Next George Lucas film provides outreach opportunities for church

George Lucas's next cinema release tells the true story of America's first African-American squadron of fighter pilots during World War II.

Damaris Trust has worked together with Momentum Pictures to provide resources for the church to help dig into the themes.

The film promises to be inspiring stuff, starring Cuba Gooding Jr and Spooks actor David Oyelowo.

There are battles on more than one level for the squadron as they face Nazi enemies, prejudiced allies and doubts about God.

Oyelowo plays Joe ‘Lightning’ Little, fearless flyer and the squadron’s spiritual cynic. Oyelowo says he was passionate about playing the role and enjoyed portraying Lightning’s changing attitude towards God.

"I was passionate about this guy from day one … There’s nothing more interesting for an actor than to be different at the end than you were at the beginning," he says.

Damaris’ free resources include a number of downloadable clips from the film, along with suggestions for how they can be used to illustrate important spiritual themes as part of an outreach service.

The illustration ideas are all being included on Damaris’ popular Tools for Talks website - see www.toolsfortalks.com

Damaris Trust's Nick Pollard is encouraging as many churches as possible to use the film in their ongoing outreach.

He said: "Red Tails is an inspiring story about an amazing journey. Damaris’ resources will help churches to engage with their communities and challenge them to make spiritual journeys of their own."

The free resources will be available at www.damaris.org/redtails from 1 June. Red Tails is released on 6 June - the 68th anniversary of D-Day.