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In a year in which The Passion of the Christ and Shrek 2 have been smash hits, one would hope that Hollywood is getting the message that faith-based and family-friendly films can indeed work.

But while those box-office dollars certainly speak volumes, they don't necessarily change the hearts of Hollywood's decision makers. That's where we need to pray. Where would Hollywood be today if American Christians actually started praying for the people creating films, music and TV shows?

Washington, D.C., is the global seat of power. Since the beginning of our nation, Christians have faithfully prayed for our political leaders, and today there are hundreds of prayer movements whose focus is to specifically pray for those leaders. The Presidential Prayer Team alone has an e-mail list of over 2.6 million American prayer warriors.

While Washington is the global seat of power, Hollywood is the global seat of influence. And Americans have long been concerned about Hollywood's offerings. But instead of rallying to pray, as many have done for Washington, Christians often have rallied to rail—against Hollywood. Instead of encouraging entertainment leaders to produce better fare, Christians have organized angry letter-writing campaigns to express their distaste—and even hatred.

But "grousing is not a gift of the Spirit," says Steve Douglass, president of Campus Crusade for Christ International. "We need to stop complaining about Hollywood and start praying for it."

There are only two known organizations whose goal is to mobilize national prayer for people in the entertainment industry, and both are located in Hollywood. Mastermedia International and The Hollywood Prayer Network (HPN) are non-profit ministries who understand the need for asking God to change the hearts and lives of the people in that community.

For 15 years, Mastermedia has printed the Media Leaders Prayer Calendar, distributed quarterly to almost 50,000 people. That's wonderful—but a far cry from the 2.6 million on the Presidential Prayer Team. HPN, meanwhile, sends monthly e-mails to an estimated 10,000 prayer warriors. Again, that's good—but far short of what it could be. And as far as we know, there are no Christian ministries outside of Hollywood whose sole purpose is to organize national prayer for this influential yet unevangelized hidden "people group."

There are prayer ministries, prayer e-mails, prayer newsletters and prayer teams reaching millions of people who intercede for our schools, our government, our military, our police, firemen, drunk drivers, professional athletes, families, marriages, religious leaders, missionaries, hidden people groups, college students and even animals.

But why aren't we praying for Hollywood?

We've poured our prayers into missionary friends in Nigeria, but we haven't thought to pray for the producers of CSI or Law and Order. We've given money to a godly man in our church who is helping to translate the Bible into Swahili, but when a friend's talented daughter can't get a job as a singer in Nashville, we tell her to come home and get a real job.

We send Christians to mission fields around the world, but we try our hardest to keep Christians away from the world's most influential mission field: Hollywood. What's up with that?

We have to step back from our stereotyped beliefs about Hollywood and ask the Creator of the Universe—and of the arts—how we should look at people in the entertainment industry. We have to listen to Christians in Hollywood about what they need from the church in order to make an eternal difference.

We can't be afraid of Hollywood or its people. True, many aren't Christians, or even churchgoers. And yes, they often create entertainment that's immoral, violent and inappropriate. So do we hate them for it, or do we pray for them? Do we avoid them like the plague, or do we go as tent-makers to work side by side with them, build relationships, pray for them and love them to Jesus?

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