A feel-good story first brought to light by Oprah and People Magazine, “The Story of Possum Trot” tells of a poor black town in East Texas where one small church’s congregation took it on itself to adopt as many unwanted foster children “in the system,” with testing but also inspiring results.

The film benefits from warm, confident performances from its leads and genuine lump-in-the-throat pathos in its situations and subject matter. It’s hard not to be moved by the sermons performed by Pastor W.C. Martin, played to great effect by Demetrius Grosse of “This is Martin Bonner” and “Rampage.”

And screen newcomer Nika King, as the preacher’s wife, “First Lady” Donna Martin, is just as good, and never more moving than when she makes the simplest, most compelling argument for churchgoers to add adoption to their ministry and their faith,

“How can we not do something?”

It seems like an impulse when Donna Martin, grieving over losing her mother, who raised her and 17 siblings, decides to drag her sister Diane (Jillian Reeves) to a seminar on adoption led by social worker Susan Ramsay (Elizabeth Mitchell). With her part time pastor husband struggling to provide for their two children — one of them with special needs — in between sermons at Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, it takes some convincing to bring him on board.

But when your wife tells you — “He spoke to me.” “Who did?” “The LORD.” — and you’re a pastor, you’re pretty much required to take heed.

And so they start taking in children. And others in their congregation, young and older, single and married couples, take up the call.

The viewer can sense trouble on the horizon when W.C. tells the social worker “We want the ones that don’t nobody else want.”

First Lady Donna reminds Susan Ramsay “The State ain’t no family.” Hey, it’s Texas. We get it.

To its credit, the script doesn’t sugar-coat the trials these earnest, well-intentioned decisions invite. It’s expensive raising kids, even with a stipend from the state for fostering them (I gather actual adoption cuts that off?). The entire church struggles, and Pastor Martin finds himself asking for help from the rich, building-fund/group cruise-taking megachurch across the county (director Josh Weigel plays that somewhat defensive pastor).

And the kids have issues — trauma, trust etc. Taking in Terri (Dianna Babnicova) means coping with a tween about to turn teen who pretends she’s a cat to cope, and who ignores guidance about how to properly manage her budding sexuality.

Still, when Donna and others in that congregation assure these new children they’re taking responsibility for “We YOUR people, now,” you can’t help but be touched.

But “Sound of Hope: The Possum Trot Story” often drifts between the pointed, emotional, spirit-moved sermons, without any pace or much of a sense of forward motion.

First time feature filmmakers Joshua and Rebekah Weigel’s film relies on the lazy screenwriter’s crutch, endless voice-over narration, to tell a story and shortchanges what most of us would consider interesting details as it circles towards an ending we see coming but feels only half-earned.

White filmmakers writing in Southern Black vernacular is by default, problematic. The film struggles to steer clear of being patronizing, at times.

They back away from giving our social worker much of an edge, but hint there’s one there as she brings up the fact that “religious guilt can’t fix a broken child’s hurt.” That whole side of the story is over-simplified, as the state’s responsibilities mean it can’t just sign over children to such groups, as the film suggests is “the solution.” A steady drumbeat of news stories about church abuse in the South underscores this.

And they soft-sell the “Why aren’t more churches doing this?” question by sitting on the fence about that megachurch pastor and his Osteen-lite ethos.

The film isn’t entirely artless, as Grosse and King tug at the heart in sermons and pleas shot in extreme close-up, and with a hand-held camera scene capturing the spirit moving the congregation to buck each other up and shoulder their burdens collectively.

Melodramatic touches and abrupt shifts in time and focus soften this Georgia-shot East Texas story’s impact.

But when the camera’s on Grosse and King, “The Story of Possum Trot” is never less than compelling and convincing in its argument that if ever there was any mission churches should attempt to take on, it is this one.

Let’s just hope this latest film from the “Sound of Freedom” studio — the “Sound of Hope” title ties the two films — is more scandal-free than their last one. Not that it’s without controversy.

Rating: PG-13, violence, sexual situations, profanity

Cast: Nika King, Demetrius Grosse, Elizabeth Mitchell, Jillian Reeves, Kaysi J. Bradley and Dianna Babnicova

Credits: Directed by Joshua Weigel, scripted by Joshua Weigel and Rebekah Weigel. An Angel Studios release.

Running time: 2:07