NASA Astronaut Extols Fellowshipping With His Home Church While Stranded in Space: ‘Worship with my church family was vital’
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore shared how and why he maintained his connection with his church family during his nine months on the International Space Station, revealing during a March 31, 2025 press conference that his faith was the engine that drive him.
Wilmore was originally scheduled to be at the station for eight days but ultimately spent more than 280 days aboard until Elon Musk and Space X rescued them late last month.
During the conference, a journalist asked, “I heard that you were still attending your church services from space. Can you tell me a bit about why that was important for you to do?” prompting Wilmore to respond:
Well, goodness, the Word of God continually infilling me, I need it. My pastors are the finest pastors on or off, in this case, the planet. And to tie in and worship with my church family was vital. I mean, it’s part of what makes me go.
Not only that, I also tied into Grace Baptist Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. A buddy of mine is an elder there and a pastor there, and I would watch their service as well, every single week.
And it was invigorating. It was part of what I need as a believer in Jesus Christ to continue that focus; it assisted me day in and day out because I need that fellowship. Even though it’s fellowship from afar, and it’s not like being in fellowship up close, but still I need it.
He later added:
All of our lives are bound up in many things. For me, it’s faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the end-all be-all. He forgives us. He teaches us when his word says about being content in all situations because he’s working out his plan and his purposes for his glory and our good. And I believe that because the Bible says that. And that’s the message that I lived. We lived it. My family lived it. We taught them these things throughout their lives. And that’s contentment.
Wilmore attends Providence Baptist Church, a reformed Baptist Church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession and whose recommended resources include Founders Ministries, The Reformed Reader and the Spurgeon Archives.
About Author
