Moviemaking churches are venturing into the cineplex to attract souls who might never set foot in a megachurch.

Like Hollywood films, they take on real-life issues in dramatic packages:
· A resentful white cop and his black partner struggle with race and fatherhood before taking a lesson in reconciliation from Oscar winner Lou Gossett Jr. in a cameo role. That’s The Grace Card, underwritten by an optometrist for his small church in Tennessee.
· An aimless 20-year-old, adventuring with his buddies in India, discovers the global horror of sex slavery and makes it his life-changing cause. That’s Not Today, backed by a California Quaker church.
· Cops facing rough times on the streets realize their real failures are at home — as fathers who don’t know, or don’t care, how to truly love their kids. That’s Courageous, the fourth film from Sherwood Baptist Church, which is so successful in its moviemaking ministry that it now coaches others.

“Movies are the stained-glass windows of the 21st century, the place to tell the Gospel story to people who may not read a Bible,” says Michael Catt, senior pastor of Sherwood in Albany, Ga.

“Cinematography can tell a message that moves people, and brings them into conversation with believers,” says Jeremy Johnston, executive pastor at 5,000-member First Family Church in Overland Park, Kan. His church has brought thousands of people to see Christian-themed films at local theaters and on its own 12-screen campus.

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