Before the Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship became an international
fellowship, pastor Michael Neville and his family began their ministry after moving to
southeast Los Angeles, from their original home church in
Oklahoma. The small church was founded in
Maywood, California as the "Rosewood Assembly" in May 1975. Over the course of their ministry, Maywood had transitioned from a predominantly middle-class, white area, to a predominantly
Hispanic community. Seeing this transition, Michael Neville viewed it to be imperative, that the demographic composition of a church within a community should reflect the community at large. Members who were not comfortable with change left the church, but the church soon began to take on a much more
multicultural profile, recruiting even among young
gang members,
prostitutes and
drug-dealers. The church quickly began to grow through the conversion of the disparaged and rejected among the community, who would later on go to pastor their own churches. Since many of the new converts came from gangs and street-life, other denominations and fellowships refused to open doors for them to assimilate and pastor. Michael Neville then began to send these men and women out to pioneer churches under the umbrella of the Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship. The movement reached a zenith in 1980, after the first church was established in
Ontario, California. Since that time, over 300 churches have been planted across the United States and a total of 4300 churches worldwide have been established. From 1986 to 1988 it used the former
Golden Gate Theater building for services. == After Michael Neville ==