Can You Please Not Complain ... for 21 Days?

Bowen's complaint-free crusade has spread around the world.

Every Saturday, volunteers gather in the church basement to ship between 30,000 and 50,000 bracelets. On this particular Saturday, orders will be mailed as far as Thailand, Jordan and Britain.

"I thought when he handed out these bracelets, it would last for a couple of weeks," said church member Jennifer Alsup, who was busy stuffing purple bracelets into a stack of packing envelopes. "And now it's all over the world."

Not that Jennifer is complaining. She proudly wears her purple bracelet on her right wrist.

"I made my 21 days," she said, smiling. "It took me eight months. The hardest part was at work. I'm a nurse."

There is even a complaint-free cruise scheduled for next year.

But -- imagine this! -- there are some complaints about the campaign to stifle complaining.

Barbara Held, a professor of psychology at Bowdoin College and author of "Stop Smiling, Start Kvetching: A Five-Step Guide to Creative Complaining," said, "One size does not fit all. That's true of clothing, and it's true of coping. Some need to vent. Some don't."

Apparently, more people want to vent less. On a recent Sunday morning, Bowen announced the official numbers from the pulpit.

"We have 5.3 million bracelets that we have sent out now," he said. The congregation burst into applause.

Bowen's goal is to distribute 60 million bracelets worldwide, to 1 percent of the world's population.

"We feel that if we can get 60 million bracelets out, that we can totally transform the consciousness of the planet."

He adds, "I think that if a church this size in the Midwest can do something that is impacting the world the way we are, then every one of us is more powerful than we ever dreamed."

And that is hardly a complaint.