"There were four new gay-themed films opening in L.A.," he says. "I was so frustrated. Why do they get to make movies, and I don't? Why can't Mormons do the same thing? Each film doesn't have to be for the whole world. Just appeal to enough people to get your money back. Even if only LDS liked the films, that's enough. It was so clear. It was as if someone shook me. I sat at the picnic table and started to work it out. Up to that point I was writing mainstream stuff. I wondered what kind of story can I tell as a Mormon that no one else can tell. It was a totally new place. I began writing. I'd be weeping at the computer. Just going through these stories that moved me and taught me. I realized I had spent five years on 'Girl Crazy' to make 90 minutes of fluff. It was cute, but it didn't mean anything. It was totally disposable entertainment, and it almost drove me to bankruptcy. I decided five years of my life was worth more than that, and at least I was going to make something that matters so I could look back on it and say it was worth it."

He wrote a script for a Mormon Western and even started to raise money for it when he realized the film would be too expensive for an independent filmmaker to produce. There was no way an investor was going to give him $2 million to $3 million for a movie that targeted an untested market. To make a movie he could afford, Dutcher decided it had to be set in L.A, it had to be in present day and it had to use young actors (read: cheaper, nonunion). Then it dawned on him: Missionaries.

"What better movie to lead off with?" he says. "I drew on my own experiences. I took two years and condensed them. They tell you to write about what you know. I knew this was absolutely right."

He met plenty of skepticism along the way. It took him four years to raise $300,000 and produce 'God's Army.' Dutcher played the lead role in part to save money. "It was hard to find the right actor on that budget," he says. "I almost cast someone else. But at the last minute I thought I'm not going to do all the work and let someone else have all the fun."

"God's Army" was largely a husband-wife production. Gwen, who was a line producer for "Girl Crazy," helped with costumes, marketing, sets and publicity. "She would use her maiden name so we wouldn't sound like a mom-and-pop outfit," says Dutcher. "It was just Gwen and I until a couple of weeks before the movie actually opened. I was working constantly. We were in over our heads." They even booked theaters and hand-delivered prints of the movies to Utah theaters before signing with Excel Entertainment.