Learning from Global Church Planting Movements

Lessons From Earth for the First Martian Churches

When the first believers gather on Mars, their church will likely be small, just as the earliest churches on Earth were small. Think of Paul meeting Lydia by the river in Philippi, or Priscilla and Aquila hosting a congregation in their home. They didn’t wait for ornate buildings or large crowds. They began with what they had, faith, the Word, and a willingness to obey Jesus’ command to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19).

The pioneers of Mars will be spiritual pioneers too. They will live in close quarters, sharing tools and air, but also sharing prayers, Scripture, and meals. The good news is that the challenges they face, distance, resource limits, and cultural adaptation, are not entirely new. Across the globe today, church planters work in hostile environments, among unreached peoples, with no buildings, budgets, or professional clergy. And yet, in these very places, the church has multiplied at astonishing rates.

Over the last two decades, something remarkable has happened. In Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, entire networks of small, multiplying churches have sprung up, sometimes growing to the fourth, fifth, or even tenth generation in just a few years. These are known as Church Planting Movements (CPMs) or Disciple Making Movements (DMMs). They show us that even in the most limited conditions, God’s people can grow and multiply if the DNA is right from the start.

For Mars, the lesson is simple: we do not have to invent the strategy from scratch. We can learn from what God is already doing on Earth.

The Core DNA of Movements

Global research on CPMs and DMMs has identified a set of principles that make church planting movements reproducible, sustainable, and faithful. If we translate them into Martian life, they become a blueprint for spiritual multiplication off-world.

1. Prayer and Holy Spirit Dependence

Every movement begins with prayer. On Earth, movement leaders spend extended hours interceding for open doors and receptive hearts. On Mars, where every breath is precious, prayer will be the first and most vital work, asking God to sustain the colony physically and spiritually. The colony’s prayer rhythms could mirror Acts 1:14, where the early church was “constantly in prayer.”

2. Abundant Gospel Sowing

Movements do not grow by waiting for seekers to come. They go out with the good news. On Mars, “going out” may mean walking to another habitat module or starting a Scripture discussion during a maintenance shift. Every believer is trained to share their story and the gospel simply, so that even a short encounter in a greenhouse aisle can bear eternal fruit.

3. Obedience-Based Discipleship

DMM practitioners ask new believers not just what they learned from Scripture, but how they will obey it and who they will tell. This keeps discipleship active and missional from day one. On Mars, obedience might be lived out in acts of service, helping repair another’s water recycler, offering your limited leisure time to encourage a discouraged crew member, or leading a short Bible time over comms to an isolated outpost.

4. Indigenous Leadership and Lay Empowerment

The most effective movements do not rely on outside experts; they raise leaders from the harvest. On Mars, this means empowering settlers themselves, scientists, engineers, technicians, farmers, to shepherd small groups, teach the Word, and disciple others. Training will need to be simple, portable, and adapted to Martian realities, so that leadership can multiply without dependency on Earth.

5. Churches That Birth Churches

Healthy churches reproduce. On Mars, this could mean that the first fellowship in the main habitat intentionally sends two or three members to start another group in a new dome, mining site, or orbital station. Even a dozen people can commit to sending and starting anew, so that worship is never locked into one location.

6. Simple, Reproducible Methods

Movement tools are designed so anyone can use them immediately. This is vital in space, where resources are scarce and schedules are tight. Bible studies must be doable in a greenhouse, a mining shift break, or over radio. Worship formats should work with or without instruments, lighting, or printed materials.

7. Strong Scriptural Foundation

Even though methods are simple, doctrine must be solid. Movements ground every step in Scripture, training believers to rely on God’s Word and Spirit, not imported programs. On Mars, with resupply delays and possible communication blackouts, the colony’s survival as a church will depend on deep biblical literacy among all believers.

8. Holistic Ministry

Movements engage in good works, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, as a witness to the gospel. On Mars, the needs will be constant: repairing equipment, sharing water rations, helping someone adapt emotionally to the alien environment. These acts of service will make the gospel tangible and credible.

Bridging Earth and Mars: Contextual Adaptation

We must also think carefully about how the Earth-based movement principles adapt to the Martian context.

• Physical Limits. Travel between settlements may require suits, rovers, or even flights. This could slow physical gathering, so movements may lean heavily on small, hyper-local fellowships and creative communication.
• Cultural Diversity. Early Mars crews will come from multiple nations, with different languages, denominations, and work cultures. Movements thrive when they embrace cultural diversity under the unity of the gospel, training leaders who can bridge divides.
• Psychological Pressure. Isolation, confinement, and danger can wear people down. Movements must integrate pastoral care and mental health into discipleship.
• Interdependence with Survival Systems. On Mars, physical and spiritual life will be intertwined. A malfunctioning water plant affects the whole community. A relational breakdown can threaten mission success. Holistic ministry isn’t optional. It’s survival.

By anticipating these factors, we can design Martian church planting with both resilience and multiplication in mind.

Preparing the Mars Movements Now

If we wait until the first ship launches to think about Martian church multiplication, we will already be behind. The DNA of the first Martian church will be carried in the hearts and habits of the first believing settlers. That DNA is being shaped now, here on Earth.

We can start by:

1. Training Space-Minded Disciple Makers. Mission agencies and churches can begin equipping believers who have technical vocations, engineers, doctors, botanists, in CPM/DMM methods.
2. Testing in Earth Analogues. Harsh, isolated environments like Antarctic stations or remote research outposts are perfect places to trial simple, reproducible church planting in conditions similar to Mars.
3. Building Multinational Teams. Early Mars missions will be multinational. We must learn to plant cross-cultural, multilingual fellowships that can thrive without outside oversight.
4. Creating Resource-Light Tools. Scripture portions, discipleship guides, and worship resources that work offline, in multiple languages, and in compact digital form will be essential.
5. Embedding the Vision in Space Agencies and Missions. Just as humanitarian aid organizations partner with exploration teams on Earth, we can envision chaplaincy and church planting as integrated parts of mission planning.

In Revelation 7:9-10, John sees a multitude “from every nation, tribe, people, and language” before God’s throne. That vision is not limited to Earth. The Great Commission does not end at the Kármán line. It stretches to every place where humanity sets foot. When we land on Mars, the Church should be ready not only to survive, but to multiply.

The pioneers of Mars will be engineers, scientists, farmers, and technicians. Let us ensure they are also disciple-makers, church planters, and worshippers. Let us learn from the movements God is already blessing across Earth, so that when the first Martian church opens its doors, whether in a greenhouse, a cargo dome, or a regolith-covered shelter, it will already carry the DNA of multiplication.

For just as in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth, the gospel will go to Mars… and beyond.