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Do we try to make them act like Christians? Or do we pray for them to become Christians?

Many in the entertainment industry have become Christians, experiencing not just radical personal change, but an increase in the quality of their work. And it all began with prayer. For example:

• A film producer stopped making exploitation films after turning her life over to God. In fact, after much prayer, her most recent film has a theme of abstinence.
• A network executive became a Christian and threw out an immoral script he had been writing, saying that he couldn't write that anymore.
• A godly writer of a controversial sitcom got assigned an uncomfortable story line, asked for prayer from his friends—and suddenly the story line disappeared.

The only answer to "the Hollywood problem" is prayer—loving prayer and much more of it.

Hollywood won't go away. Its influence is ever growing, even defining our culture. And we have to face it head on—but not alone. It's not a battle of flesh and blood. We've tried that, and it doesn't work. It's a battle of spiritual powers, and the only way to win is for Christians to pray together for God to redeem his people in the media.

We need prayer teams to join e-mail lists so that 2.6 million people are praying for Hollywood's leaders. We need churches to commission their young people to join the entertainment industry as missionaries, and then to support them through money and prayer. We need the Mastermedia Media Leader Prayer Calendars to be on every church table that offers Our Daily Bread. We need every TV remote in Christian homes to have a Hollywood Prayer Network Remote Prayer Sticker on it, reminding everyone in that home to stop and pray for the people involved in the shows that they're watching or surfing through.

Who will join the movement to pray? Start by asking God what your part is. Start praying for—rather than against, as many Christians are apt to do—entertainment decision and celebrities.

God's greatest commandment is to love him and then love others as ourselves. We must love people in Hollywood—Christians and the lost—and ask God to touch and move them, to humble themselves before him. Then and only then will we see lives change.

And just think: Praying for Hollywood could bring cultural revival. Not just here, but around the world.

Karen Covell is a TV producer and the Director of the Hollywood Prayer Network, where you can get a free 15-minute DVD, " The Hollywood Crisis," some Remote Prayer Stickers, sign up to be an "I to I" prayer partner and receive their monthly e-mail on how to pray for Hollywood.

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