Hollywood producer spent 25 years praying for Tinseltown, says 'you can't hate them'

Hollywood is a place many Christians have condemned; Karen Covell has spent 25 years asking them to pray for the people who work there instead.

She is the founder of the Hollywood Prayer Network and sees the town as her greatest ministry.

After all, screenwriters themselves have long preached the maxim "story is everything," and if stories create meaning, influence emotions and shape identity, then Hollywood is the most influential mission field there ever was.

That’s what Covell was thinking when she began the faith-based organization that, along with her staff and now 170+ chapters in 42 countries, just celebrated its 25th anniversary with a Gatsby-themed gala in downtown Los Angeles.

FORMER DISNEY STAR DAVID HENRIE REJECTED 'SECULAR' HOLLYWOOD LIFESTYLE AFTER LIFE-CHANGING MONASTERY VISIT Founded in 2001, the Hollywood Prayer Network , through prayer, community and resources, supports the entertainment industry’s storytellers and believes the next generation of actors, writers, directors and producers doesn't have to maneuver Tinseltown alone.

The organization offers everything from intercessory prayer and professional discipleship programs to networking and Bible studies.

"We have a beautiful community here.

You couldn't get me out of this place for anything because the people that are here are wonderful," Covell told Fox News Digital.

It was more than 25 years ago that Covell, along with her composer husband, Jim Covell, saw and felt the need for believers in Hollywood to have support.

KEVIN SORBO BLASTS HOLLYWOOD 'BLACKLISTING' OF CONSERVATIVES AS 'SEVENTH GRADE MEAN GIRLS' CULTURE "It's competitive, a lot of people look for work, we're all freelancers, and we wanted to support the people of faith here who really felt like they had one foot in the church and one foot in the Hollywood entertainment industry and neither one liked each other," Covell, who originally came to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, explained.

While the two had already started a prayer group, they found that those coming to Los Angeles out of the church arrived in the city, as she put it, already "beat up." SKILLET’S JOHN COOPER SAYS CHRISTIANS WHO CALL ROCK MUSIC ‘DEMONIC’ ARE ‘GETTING THE GOSPEL WRONG’ "I knew Hollywood didn't like the church because we were really terrible to them — we boycotted, we threw out our TVs, we burned their books — we wouldn't go to their movies, you know, but I believed if you pray for somebody, you can't hate them," Covell said.

She recalled hearing stories from people in the group whose families, pastors and friends had warned them not to go to Los Angeles — that it was Satan's pit and that they couldn't live there.