Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship

The Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship is a group of Christian churches centered in Los Angeles, California, United States of America.

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.

Praise Chapel as a fellowship started when Neville and other leaders split off from Wayman Mitchell's Potter's House Christian Fellowship to form a separate group. One of the key presenting issues was Mitchell's controlling ministry style.

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.Praise Chapel was extended to Africa through the resilience and passion of Pastors Frank and Victoria Donkor from Ghana.From their 'mother church' at Abeka-Lapaz,Accra,Ghana, they have spearheaded the Growth of the church on the African continent by sending Missionaries each year to start new churches throughout Ghana and its surrounding nations such as Liberia and Togo.

In England,Pastors Oscar and Gloria Medrano have been pastoring the Word of Life Worship Centre(a praise chapel affiliate church)in Rainham,Essex, while Pastors Brandon and Pamela Munoz shepherd the FreedomHouse Chapel,at the very heart of Camden Town,London.

Praise Chapel's 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.

External links

* [http://www.praisechapel.com/ Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship]
* [http://www.praisechapelhp.com/ Praise Chapel Huntington Park]
* [http://www.praisechapelparamount.com/ Praise Chapel Paramount]