With billionaires racing to colonise Mars and build orbital resorts, one theologian is asking: “Who will bring the gospel to outer space?”
Stephen Stallard is author of “The Final Frontier of Mission: Space Tourism, Lunar Colonies, and the Future of Interplanetary Mission” – a chapter in the book New Frontiers in Missiology (2025).
Stallard told en: “If people are going to take their sin with them into outer space, then Christians must follow with the gospel. Outer space is the final frontier of mission.”
Practically, Stallard points to a tried-and-tested bi-vocational approach, in which Christian workers support themselves through a trade while bearing witness to Christ.
He cites American astronaut Shannon Lucid, who spent 188 days aboard the Russian space station Mir. Before her mission, Lucid’s home church recorded a space-themed service – including a sermon for the cosmonauts – which was sent into space. “This is the only known instance of potential evangelism in outer space,” Stallard writes.
“This is what we have always done: take the gospel where the people are,” Stallard has written. He points to Antarctica – home to 1,000–5,000 people, mostly scientists, and several churches – where gospel witness continues through bi-vocational workers and chaplains.
“Imagine the future less than a century from now: there will be orbital resorts, multiple research space stations, and lunar mining colonies,” Stallard writes. “People are going to space, and the gospel must go with them. If this is our future, how do we envision mission on the final frontier?”
Stallard says a second strategy for future lunar missionaries is chaplaincy. “Since the new Space Force [a branch of the US armed forces set up in 2019] already has chaplains, who have in turn envisioned sending chaplains to the moon, this model does not seem far-fetched.”
Stallard continues: “Chaplains operating on behalf of an organisation (likely the military or a large mining corporation) may have opportunities to set up chapels on the lunar surface. They will be able to preach, to disciple, but probably not to engage in overt evangelism. Still, they will be able to bear witness to the God who made the moon.”
Stallard believes that, within his lifetime, Christians will have a semi-permanent presence in outer space, sharing the gospel with lunar neighbours.
en spoke to Dr Chris Howles, Director of Cross-Cultural Training at Oak Hill College, London, about Stallard’s ideas: “I admire Stallard’s instinct to get Christians thinking before events overtake us. Too often, the church reacts rather than anticipates cultural and technological shifts.
“Stallard foresees ‘outer space as the new missional frontier,’ and that idea deserves careful attention,” Howles said.
“Secular ideologies may shape future space societies, promising human perfection through science alone. Christian presence among astronauts, engineers and settlers could offer a needed reminder that technology cannot heal sin or satisfy the soul. Only redemption in Christ can do that, whether one lives on Earth or far beyond it!”
