First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood

and different actors and started being a little more open about their faith.

There was Henrietta Mears, who was a woman out of Hollywood Presbyterian Church who started a Bible study for people in the entertainment industry.

Jane Russell was a part of it.

And, oh, the Western Dale Evans and her husband.

Her excellent scriptural knowledge and unflinching confidence in God's Word is the substance of her popular book, What the Bible is Really All About, a book that has sold 4 million copies to date.

Considering she grew the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood's Sunday School program to 6,000 members from just a body of 400, there is no denying the effectiveness of Henrietta's teaching.

But we might never have heard this high school chemistry teacher if she hadn't learned early on that God wants you to know His will for your life.

And if you are willing to enter, that door should open automatically.

In 1927, Henrietta Mears took a year off from a busy life to make career decisions.

Should she continue as a high school chemistry teacher and work at the church part-time? Or was she meant for full-time ministry? Henrietta toured Europe with her sister Margaret and then went to California for the winter.

The goal was to see the sights and visit the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.

Two years earlier, Dr. Stuart P. McLennan had been a guest speaker at Henrietta's church in Minneapolis and her guest for lunch.

They worked with Pastor Charles Zuheda and his church's free meal program that he ran in Hollywood, California.

This pastor, he's an associate pastor, At the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, which is commonly known as Hollywood Presbyterian.

Anything that says Hollywood in front of it, I think unless you live in California, sounds a little bizarre.

Yeah.

Wow.

But Olga and Helen, they don't give up that easily.

In the fall of 2002, a man named Kenneth McDavid is sleeping outside the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.

He, like Paul, used their homeless program for food and assistance.

So in each episode, we have a short clip of Dallas's teaching, and then we spend some time unpacking his ideas together and applying those ideas to our lives.

Today, we have another clip from a series called The Kingdom of God that Dallas gave back at Hollywood Presbyterian Church in 1990.

In the first episode, we looked at what is spiritual formation and how is it done, which was a great introduction to some of Dallas's foundational thoughts on spiritual formation.

In essence, Dallas says spiritual formation is a process in which we get to partner with God to allow him to change us, and we don't control it, and we also take an active role in it.