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Welch says it has also been encouraging to see pastors getting new ideas for outreach from the other pastors that have made use of the program. "So just the collaboration aspect of it and being able to go on and look at another church's outreaches and ideas—there is no other site that exists that has that," he says.

And what about down the road? Will the Ark Almighty program continue once the movie has come and gone? "That's the hope," says Welch. Youth Specialties already has plans for the film's DVD release in November; among other things, they are talking to major secular retailers about bundling the DVD with their books.

"One of the things we're doing is reworking some curriculum to help some students deal with social justice issues," says Welch, "and we're working on another book that will release with the DVD that deals with social justice and changing the world. And we're also working on a journal for students that helps them walk through their acts of random kindness, if they want to meet in groups and chronicle that."

The words "social justice" might sound rather large and ambitious for a program that focuses on small, random acts of kindness, but Welch says it ties into the film's theme that "changing the world" starts on the personal level—even if it goes on to other levels as well. "It might start with teaching students to have the heart of a servant by doing laundry and so on, but that's the starting place, and if they have a vision to change the world, it's going to go beyond changing laundry."

© Peter T. Chattaway 2007, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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