Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship
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The Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship is a group of Christian churches centered in Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
[edit] History
In May 1975, pastor Michael Neville and his family came to southeast Los Angeles to assume the pastorate of a small church in Maywood, California. The neighborhood had changed from a middle-class white area to a predominantly Latino community. It was the pastor's conviction that the church should reflect its neighborhood. This caused an immediate exodus of members who were not comfortable with change but the church was soon filled again with people of different nationalities and took on a much more multicultural profile, recruiting even among young gang members.
The movement spread when in 1980 the first "baby church" was established in Ontario, California. Since that time, over 200 churches have been planted across the United States and many more worldwide.
[edit] Continuation beyond the work of Michael Neville
Michael Neville died in January 1996 at 49 years of age. The senior pastor is now his widow Donna Neville. To date, there have been sixteen new churches established under her leadership. Pastor Larry Neville is the senior leader of the ministry based in Rancho Cuccamonga, California.
Praise Chapel considers itself to be an international family of fellowships of churches and ministries. It has over 200 churches in the United States and 700 globally. Its vision is summarized as "Evangelize the Lost, Disciple the Believers and Multiply through Church Planting" or more briefly "Win-Build-Send".
Every two years the Praise Chapel Family of Fellowships joins together for a World Bible Conference. The July 2006 event was held in Phoenix, Arizona. It also holds further Bible Conferences in other parts of the United States and other countries.
