live forChrist and then have the freedom
to do and say whatever is bestbecause he's giving us that power
and that wisdom to do it.
Although I do have to say,Karen, that I never make mistakes.
I thought I did once, but Iwas mistaken.

(12:04):
And you know what? I'll prayfor you about that.
Gotta find those little baddad jokes at some point.
All the time, they come through.
There was another thing on thewebsite that. And this is the last
thing on the websitenecessarily I want to touch on. There
was a quote right on the frontpage that caught my attention, and

(12:26):
I didn't realize thatapparently Cecil B. DeMille was a
Christian.
Yes.
For those that don't know,Cecil B. DeMille is mostly known
for being the director andproducer of the Ten Commandments
and also Samson and Delilah.
A lot of biblical stories.
Yeah.
Yes. In the. In the 1930s, Ibelieve it was that he was in his

(12:48):
peak, the early, early 1900s.He loved God and he stood for his
faith as he made his movies.And at that time, he was free to
make biblical stories.
I just always presumed, oh,yeah, the Ten Commandments, that
was a period where, yeah, theycould happen because they knew the
audience would Accept them. Ijust was under the presumption that

(13:10):
the executives were not doingit out of their own faith. But then
the quote is, I have found thegreatest power in the world is the
power of prayer. There is noshadow of doubt of that. I speak
from my own experience and Ihad to look that up to make sure
that was actually credited tohim. And then sure enough, it was
on like IMDb.
And you know what? There are alot more Christians through the years

(13:30):
in film, television, music,video games, Internet content. We
don't realize that God hasplaced Christians in this marketplace
so that we can be salt andlight and make a difference. And
what we find is, as we gatherthe ones that we find together, they
start getting more confidentand bolder and then they find others.

(13:51):
And it grows and grows andwe're seeing exponential growth now.
And one of the. It hits too,on with what you're saying earlier
as well, with this town beinginfluential is I. A year ago I would
have said if you told me I wasgoing to do this podcast, I would
have said no, since this isvery. Yeah, because this is. I hate,

(14:13):
I hate Christian films becausethey're a. They tend to be cheesy.
But then also it's almost likethey're trying to build a separate
market instead of playing inthe main field. But Hollywood itself
influences the culture of theentire world. And I've been saying
for specifically the lastcouple of years that my mission in

(14:34):
Hollywood is to createentertainment that will be influential
across the world. At leastthat's what I'm striving toward.
And then God was like, no,you're going to do this project right
here and then we'll see abouteverything else.
Oh, that is so funny. Well,let me go back to what you said about
hating Christian films. Here'sa perspective that I saw years ago
that I truly believe. There isthe commercial film market that comes

(14:58):
out of Hollywood and it's allof the commercial product that the
whole world can see. But thenin film, there are niche markets.
Yes, there are the martialarts films. Anybody who loves martial
arts is going to watch one.They don't care how good or bad it
is.
That's true.
There are the horror films.The horror audience is faithful and
will watch every horror filmever made. Whether it's quality is

(15:21):
beautiful or it's a tacky, lowbudget film. The quality doesn't
matter. It's the genre. That'sthe same with Christian films. People
don't care about the quality.They want that genre. They want a
Christian film. Tyler Perryfilms are that way. Many, many genres
of films fall into the nichemarkets, so we don't have to judge

(15:42):
it as bad compared to thecommercial market. We can say Christian
films are one of the nichemarkets and then there's the commercial
market and we have a choice ofdoing both. The lines are starting
to blur. Documentaries used tobe a niche market and now documentaries
are blurring into the featurecommercial market and the lines are

(16:05):
getting just more blurredbetween them. So I think the same
thing is happening withChristian faith based films.
Yeah. And it's beeninteresting seeing some of those
faith based films like God'sNot Dead take over just the box office
on their opening weekend.
Oh, it's crazy. And you know,there are studios now that have formed

(16:25):
faith based divisions forfilms that are meant for a Christian
audience. Lionsgate has done,has a partnership with the Irwin
brothers and Sony has adivision called Affirm Films. And
the different studios havethese divisions because first of
all, they see there's money inthe marketplace and second of all,
they say, I don't want to beleft out of what everybody else is

(16:47):
doing.
That's a very good andconvicting to me point. I want to
dial back a little bit andtalk about your walk with Christ.
How did you get drawn into the kingdom?
Well, I grew up in a home inChicago, a suburb of Chicago where
we went to church everySunday. But we never talked about

(17:08):
it. We never read the Bible,we never prayed together. It was
just a. It was cultural morethan really a relationship. So I
was used to going to churchand I had three other siblings. And
when we each left to go tocollege, I was the third out of four
of us. We each left the churchthat we had grown up in and started

(17:31):
our own belief system. Andwe're all still believing completely
different things. But whathappened to me was I left home and
I got assigned a collegeroommate my freshman year of college.
And she happened to be acommitted, born again Christian.
So I was a marked woman from.
The moment I saw my mom got saved.
Is it really her college roommate?

(17:53):
Yeah.
That is so wild. So the minutewe met, Debbie started praying for
me. And all year long I wouldgive her trouble and I'd ask big
questions and I would pushback. And I believed in God, but
I didn't really know God.
Yeah.
And she came from a reallyhorrible background compared to me.
Terrible divorced, home,alcoholism, all kinds of things that

(18:16):
were very sad. And yet she hadsuch joy. And she was so committed
to what she believed that itintrigued me. And through that whole
freshman year, I just keptbeing a little more open and a little
more open until three weeksbefore the end of school. I was walking
through campus, and suddenly Ijust said, God, I want what Debbie
has, but there are threethings I don't want. I do not want

(18:40):
to tell anybody about youbecause I grew up with my dad saying,
there are two things you don'ttalk about in public. Politics and
religion. And that was justingrained in my brains.
Well, thankfully, arelationship with Jesus isn't a religion.
There you go. Phew. The secondthing is, I do not want to be a missionary,
because there weremissionaries that came to my church

(19:01):
when I grew up, and they weremiserable, and they dressed dumpy,
and they didn't have joy. AndI thought, forget that. And the third
thing was, I did not want togo to Africa because I thought every
time you become a Christian,you had to go to Africa. And I didn't
want to do that. So I said,but other than that, you have all
of me. And I waited forthunder or lightning or something,
and nothing happened. So Iwent to class, kind of forgot about

(19:24):
it, and then went back into mydorm room. And honestly, Erin, the
first thing, my roommatelooked at me, and she said, what's
different about you? And Ithought, oh, my gosh. And then I
said, nothing. And then thatnight, we were doing homework a few
hours later, and she stopped.She goes, karen, something is different
about you. What's going on?And I literally thought, okay, it's

(19:48):
showing. What's happening tome? What is he doing to me? You know?
But I denied it again. Thenext morning, I got dressed. I was
on my way out the door forclass, and she stood in front of
the door, and she said, okay.Did you become a Christian? I burst
into tears. How did you know?Yes, I did. And she cries, and we
hugged each other, and I said,I have to go to class, but we'll

(20:10):
talk later. I ran out thedoor, I shut it, and my first thought
was, okay, God, only Debbie. Iam not telling anybody else. And
I went to class, and I keptthat promise for three weeks. The
last three weeks of school.Debbie and I talked and talked, and
she was so excited. I wenthome to Chicago. A week after I was
home for summer vacation, mymom sat me down, and out of the blue,

(20:33):
completely shocking to me, shesaid, you, dad and I are talking
about getting divorced. Ididn't even know what to say. I was
so horrified that all I. Allthat came out of my mouth was, you
have to know about Jesus, youhave to find out. He'll change this.
He'll take care of this. Andshe's like, what are you talking
about? I said, you have tohave a relationship with Jesus and

(20:53):
he's going to fix this. Andshe said, well, how do I do that?
And I said, just talk to him.Well, how do I do that? And I'm like
getting exasperated. Justpray. I had no idea what I was talking
about. And so I led herthrough some bumbling, odd prayer
and she accepted Christ rightthere in her life. And the first

(21:14):
thing she said after she said,no, I want that. I want what you
have. She said, you've got totell your grandmother. So she set
up a meeting at a restaurant.Two weeks later, my grandmother came
the of us, sat down and shesaid, okay, Karen, tell your grandma
what you told me. And Ibumbled through all of this again.
I prayed for my grandmother.She became a Christian right there,

(21:36):
by the way. My parents nevergot divorced. They lived together
for 54 years and they wereholding hands before he died. You
know, it's crazy things. So mygrandmother became a Christian. And
then I went back to school inthe fall and I started thinking,
I wonder who the otherChristians are in the theater department.
I think I better find out. AndI start writing notes to people and

(21:59):
calling people. I was almostobnoxious. I started sending books
to my siblings so many timesthat my sister finally called me
and said, karen, you've sentme two Bibles. I only need one. I'm
like, oh, okay. So that partof not telling anybody, I just blew
right away. Then when Irealized I love being a missionary

(22:22):
in Hollywood, my husband and Irealized, this is a mission field
and we're here to be excellentat what we do and to share God's
love with people along theway. We are missionaries in the world's
most influential missionfield. And my whole mindset shifted.
And then I blew the secondone. So then the third one. We had
two boys and I thought, I wantto give them a bigger vision of what

(22:45):
the world is like, so let'ssign up and pray for a boy through
world vision. And of course,they assigned us a boy in Africa.
We fell in love with him,prayed for him, wrote to him, sent
videos to him. It was so mucha part of our family's life. And
we finally, as a family, gotto go to Africa. And it was the most
extraordinary, life changingtrip in my life. And on the way home

(23:08):
from Africa, in the plane, Irealized the three things I told
God I didn't want became threeof the greatest joys in my whole
life.
That's incredible. That's. Ialmost wanted to spoil the story
with, like, as soon as yousaid you weren't going to go to Africa,
I almost said, so how manytimes have you been to Africa? But
I guess some told me not tosay anything because it was good,

(23:30):
the payoff was going to be toogood. I was like, there's no way
this story is going to endwithout you going to Africa.
Isn't that the truth? And itwas extraordinary. And we all, the
four of us, it changed all of us.
It's interesting when we tellGod something like I was saying earlier,
a year ago, I would have beenlike, no, I'm not doing a religious
thing. I'm not doing a religion.

(23:51):
Look at that. The minute wesay it, we better watch out. My husband
jokes all the time, and hesaid, I wish you told God you didn't
want a billion dollars.
Right, I forgot that one. Oneof the big parts of this program
is that we talk about biblicalcharacters and parables that have
influenced our lives or thatwe relate to. Is there anyone in

(24:13):
your life that you see in the Bible?
Well, I do, and not as acompliment to me, but as a reminder
of who she is. And that is, Ireally relate to Esther. And I do,
because she was a woman whodidn't realize the impact that she
could have, but she obeyed Godand she showed up and said, I have

(24:35):
to say something. I have tosay something about the truth here.
And I realized that's whathappened to me. I realized this divide
between the church andHollywood. And I said, I have to
say something. I have to dosomething about this. I got incredible
resistance, mostly from thechurch, Christians who thought, that's
interesting.
More resistance from thechurch than from all over.

(24:56):
Much more. Much more throughthe years. Because Christians are
the only ones that have anadversary. We're the only ones that
fight spiritual battle. Peoplethat are doing things in their own
will, with their own strength,they don't have spiritual battle.
The enemy doesn't need toworry about them. It's those of us
that want to do it for God,that get that real struggle and that

(25:17):
battle. And so the enemy isreally only here to do one thing,
and that's to divide, steal,destroy. And he does it through Christians
getting mad at otherChristians, marriages breaking up,
ministries breaking up,churches breaking up. If he can cause
division within the Christianbody, then it just destroys the whole

(25:39):
understanding that as we loveeach other, other people will be
attracted to Jesus.
Right.
The enemy's got it made if wedon't like each other. So I knew,
walking into this with thestrong hate or fear that Christians
had for Hollywood, that Iwould be getting spiritual battle.
And I see that with Esther.Esther had to come up against pretty

(26:00):
insurmountable odds to firstget the attention of the king, then
to have the strength to tellhim the truth, then to have him respond
positively. Each step of thatwas miraculous.
And it was interesting, too,as I was going through the study.
So Esther takes place beforeEzra goes back to Jerusalem to rebuild

(26:28):
the temple in Jerusalem. Andso it's while most of Israel is still
in captivity in Persia, whothey had gotten taken away by Babylon.
And then Persia came and tookover Babylon. And so now Persia is
in control.
And ironically, we callHollywood Babylon.
That's true, too. So it takesplace in that time. And one of the

(26:49):
interesting things that hadjumped out to me that I didn't realize
was the. Well, the backgroundof the story is that the king had
put someone named Haman inpower and basically second command,
I think, his grand visor,basically. And he got incensed that
Mordecai, Esther's guardian,wouldn't bow and prostrate himself

(27:11):
before him.
Drove him crazy.
And instead of just taking himout, he finds out that Mordecai is
a Jew and is like, well, let'sjust kill all the Jews.
That'll take care of it, right?
That'll take care of it.
How easy is that?
But it was just like thiscompletely complete overreaction,
and he gets the king to signoff on it. But what I didn't realize,
and this is proven in twoplaces here in Esther, that the king's

(27:37):
decree, a royal decree, couldnot be rescinded.
I know it.
So they. It's a very uniquesolution that they ended up getting
to where basically they had togive permission for the Jews to fight
back. And everywhere that theoriginal decree was being mandated.

(27:57):
Mandated. And they werestarting to try and round up and
kill the Jews. The Jews nowhad another royal decree that allowed
them to fight back, and theywere winning.
Isn't that wild?
It's just completely.
And that was God giving them favor.
That was God giving themfavor. In the midst of being in captivity,
being spread throughout. Itwasn't that they were just in one
city, they're throughout.There was 127 provinces that the

(28:22):
king oversaw, and they werespread throughout that. Yeah, that's
right here in Esther 1:1. Andhe reigned from India to Ethiopia.
Look at that. And you look atthe entertainment industry, we reign
across the globe and we havecertain mandates that have to be
done the right way to makethings happen. And then we have the

(28:42):
church responding saying, thisis evil, stay away. It's almost a
mandate that sometimes they'reright and sometimes, oh, sometimes,
oh, a lot of times they'reright. This is a tough place to live
and work because artists areprophets and artists either reflect
what's going on in culture orproject what's happening. And if

(29:04):
you don't have a godlyfoundation to your beliefs, you're
going to project what'sactually happening in the earthly
realm. What we need are moreChristian artists so that we are
prophets telling what'shappening or what's coming in the
godly realm. And that's wherewe have to stand firm and fight against
all of the obstacles. All ofthe people who don't agree, all the

(29:27):
people who think it's too eviland hopeless and keep going forward.
And it takes tough people tobe able to do that. Not hard hearts,
but believing so strongly thatGod has called us here, that this
is what our job is and we haveto trust him totally that we can

(29:47):
keep going every day.
It's interesting because Ididn't move to. I've been in LA for
14 years now and I didn't moveuntil I was 28. I resisted, I thought,
because I came from San Diegoand I thought, oh, I'm close enough
to if I need a meeting. Andthen I realized, no, I need to be
up here to.
It's not going to happen.
Yeah, it's not going to happenunless if I'm here. But I resisted
for 10 years. And then atfirst I thought, oh, I wish I'd come

(30:10):
up 10 years earlier. But thenat the same time.
Now, would you have been ready10 years earlier?
No, because I went through myfirst five years here in LA. I lived
on the floor of my office. Andthen I had a little bit of reprieve
where things started goingwell. And then I actually talked
a lot in my last episode abouthow I'd gotten into this nine to
five. That wasn't.

(30:30):
It was killing you.
It was physically killing me.And it was also creatively killing
me. It was a very well payingjob at a bank. But it was not what
I came up here for. It wasright after my mom passed and I was
like, life is short. And so Ileft and I had a plan to keep going
and I fell flat on my face andI lost my apartment, lost my car.

(30:52):
I mean, it's like all this, we.
All say, we say everybody hitsthe wall. You hit the wall.
Oh, I hit the wall hard. Ilost everything. And yeah, so my
episode last week was on John Mark.
Oh, my goodness. Isn't that something?
Yeah, I had said, likeoriginally I thought, oh, I wish
I'd come up here 10 yearsearlier. But then I realized, no,

(31:14):
I would have literally goneback to San Diego with my tail tucked
between my legs and I wouldhave given up. I would not have made
it at 18, 20 years old.
Because it's a tough place.
It is a tough place. This townchews you up and spits you out.
Well, we say that this is nota playground, this is a battleground.
Yes.

(31:34):
We are not here to play house.
It's the front line in thespiritual war.
It is. It's the front lines.There's also a lot of understanding
in the spiritual world aboutLos Angeles. First of all, it's known
in our world as the city oforphans because people come here
without family. They're notsupported for coming out here. They
want to make it rich, be richand famous. They come for the wrong

(31:56):
reasons. And there are threemain reasons. We find that most people
who are not groundedspiritually, why they come to la.
The first is to reinventthemselves. The second one is to
get the affirmation of theirfather that they never got. And the
third one is to escape theirpast. So one of those reasons is

(32:17):
why most of the people comehere. And what do they do? They come
to the world's worststepfather. This place doesn't give
grace to anybody. It'scompetitive, it's expensive, it's
hard to live here. It's such aspread out city physically that it's
isolating now.
Add on the pandemic and forcedlockdowns, it's even more isolating.

(32:38):
Yeah.
How many people left townbecause of that?
Well, left town or committed suicide.
Yeah, I was going to add that.
On, but yeah, I mean, reallyterrible. There are more people on
depression medication. They'relonely. Three fiery darts of the
enemy that I deal with everyday with somebody in our industry.
Loneliness that comes fromisolation, discouragement and fear.

(33:02):
Fear. I know that. Andsometimes the fear is even fear of
success.
Oh, isn't that ironic? Yeah,yeah. People are.
I feel like that's sometimeswhat I deal with. I'm afraid to take
risks in case it works. Yeah.
Is that ironic? Which is alsocrazy. But there's so much spiritually
going on here. We need Jesusso desperately here. And when we

(33:25):
realize that, then I think hesays, now you're right where I want.
You need me desperately, andthen I can start working. And that's
where we are. The Christiansthat can really hang in there, get
broken, get humbled, realizewe need God and each other, and then
we start building a beautifulcommunity. In fact, I know some people

(33:45):
in Nashville. Nashville,everybody's a Christian. It's the
music.
Culturally, at least.
Yes, at least. Culturally.Right. And so they don't realize
that they need each other,which we still do. And so there are
friends of mine who see ourcreative community in Hollywood and
how we hang on to each otherand we pray together and we meet
together and we have smallgroups and Bible studies and anything

(34:06):
we can find to just connect.And there's a little bit of a jealousy
or a sadness because they say,we wish we had that here. But people
don't see the need. Eventhough it's still there, even if.
It was available, theywouldn't take up.
They wouldn't take it upbecause they didn't know how much
they needed it. And we arehere on the front lines, and we know
we need it. There's no question.

(34:26):
Oh, I can tell if I am atchurch multiple times during the
week usually, and I miss one.
Can't you tell?
I can tell. And it's usuallymostly because I start slipping into
my old sin patterns. My oldsin thinking I default to want to
sin. It's my old flesh.
Well, it's. And you've got aheightened spiritual battle that

(34:47):
will take your vulnerabilitiesand project them. And so you've got
a. You've got a good internalstruggle going. That's real. But
if we have each other and wecan be open with people and be close
to them and say, I need prayernow. I'm struggling. Now I'm feeling
isolated, I'm feelingdiscouraged, I'm feeling fearful.
Would you pray for me? That'swhen we can lift those and push away

(35:09):
the fiery darts and startbuilding and strengthening our faith.
I don't normally deal withanxiety, but during the pandemic,
I had a video client that Iwas working on, and something was
keeping me from sitting downand editing. And I couldn't explain
what it was. And it was. Itwas right after I'd hit the wall

(35:32):
and failed, and I didn'trealize how deep the depression had
gone. And so it was a lot ofthat. But then the depression was
causing my. Like, it was justcausing anxiety where I couldn't
even sit and edit and do whatI was trying to do to Push forward.
I had to reach out to a coupleof brothers. I'm like, I don't know
what's going on. I don't feelanxiety, but I'm feeling it now.

(35:53):
I. Every time I sit down, it'slike this. Like, it's as if I was
writing. And it's just thismassive writer's block, just a blank
page. I literally would sitdown to edit and do everything, but.
And you don't realize itbecause you just don't realize it.
I don't know. You can makeexcuses and such like that. I found
the way to do it is I firstrealized there's a difference between

(36:15):
defining a problem andchanging it, or defining a problem
and managing it. There arecertain things I want to change.
They don't seem to change.I've tried for years. They're not
changing. So instead ofcontinuing to set myself up for failure
or discouragement, I say,okay, maybe this one God's not ready
to change in me yet. So in theprocess, I'm going to manage it.

(36:37):
And what I found is when I getdiscouraged, I immediately now reach
out to someone else andencourage them. And what that does
is it lifts me out of my owndiscouragement, and they get lifted
and I am giving. Instead ofdrawing into my own misery, I have
to push myself out of my ownthoughts and reach out to somebody
else. And so I have now madethat just almost a normal response.

(37:01):
When I feel discouragement,I'll call someone. I'll write them
a note. I'll email them andjust say, how you doing? I'm thinking
of you today. I'm praying foryou. Hope you're having a great day.
Want to know how you're doing.And that pulls me so quickly now
out of my discouragement thatI'm. I'm pretty hooked on it.
It kind of reminds me a littlebit too of the prayer of serenity
that they say in AA orcelebrate recovery. The courage to

(37:25):
change the things I can, thewisdom to know the difference between
those who can and can'tchange, and the acceptance of the
things you can't change.
That's it. And the freedom ofknowing it's not up to me. I'm going
to give this to God and lethim work through me.
God's got the power. God's gotit. He's got to be in control. Yeah,
he's got it.
He's got it. It's so true. Andthat's what a lot of people coming

(37:48):
here just need to hearsometimes. They just need to know
oh, I'm not alone. Somebodyunderstands and I can keep going
forward. So many people don'tget that from their families or their
churches. In fact, I, when Ispeak around the country, I say,
would you look at your childwho wants to be in Hollywood or who
is in Hollywood as amissionary and pray for them and

(38:11):
support them? You know, theirony is there are people who support
and send money to missionariesthat are in cannibal tribes and they
think it's noble and godly tobe there. But then when someone says
they want to come toHollywood, they go, oh, no, you're
going to lose your faith.
Right.
And it's just inconsistent.And so for Christians on the outside
to say, if I know somebody inHollywood, I'm going to pray for

(38:32):
them, maybe I'll send themmoney to say, hey, I'm thinking of
you. Here's support to keepyou going. Go buy a Starbucks and
have a better.
We need that Starbucks.
Oh, my gosh. Or help pay theirrent. It's so true. The mindset of
Christians outside Hollywoodneeds to change. And the mindset
of Christians inside, thatthey are called here, that they're
meant to be here, that theyneed each other and that they can

(38:53):
make an eternal differencethat needs to.
They can make an eternal impact.
Absolutely. Absolutely.Everyone here can.
Is there anything else aboutEsther that we should dive into?
I kind of like how she wentabout it. She had to be very shrewd.
Well, one of the things itsays is that she had people fast

(39:15):
and pray.
Yes, I wrote that down.
That's all I knew and know howto do. I can't do it alone. This
is not my job. This is not mything to change the world in any
way. I am one little cog in awheel. God can use me. But I know
I have to see the biggerpicture. And the only way anything

(39:37):
is going to change is forpeople to fast and pray. And that's
what I had to do. And Icontinue to do that. Would you pray?
We have prayer partnerships.We have a kids and teen prayer calendar.
We have prayer calls. We haveanything we can do to get people
to pray. I challenge people.When you go to a movie, don't leave
after the movie is oversitting and watch the credits and

(39:59):
pray through the names on that list.
Oh, I hadn't even thoughtabout praying for them. Yes, it's,
it's usually just waiting tosee if there's a post credit scene.
Yes, that's it. But in themeantime, pick out a name that pops
out at you. Pray for thatperson. You could be the first person
ever praying for that person.Can you imagine?
That's an incredible thought.The first person to ever pray for

(40:19):
that person.
That's right. And you look atthat list and you go, oh, wow, the
gaffer. I don't know what thatis, but, Lord, I pray that you touch
their heart, that you bringChristians around them.
Some of these films, there'sso many names in the credits.
You got 10, 15 minutes to sitthrough. You might as well have a
great prayer time.
It's a really interesting,interesting thought. I did want to
read really quickly thepassage where Esther has them do

(40:43):
this, because the fact thatit's Esther's idea.
Yes.
It's in Esther four verses, 15or 16 to 17. Then Esther said for
them to respond to Mordecai,go gather all the Jews who were found
in Susa and fast for me. Donot eat or drink for three days,
night or day. I and my youngwomen will also fast in the same

(41:06):
way. And thus I will go intothe king, which is not according
to the law. And if I perish, Iperish in verse 17. So Mordecai went
away and did just as Estherhad commanded him.
There are three things inthere that stand out to me. First
of all, Esther was not afraidto stand up to a man and say, do
this for me. Pass on the word.She was strong to her guardian. To

(41:30):
her guardian. He respectedher. He knew she was right. The second
thing is you have to know thatfasting and praying has the power
of God in it. None of ouractions will work unless we start
with the foundation of prayer.There's a great quote. I think it
was Oswald Chambers. He said,prayer is not preparation for the

(41:51):
greater work. Prayer is thegreater work.
Ooh.
And that's what Estherunderstood. And the third thing is
that Esther knew she could notchange things on her own. She couldn't
do it. The only way that shecould obey and see a change is to
get people to fast and pray.And she. She was so confident in

(42:13):
her God that nothing stoppedher. And that's another thing I realized
being here. We have to be soconfident in our God that we know
it's not about us, it's aboutHim. And we're just showing up and
working with Him. And she didthat. And I just get such inspiration
from her in what she did.
She didn't just go right intothe king. She decided to make sure

(42:38):
that she had extra favor withhim and wait. She waited. She prepared
a feast, and then she went andBrought not only the king, but the
second in command who orderedthe death.
Yes. The one which should notwant to be a part of at all. She
invited him in as well.
And then there's even. I havethis chapter six. We won't read it,

(43:00):
but it's this hilarious storywhere Haman is. He goes home and
recounts his glory to his wifeand his friends. He's like, look
at all the riches I have. Lookat all that's been given to me. Look
at me. Look at me. ButMordecai, he vexes me. And they're

(43:21):
like, well, then put him todeath. And so he actually builds
these gallows and is going tohang Mordecai the next morning before
the second. Because there's asecond. She didn't do it. Just one
feast. She's like, I have twobanquets. The king was like, hey,
there was this guy Mordecaithat, you know, had told me about
this plot against me. And havewe honored him? No. We need. So what

(43:42):
should we do? And she goes,what should I do to the man that,
you know, I want to honor? Andof course, Haman's like, thinking,
it's him. He's like, oh, youshould do this, and you should do
this, and you should do this.
And he does all of it.
Yeah. And then so Haman isforced to honor Mordecai, like, put
a robe on him, parade himthrough the streets on a horse, and
say, this is the man whom theking honors.

(44:04):
You can't get more ironic.
You cannot get more ironic.
Doesn't that show God's senseof humor, too?
Absolutely.
It also shows that Esther hada faith that was not shaken by circumstances.
There were many times in thatstory it looked hopeless. And she
knew I just have to keepbelieving for what I know is right.
And she became a queen becausethe previous queen just said no to

(44:28):
the king. And he got so mad,he's like, you're no longer the queen.
And she's way shrewder than that.
Yeah.
We have to be as shrewd aserpent and as gentle as doves. And
that's the same thing here.
Sometimes we forget the dovepart, though.
We do. I know. Or we're toomuch on the dove and we can't handle
the tough circumstances. Oneor the other two of the disagreements

(44:49):
that some Christians have forwhat I do here are based on that
very thing. Some people thinkI'm pushing aside God and being too
tough and that I need to be,you know, just more gentle and subservient.
And such not realizing youhave to be a warrior when you're
in battle. And there are otherpeople who think that I am just being

(45:11):
too. I give in too much to thecircumstances, to what people say,
to the environment that I livein and that I'm compromised.
We're supposed to turn theother cheek, but we're not supposed
to be a walking doormat.Unless God specifically tells us,
in this situation, let themwalk all over you. And sometimes
he will, sometimes he evendoes that.
But what he also says is youhave to love the people. You don't

(45:35):
have to live their lifestyle.So when I'm here, I don't judge people
who do things I don't agreewith. I love them, I pray for them,
I encourage and support them.But I won't do what they do. I won't
live the way they live. Iwon't compromise my faith. But I
can't be judging other people.I have to leave that job up to the
Holy Spirit. I am here to lovepeople, to Jesus.

(45:57):
Is there anything else aboutEsther that we haven't touched on
yet that you want to make sureto impart?
Esther is not afraid ofsuccess. You know, you said before
that one of the problems ispeople, are they kind of self sabotage
because they're afraid ofsuccess? She became queen. She was,
she was a nobody when shestarted. And God didn't only lift

(46:18):
her up to a place where shecan have an influence, he lifted
her up even farther to be thetop woman in the whole land. And
she embraced it with humility.It didn't go to her head, it didn't
make her think, hey, I'mpretty hot stuff, we have to stay
humble. And that part of her,I just keep thinking, whatever God

(46:38):
does, wherever I am, it's notup to me. It's not about me, it's
not focused on me. I have tojust obey. And he can keep me at
a low level to just reach thepeople there. He can bring me up
to be amongst Kings and I canreach the people there. And whatever
it is, I just have to keep myeyes on him. And I think she did

(47:00):
that really well.
One of the notes that I foundabout the Book of Esther, it was
commenting on how this is theone book in the Bible that stands
out because it's completeabsence of any explicit reference
to God, worship, prayer orsacrifice. And sometimes that causes

(47:22):
contention. But it appearsthat the author of the book has deliberately
refrained from mentioning Godor religious activity as a literary
device to heighten the factthat God controls and directs everything,

(47:44):
even seemingly insignificant coincidences.
Well, there are nocoincidences in the world of Christianity.
And I agree with you totally.That's another thing that I relate
to about Esther is in myworld, I have Christians saying to
me, you're not sharing thegospel enough. You're not telling
them the truth of the gospel.You're not talking about Jesus. You

(48:07):
know, and I relate to her inthat the Holy Spirit has to work
through me and I have tounderstand the culture, I have to
understand the hearts of thepeople, and I have to speak in their
language. I speak truth, and Ispeak it with love and I speak it
with grace. And yet if I comeat somebody and give them the gospel

(48:31):
points that they need to know,they're going to shut down and turn
away and I'll never haveanother chance to talk to them again.
Yeah, if I talk throughtelling stories the way Jesus did,
if I understand I need to hearwho they are before I tell them who
they need to be, then I'mlaying a foundation of friendship
and of trust so that I havemore opportunity to share my faith

(48:53):
down the line than if I cameright at them and told them everything
they need to know right away.It's a slow growing mission field.
Developing relationships isthe most important thing. And what
I have learned is not only didEsther have all of her impact because
she developed relationships,but God works through us, through
relationship. And honestly,I've realized the only reason we're

(49:16):
here on earth is forrelationships with God and with other
people and what we do and whatwe accomplish and what gifts and
talents we have all have to dowith the people group that he's put
us in and how we buildrelationships along the way. And
that's exactly who Esther was.Everything that he used in her was
through buildingrelationships. She had the support

(49:37):
and the prayers of her Jewishpeople because she had good relationships
with them. She had the supportand the openness of the kingdom because
of her relationship with them.And then she ultimately got her way
with the King because she tookthe time to develop a relationship
with him. And so those are allthings that we need to remember.
We are not the ones to changethe world. We're the ones to build

(50:00):
loving, solid relationships.And then we get a chance to share
our faith through that.
One of the things you saidearly on in there too, about taking
the time to understand theculture were trying to speak into,
that's, I think, one of thecore fundamental areas that we so
often miss.
Yes.

(50:20):
And you really see, though,part of Esther's success was that
she knew the culture of thePersian kingdom. She sure she even
thought you could be shrewdbecause she understood it exactly.
She took the time so she couldbe shrewd. And so she knew that she
had to to do certain things inorder to get the king's attention.

(50:42):
Because at both times the kingknew at the banquet, well, what is
it that you request of me? Andthe first time she didn't come right
out with a request. It waslike, oh, I want you to come back
for another banquet tomorrow.
It wasn't the right time.
And then the next time heasked again. And then it was, finally
she made the request. But thenshe also knew that the king's decree

(51:04):
was not. He couldn't rescindit. So she knew what to ask that
would be an effective ask sothat her people would not be slaughtered.
Because she knew the culture.
Because she knew the culture.
And here's the irony.Christians who want to be missionaries,
they find an organization thatsends them overseas, and usually
they take up to two years toprepare to go overseas. They have

(51:29):
to raise money, they have tolearn the culture, they have to learn
the language, they have tolearn the traditions. They have to
find out, like a hiddenpeoples group what makes them tick
and how do they live there.Nobody does that coming to Hollywood.
Why don't people take time tolearn our culture, to learn the language
of.
Hollywood, to learn acompletely unique culture all on

(51:52):
its own?
It's totally a hidden people'sgroup here. And I even called the
US center for World for WorldMissions one time and said, you know,
you left out one city in yourlist of hidden peoples group. And
the guy laughed. Yeah, right.And I said, no, Hollywood is a hidden
people's group. And I told himall the reasons we have our own gods
that we worship.
And sometimes our gods are ourselves.
Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh,absolutely. And all of the gold plated

(52:15):
statues, the Grammys, theOscars, the Tonys, the Emmys, we
have which God could use.
If he wanted, if he wanted to.
And he can. He can use those.Absolutely. But they're not what
you worship.
Right?
We have our own language, wehave our own traditions. We have
our. In fact, I compare themission field of Hollywood. My husband
said, if you take Hollywoodand say it backwards, it's the Duliwa

(52:38):
tribe. Doesn't that sound likea foreign mission field? It does.
The Dulewa tribe sounds likesomething you'd find in Africa.
There you go. The Maasaitribe. The Duliwa tribe. It's all
the same. They have their owngods that they worship. They have
their own traditions, theirown culture. They're known for being
polygamists. We're known forbeing almost polygamous. We have

(53:00):
four or five wives, just notat the same time here. The marriage
and divorce rate here is soexponentially changing. It's so hard.
And it's going to get evenworse, I think, because there's this
societal norm now tocohabitate before marriage. And they
don't realize thatstatistically they're increasing

(53:21):
their rate of potentialdivorce if they get married from
50% to 80 or 90%.
And what's interesting is thatthose are non Christian studies.
Yeah, those are just sociologyand psychology studies, which is
interesting. But if we seethat this is a mission field and
we see that God is calling ushere and that we have gifts and talents
he's used to bring us to thisplace, we have to prepare. We have

(53:45):
to take the time to learn whatis it that we're getting into. When
people come here and they say,I've come here because God. God wants
me to be rich and famous, Itell them to go home. That is the
worst reason to come toHollywood, rich and famous. Oh, my
gosh, that's a disaster. Ifthey come here saying, I want to
use the gifts and talentsGod's given me to be in a place where

(54:05):
I can love people, I can makea difference, I can bring hope and
joy, I say, come on, join us.We are all hanging in there together.
That's what gets me excited.
I almost feel that we'vealready done application. But is
there anything from the storyof Esther that we haven't already
touched on that our audiencecan take away?

(54:26):
First of all, we have to havea deep faith in God. We have to know
him. We have to study him, wehave to spend time with Him. We have
to listen to Him. She heardfrom God. She doesn't say, there's
a voice that told me this,but. But she turned to him and heard
from him and obeyed. Thesecond thing is we cannot have fear.
Esther had no fear. I am on arampage to tell people, don't be

(54:51):
a fearful Christian. God can'tuse us if we're full of fear. We
have to be bold and confidentin our faith and have him bring us
places, do things, say thingsthat will change culture, will change
hearts, will change lives, andnot worry about what they're thinking
of me or what could happen orwhat might go wrong. We can't have

(55:11):
fear. And the third thing wehave to start with prayer. Prayer
and fasting. And have that beour foundation. And then as we're
listening to God, let him useus in ways that are beyond what we
could hope for or imagine. Afriend of mine wrote a book called
One Big Thing.
Okay.
Phil Cook, great friend. Andwhat he says was he believes God
has created everybody to do atleast one big thing in the world.

(55:35):
Okay?
And we have to find what thatis. And he believes the way we can
find it is one of two things.Either to think about what are we
passionate about? What do wethink about all the time? What do
we talk about? What do we liketo do? And maybe that's the one big
thing we should focus on. Orwhat makes us mad, what do we hate?
What revs us up, what do wewant to change? And that might be

(55:59):
the one big thing. If we candefine and decide what it is that
we really are driven to dosomething about, we could find that
purpose. We can find that bigthing and we can move forward and
make an eternal difference. Ifwe just kind of get in a mode of
going to work and trying tomake a living and watching TV and
hanging out with friends and,oh, I hope for the weekend we have

(56:22):
missed a possible purpose thatcould be eternally significant. I
think Esther had that purpose.She knew she had to do something
and she focused on it, sheprayed about it, she brought other
people into it, and then sheobeyed without fear. And I would
love every Christian to live alife like that.
As we close, let's shift backto the Hollywood Prayer Network.

(56:47):
And for those who areChristians in entertainment, how
can they get involved? I knowwe didn't really talk about this
room. Where are we?
We are on the campus of theFirst Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.
It's actually the only churchin the country that has launched
five entertainment ministries.It's a visionary church. It stands

(57:08):
as a beacon in Hollywood. Asyou go down the Hollywood Freeway,
you see the cross. You can'tmiss it driving by. It's a place
that God really decided wouldbe the home of ministry to Hollywood.
So I feel honored to be a partof this. I launched the ministry
in 2001 on the campus of thischurch. I've been here ever since.

(57:29):
They have been partners,they've been supporters, they've
been co visionaries. It's beenwonderful. I'm here because if I'm
having the Hollywood PrayerNetwork, I wanna be in Hollywood.
Yeah, I think wherever we feelcalled, we need to be there. I don't
wanna drive in or send inLetters or make phone calls to people
in a place to minister tothem. I want to be living with them.

(57:50):
I want to be side by side. Andthere's a great verse in Jeremiah
29:4 through 7 that said Godsaid to the people he called into
exile or Hollywood, buyhouses, live in those houses, plant
gardens, eat from thosegardens, have families, get spouses
for your children, Increase,don't decrease. And seek the peace

(58:11):
and the prosperity of theplace that I have called you and
pray for it. Because if itprospers, you too will prosper. And
that's what the HollywoodPrayer Network is doing in Hollywood.
We have put down roots. Welive here, we love the people here,
we minister here. And we seekthe peace and the prosperity of the

(58:31):
people in the Hollywoodentertainment industry. And as we
pray for them, we too willprosper. And that's what we've done
for 21 years. That's what wewill continue to do down the line.
I just want to encourage otherpeople to find their mission field,
to pour into the people thatGod has put them in the place where
they're meant to be, wherethey use their gifts and talents

(58:54):
to consider themselvesmissionaries, not people to change
somebody else. But to be in aplace to love other people, to obey
God, to use their gifts andtalents in a place that can encourage
other people to find out aboutthe love of Jesus and then to trust
him so fully that he can useus to make a difference. And so the

(59:16):
Hollywood Prayer Network isonline. Hollywoodprayernetwork.org
we have all kinds of ways toget involved. We send out a bi weekly
call prayer sheet. It's a callsheet which is what they use when
they have movies and TV shows.And we pray for the people here.
We have prayer partnerships. Iwould love to have more Christians

(59:36):
on the outside of Hollywoodtake one Christian, Hollywood professional
to pray for as their mediamissionary. We've matched thousands
of prayer partners this way.We have a Friday prayer call, one
hour at 12 noon Pacific time.We just get people on zoom and we
pray for Hollywood. We have akids and teen prayer calendar. We

(59:58):
have wristbands that say thezip code of Hollywood to pray for.
We have remote prayer stickersthat say stop and pray for this show.
And it fits on the front ofany TV remote. I have done any crazy
thing I can do to get peopleto pray for Hollywood.
And sometimes it's the crazythings that are the most effective.
I hope so. I hope we touchevery Christian and challenge them

(01:00:21):
and mobilize them to pray forHollywood because prayer for Hollywood
will bring cultural revival. Itruly believe that.
Well, Karen, it has been a pleasure.
Thank you.
And I want to thank you forcoming onto the show today.
Oh, absolutely, Erin. I reallyappreciate it. And the best to you
too.
Thank you for joining us fortoday's episode of Eternal Impact.

(01:00:43):
I really enjoyed ourconversation with Karen, and I appreciate
her sharing vision with.
The rest of you.
My biggest personal takeawayand conviction is that you can't
hate someone you're prayingfor. It makes me realize how many
people in the spotlight I'vebeen critical of instead of prayerful

(01:01:04):
toward, and that's something Ineed to work on. In our next episode,
we visit Kings Harbor Churchin Torrance, California to talk with
Pastor Mike Johnny about howgrowing up the son of immigrant parents
led to him shepherding achurch in a unique part of Los Angeles.
Then we take a look at aunique story in First Samuel involving

(01:01:25):
King Saul's son Jonathan andhis armor bearer facing off against
the Philistines. Please don'tmiss it and make sure to subscribe
and share this show with yourfriends. For more information or
to join our email newsletter,visit our website at. Eternal EternalImpact
show until next episode, I amAaron Matthew Kaiser and this is

(01:01:46):
Eternal Impact.