As a member of Lake Avenue Church for 46 years and as a supported missionary to Hollywood for the past 20 years, Karen Covell is a Producer in Hollywood and the Founding Director of the Hollywood Prayer Network, a ministry encouraging Christians to pray for the people in the Hollywood Entertainment Industry, which is the world's most influential mission field.
As a TV and film producer, Karen loves true stories. And she has experienced amazing stories of people whose lives have changed because of a life encounter with Jesus in Hollywood. Jim,
her trophy husband of 39 years, is a TV and film composer, and they have two adult sons, Cameron and Christopher, who both grew up at LAC, were dedicated and baptized there. Christopher works in script development in LA and Cameron works in production for Disney in New York City. The Covells have made films together as a family for the past 15 years and have ministered together in the entertainment industry.
And they have seen miracles and experienced God moving in the hearts and lives of both Christians and pre-Christians in Hollywood. In fact, after Jim turned down work from a producer who wanted him to score their compromising film. This female producer had never experienced anyone ever turning down work before and started wondering if she was a moral person. Her questions led her to meet with Karen and she soon became a Christian! All because Jim turned her down.
Karen and Jim have also seen God change the environment in Hollywood. When they started their careers in the early 1980s Jim and Karen could barely find other Christians in Hollywood.
Now they know of over 10,000 vocal Christians working in film, TV, music, video games, and internet content. They have baptized new believers in their backyard jacuzzi, prayed with people on all levels of the industry, and for the past 32 years, they have trained hundreds of entertainment Christians in how to share their faith, by teaching a class in their home called “How to Talk About Jesus Without Freaking Out.”
They are currently meeting with a young couple who are a Hindu and a Muslim, and they have worked with atheists, agnostics, Scientologists and people in New Age. They speak to Christians outside of Hollywood encouraging them to change their perspectives from hating Hollywood and “celebrities” to praying for the people here. As Karen says, “When you pray for someone, you can't hate them!”
Karen started the Hollywood Prayer Network (HPN) in 2001 and it has grown to now having 169 chapters in 42 countries! Since Hollywood is global, HPN is in all the major Media cities across the planet, either praying for professionals in media and entertainment or working with intercessors who pray for people in film, music and TV. They just came back from hosting an HPN Open House in Nashville and are planning a Local Chapter Director Summit for over 75 of their HPN international chapter leaders in Hollywood this August. They are building a strong community of believers in LA who are growing in their faith and in their careers. It’s remarkable what God is doing in the global entertainment industry and they get to be a part of His miraculous work!
The Covells want LAC to know that God is moving in Hollywood and the global entertainment industry and they ask us for more prayer. Would you join them in reaching the people who impact the world through the stories they create on film, television, music and video games, by praying with HPN? “Thank you for your visionary partnership!”
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About Karen Covell
KAREN COVELL is an independent Producer of films, Specials and Documentaries, Founding Director of the Hollywood Prayer Network (HPN) and Co-Founder and Producer for JC Productions, an independent film and music production company. She is also an active member of the Producers Guild of America.
As Founding Director of the Hollywood Prayer Network, Karen challenges Christians around the world to pray for the people, the projects and the issues in the world’s most influential marketplace, Hollywood. She also speaks and teaches around the country on how to pray for the people in the world’s most influential mission field, the entertainment industry. She is a published co-author of three books, 2 with her husband Jim and their writing partner Victorya Rogers, entitled, “How to Talk About Jesus Without Freaking Out” (the young people’s version called “The J Bomb”) and “The Day I Met God,” all available at Amazon.com, and a Devotional that she recently wrote and published entitled “Hollywood, Jesus and You”
Karen is married to her best pal, James Covell, a composer, and they have two awesome sons, Christopher and Cameron, who are both filmmakers in Hollywood and New York City.