Reflections on the First 25 Years of Hollywood Prayer Network

In 2001, I quit a job I loved as a producer on a television show because I wanted to be home with my two boys. I jumped into being a full-time Mom...until I realized I needed something else to do.  I found myself pondering something that had been on my mind for years: my frustration with the relationship between the Church and Hollywood.

Back in 1983, Jim and I had started a prayer group with our dear friend Soozie.  We met each month with a growing group of Christians in LA who were entertainment industry professionals.  Besides making great friends, new working associates, and partners, we had one thing in common: no one from our families or churches understood why we would come to Hollywood and work in the evil entertainment business.  We heard story after story of people moving to LA despite discouragement from their families, pastors, and friends, who all thought that they were making a very bad decision.

In contrast, I loved LA.  I loved my work, my friends, my church, and my amazing Christian community.  It made no sense that Christians outside of Hollywood would be so afraid or so hateful of Hollywood that they would try to stop talented believers from coming here.  I decided that it was time to bridge the gap between The Church and Hollywood.

I knew I could never get Hollywood to like the church, because we boycotted Films, TV shows and Creative professionals; we threw out our television sets and burned our books. As a people group, Christians are not known for being a loving ally.  But I did and still do believe that if you pray for someone, you can’t hate them.

My vision was to start a non-profit that mobilized a network of Christians to pray for the people, the projects and the issues in Hollywood -- the world’s most influential mission field. And in August of 2001, I founded the Hollywood Prayer Network (HPN).

I often joke that HPN was the slowest-growing ministry on the planet.  It began with me sitting in my home office, emailing people one at a time to ask if they would pray for Hollywood and the people here who impact the world with their stories. That fall, I filmed the first HPN video: a six-minute promo called "The Hollywood Crisis," which talked about how the relationship between Christians outside of Hollywood and Hollywood professionals was a Crisis, and encouraged people to please pray.

I got great support from a few people in our community. One man at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church took me under his wing, helping me to raise money so I could start sending out the promo video and print materials for mailings. These efforts led to a grant that allowed me to have a part-time assistant. I started writing a monthly email and hard-copy newsletter on How to Pray for Hollywood. Slowly, word spread and our community grew. I began to hear from people across the country who said they wanted to represent HPN in their cities, and our first local chapters were formed. That sparked interest from people around the world, who wanted to form their own local HPN chapters, and suddenly I was International!

As the ministry grew, I encountered incredible resistance from the Church. I received emails saying that I wasn't really a Christian if I worked in Hollywood; I was hung up on during a live Christian radio show; and I found my name on a HATE LIST from a church in the Midwest.  All of these incidents opened my eyes to the true spiritual battle that I was up against.  My response was to dig in even deeper to address the relationship between the Church and Hollywood.  I started working as a producer again, and went full force into HPN.

About 15 years into my Hollywood prayer journey, I saw a real shift in our community and produced my second HPN video, this time called “The Hollywood Tribe.”  It showed how we had come out of the crisis and formed a tribe of like-minded people in Hollywood who worked with integrity, shared our faith, and encouraged other Christians to move here and join us.

Around this time, I became actively involved in the Producers Guild of America, and as a working producer was able to live out my Hollywood prayer journey by loving my fellow professionals and sharing my faith along the way.

The ministry was also growing during this time, spreading to even more cities across the US and internationally, including in the UK, Ireland, and Israel. I felt it was time to produce yet another video, this time called “The Hollywood Community,” which demonstrated the need for prayer in Hollywood and showcased some of the incredible working professionals who had become part of our HPN community.

We had grown from a Crisis, to a small Tribe of followers, to now an active Community of Christians in Hollywood.  I was encouraged by the potential of the cause, the slow but consistent growth of the ministry, and the passion I was seeing in some of my industry friends.

Then, in 2020, I met a young lady who changed my world.  Kelry Kirschenmann, newly transplanted from Wisconsin to LA, tracked me down and said she wanted to work for me.  At the time, I didn’t have an opening on my staff or the money to hire another staff member, but we started praying together regularly. A few months later, when my assistant had to leave, I knew it was time to hire Kelry.

I quickly learned that Kelry was a big thinker, a visionary, and had a faith I only imagined having. Not long after she jumped on board, she threw an HPN 20th birthday party, and in August of 2021, over 500 people came out of Covid to celebrate Hollywood, Prayer, and Community! It was glorious.

By 2023, the ministry had begun to expand exponentially, and Kelry and I felt it was time to make an updated video, entitled “The Global Movement.”  It showcased the growth of HPN and the impact of Christians from all over the world who had joined our mission to pray for Hollywood and the global entertainment industry.

As the ministry grew, we were able to hire another employee and expand our outreach further by launching HPN's Community Groups, which provide a space for entertainment professionals to gather for prayer and community while they navigate the ins and outs of life as believers in Hollywood. I was thrilled to see my oldest son, Christopher (a writer and Script Development Executive) join the cause and begin leading one of these groups. 

It has been an awesome and humbling thing to see our prayers break through the spiritual battle that tried to take me down decades before and see how the ministry is thriving. Over these last few years, HPN has encouraged more people to pray, donate, and walk alongside us than we could have imagined at its founding.

This year, in August 2026, HPN will celebrate its 25th year. After a quarter-century of growing the ministry from a small group of prayer warriors to a vibrant community, we now have a global mailing list of almost 30,000 recipients; a local community of almost 10,000 Christian professionals in Hollywood; 167 Chapters in 42 countries around the world; and a prayer team and staff that are a powerhouse of prayer, vision and faith.

I praise God for what He’s doing in Hollywood as a whole, but even more so, I praise him in my heart, as I watch Him grow the vision of the ministry, grow the community at HPN, and grow my faith.  I truly believe that prayer for Hollywood will bring cultural revival.  

Our team is thrilled to celebrate the milestone 25th anniversary of the ministry - and we cannot wait to walk with you into the next 25 years of Hollywood Prayer Network!