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Herrnhut
Count Comes to Call. Once in a while someone comes along who has an unusually profound effect on the course of future history. Count Zinzendorf was such a one. He put aside wealth, politics and privilege to follow God's call.
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 magine that you have a big house and ample
land. Imagine further that a refugee shows up at your door asking if he
might camp out in your backyard for awhile. You are moved to compassion
and say OK. A little later he asks if some of his relatives, who are also
homeless, might also come and live on your property. You are a Christian.
These people are also believers. How can you turn them away? So again
you say yes. But then many more hear and they too come. And more. And
more! Soon there are hundreds. What have you gotten yourself into, you
begin to wonder?
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Something like that is what happened to a 22-year-old German nobleman
in 1722. His name was Niklaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. His estate was in
East Germany. He was heir to one of Europe's leading royal families. As
you might expect, the neighbors were not too pleased with his offering
the "riff-raff" asylum near them. But there was no stopping
the influx. The first group of ten arrived in December, 1722. By May of
1725 there were ninety. And by late 1726 over 300. The place was known
as "Herrnhut" meaning "The Lord's Watch." It soon
developed into a small city of grateful and motivated Christian craftsmen
and lay people.
As Zinzendorf looked at what he had gotten himself into, he began to
realize that instead of being burdened, he was being blessed with one
of the historic opportunities of all time. His refugee crowded estate
within a little more than a decade would be transformed into one of the
most dynamic and strategic missionary launching pads since the early church.
Zinzendorf Was a Rich Young Ruler Who Said Yes
Zinzendorf was born on May 26, 1700, in Dresden, Germany and brought up
under strong Christian influence. Even as a child he showed a deep spiritual
awareness. Invading Swedish soldiers broke into the castle where he lived
when he was six years old and were astounded to observe the child's prayers.
Zinzendorf later trained at Halle under the Pietist movement leader August
Francke. At age twenty the young nobleman was overcome while observing a
painting of Christ crowned with thorns. An inscription below the painting
said: "I have done this for you; what have you done for me?" Zinzendorf
responded that day: "I have loved him for a long time, but I have never
actually done anything for him. From now on I will do whatever he leads
me to do." No doubt at that moment he had no idea that within two years
he would have his estate swarming with homeless people from Moravia. Nor
could he have imagined the role that would be his in bringing the message
of Christ to the whole world. There followed a rapid succession of events.
Some of the highlights:
- The community rapidly organized into an efficient and productive little
society.
- But then jealousy, divisions and discord set in and threatened to
undermine them.
- Zinzendorf organized everyone into "bands." These were small
groups who met together regularly to discuss their spiritual growth,
study Scripture, pray together, reprove and encourage each other.
- The Moravian community was moved to repentance for its divisions,
and on August 13, 1727 they experienced a powerful outpouring of the
Holy Spirit.
- They began to pray fervently and seek the purposes for which God had
brought them together under Zinzendorf. What did he want them to do?
- A twenty-four-hour-a-day prayer chain was organized. At least two
people were at prayer every hour of the day. This prayer meeting would
last over 100 years.
- They became known by the nickname "God's Happy People."
- Anthony, a former slave, came to speak at Herrnhut of the deplorable
conditions of the slaves in the West Indies. The night he spoke, two
of their young Moravians could not sleep as they struggled with a sense
that God was moving their hearts to offer themselves to go and minister
to those slaves. When they were told that perhaps the only way they
could do this was to become slaves themselves, they said they were willing
if that is what it would take.
- Their first two missionaries, Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann,
left Herrnhut on August 25, 1732 to sail for St. Thomas.
- Thereafter, other lands were studied and more missionaries were sent.
They went to the toughest places under the most severe conditions. Many
of them quickly died. For example, of 18 who went to St. Thomas as reinforcements
for the work begun by Dober and Nitschmann, half died within the first
nine months. But, the more that died, the more that volunteered to go
to replace them. Within 25 years more than 200 had gone out as missionaries
from this small community to every continent of the world.
- Their influence spread far beyond their own efforts. Consider two
notable examples. Moravians played the key role in the profound religious
experience of John Wesley. Wesley went on to lead the Methodist movement.
William Carey is popularly hailed as the "Father of Modern Protestant
Missions." But William Carey sailed 60 years after the first Moravian
missionaries went to the West Indies. Carey would probably insist that
the real father of modern missions was Zinzendorf and the Moravians.
In Carey's classic "Enquiry Regarding the Obligation of Christians"
he used the Moravian experience as a model. In his letters and journal
he often referred to them and drew inspiration from their example, and
in his "Serampore Compact" -- a covenant for Christian missionary
community living -- he again appealed to Moravian precedents.
- Their influence extended to North America. The Moravians founded two
communities in Eastern Pennsylvania -- Bethlehem and Nazareth. Zinzendorf
personally came to the colonies. Not far from the offices of Christian
History Institute, and long before the word "Ecumenism" was
in vogue, Zinzendorf pled unsuccessfully with the various religious
communities in Eastern Pennsylvania to transcend their European denominational
backgrounds and witness and work together as one Body of Christ.
- While in America, Zinzendorf legally renounced his titles because
he found them an impediment among the colonists. Benjamin Franklin was
present at the ceremony, which was conducted in Latin in front of the
Governor of Pennsylvania. Zinzendorf was said to be the only European
nobleman who went among the Indians, visiting their leaders as equals.
- Though Zinzendorf did not promote the abolition of slavery, inside
the Moravian Church slaves were truly equal. In Bethlehem, PA, at the
Single Sisters' House you could find a German noblewoman, a Delaware
Indian, and an African slave sleeping side by side in the same dormitory
room. Where else in the world at that time might that occur?
- Zinzendorf endured much criticism for allowing women to preach and
to hold roles of leadership in the church.
A New Phenomenon
Think of what it would mean if everyone in your church thought of themselves
as missionaries. They did at Herrnhut, and this represented a significant
development in the history of Christian missions. Eminent Yale University
historian, Dr. Kenneth Scott Latourette, in his classic History of the
Expansion of Christianity commented, "Here was a new phenomenon in
the expansion of Christianity, an entire community, of families as well
as of the unmarried, devoted to the propagation of the faith. In its singleness
of aim it resembled some of the monastic orders of the earlier centuries,
but these were made up of celibates. Here was a fellowship of Christians,
of laity and clergy, of men and women, marrying and rearing families,
with much of the quietism of the monastery and of Pietism but with the
spread of the Christian message as a major objective, not of a minority
of the membership, but of the group as a whole."
Christian History Institute's Debt to Count Zinzendorf
Twenty years ago our sister company Gateway Films/Vision Video was approached
to make a dramatic film on the 250th anniversary of the launch of the
Moravian missionary movement under Count Zinzendorf to be celebrated in
1982. We had already put out a film on the life of the 15th century pre-Reformation
martyr John Hus, and we had also been requested by Wycliffe Bible Translators
to make a film on John Wycliffe for the 600th anniversary of his death.
Although these three films treated subjects that occurred over close to
four hundred years, we were struck by the amazing connection among them.
Wycliffe's movement and his memory were condemned in England, but his
plea for reform was carried to Bohemia and advanced there by John Hus.
The followers of Hus formed the Unitas Fratrum, The Unity of the
Brethren. They somehow managed to survive three centuries of persecution
and became the major core of the Moravian refugees who settled on the
estate of Count Zinzendorf beginning in 1722. Christian History Institute
was founded to provide educational print support materials for such films.
Our first project was Christian History magazine with the first issue
devoted to Zinzendorf. Incidentally, the magazine soon demonstrated that
it deserved a life of its own and we are pleased to have it now published
by Christianity Today Inc. The film we made on Zinzendorf was a drama
titled First Fruits. That was the catalyst that led us to recognize
that our primary calling in both film and publishing was the telling of
the stories from our Christian history for lay audiences. |
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