Formation Friday: Herrnhut Moravians

The most famous prayer vigil of all time, one that lasted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year… for… more than 100 years… 

...was started by a group of people that are perhaps the most unlikely if you were to judge them from their appearance.

These people were not clerics, priests, pastors, monks, or nuns.

They were refugees, farmers, blacksmiths, tradesmen of all sorts; families who were looking for a bit of heaven to be found upon the earth.

A grand ragtag group of Moravian refugees, fleeing from religious persecution from other Christians, came together and created a utopian society, but not like those portrayed in famous novels like Anthem or Brave New World, these men and women based everything they did, believed, and practiced in their prayer and worship of Jesus Christ.

This group became known as the Herrnhut Moravians, later and presently known as the Moravian Church.



Unless you have studied church history or have some kind of knowledge of German history, you probably have no idea what Herrnhut is and who Moravians are. They aren’t common words or really popular in general.

The sad fact of the matter though is that most people who read this have some kind of spiritual root or lineage in what today’s Formation Friday post is all about.

Without the influence of these early Moravians, I resolve that the Great Awakening that swept through England and the Americas, the Mission Movement of the 1700s, many synods of the Lutheran Church, and the modern day Methodists… would not exist.

At least not in the same way that they did or that they do.

But this post is not about an academic historical argument.

Can I introduce you to one of my favorite groups of people from history?
The inhabitants of the Herrnhut Village.

It came about because of a group of three families led by a young smith and potter named Christian David. The families were from Moravia (a land that encompasses modern day Czech Republic) and they sought refuge at the Saxony estate of a VERY rich 21 year old Germanic Count by the name of Ludwig von Zinzendorf.

Zinzendorf, a Pietist and devoted Christian, brought them into his own house and gave them shelter for some time. After a short time, they asked if they might settle on his land. The Count agreed...

And a village was born.


The group, with the approval of Count Zinzendorf chose a small hill outside of Bethelsdorf, land owned by the Count, and named their small settlement Herrnhut, literally meaning "The Lord's Watch," At this time the area was nothing but farm land and forests, but it was spacious with a nearby town that it overlooked to help support its construction and sustainability.

Zinzendorf donated money, time, and resources towards the project and word soon reached other refugees scattered throughout Germany as well as those still in Moravia. People began coming from all over, hoping to find refuge and be part of this new beginning.

Zinzendorf, too, was a man of deep religious conviction and piety. At six he had written love letters to Christ. Deeply influenced by Christian Pietist* leaders Francke and Spener, the Count was only kept from becoming a minister by the raw exertion of family and state authority. Nonetheless, he and his wife had dedicated their lives completely to Christ.

*(Pietism is a movement within Christianity that attempts to focus on individual holiness and a consistent Christian life, they are usually high proponents of emotional experiences and an emphasis on feelings, which lead to dramatic but real experiences of repentance and renewal. Experiences with the Spirit are deemed as more important than intellectual dialogue, which is not to say that they are not important however.)*

Count Zinzendorf, Christian David, and many of the other of the leaders were appalled at the divisions between churches and hungered to unite the different factions in a spiritual peace. At Herrnhut they learned what the Holy Spirit could accomplish in breaking down denominational walls.
Herrnhut had become a gathering place for many religious exiles. They spoke different languages and had differing customs, methods of worship varied, building architecture varied, food varied, philosophies of how to build a family varied, perhaps most divisive... creeds varied.

Lutherans, Anabaptists, Schwenkfelders, Separatists, Reformed and Brethren lived side by side. Squabbles of course did develop, but they quickly diminished by focusing on commonalities and through true experiences of corporate worship in church services.

Zinzendorf found himself moving from home to home speaking with families of their spiritual need and doing his best to keep harmony among the people. He began praying.

The people began to study the Bible, hold all-night prayer vigils and confess their sins to one another.
Transparency, authentic community, and practical love for neighbors... began to come naturally.
Families began eating dinners together and playing games. People with perhaps the most differences came together and spent themselves for one another.

David and others soon established "bands," groups of two, three or more who would encourage each other spiritually, the modern day idea of a small group.This fostered accountability and active discipleship among the younger men and women with the older communities.

Plans were drawn up to reorganize and unify the community in many different ways, buildings, locations of benches, service systems all began to be strategically implemented. A sense of expectancy grew.

On August 13, 1727, at a baptism and communion service, the Herrnhut congregants established a twenty-four hour around-the-clock prayer vigil which lasted one hundred years.

Yes, you read that correctly.

100 years.

One century long.

Constant.

Can you imagine what it would look like if a group of sold-out Christians decided to do that today?
If Christians forsook the cares of the world and spent themselves on communing with our great and wonderful God?

The Moravians began to see this vigil as one of the most important aspects of their daily lives. They would all take shifts and turns where for two – three hours they would have five- six people praying at all times. The only time they would break would be for worship services, which happened often, and honestly you couldn’t even call that a break as their services were one large prayer to God.
As they studied Scripture together however, they quickly began to realize that this utopia that they built would not last and would not bear fruit unless they began to send out just as much as they brought in. A desire for missions became a fever that spread across the settlement quicker than anything had before.

It is amazing that when we truly study the Bible, we are pulled deeper into it, only to be convicted of its words and a desire grows within us to take our faith to others.

The fervent prayers and Scripture study resulted in the sending out of missionaries to many lands--the first Protestant missions outside Europe and North America. Thus Herrnhut reached out and touched every continent in the 1700s.

In many cases, they were the first missionaries to reach certain people groups, even though the Catholic Church had been sending missionaries out for centuries.

These missionaries had a driving force behind them... family and friends in a little German village on a little hilltop on their knees supplicating for their success to God Almighty.

Moravians influenced John and Charles Wesley.
Moravian missionary zeal prompted William Carey's efforts to reach India for Christ. "See what these Moravians have done," he said in his appeal to have missionaries commissioned.

There is a story of two young men from Herrnhut who sold everything they had, one even broke off his engagement to his fiancé, in order to sell themselves into slavery… They desired to reach the slaves of the Caribbean Islands. And that they did.

Women from Herrnhut went in droves to Sub-Saharan Africa to offer medical aid to the warring tribes.

Children would go to the nearby towns and preach on street corners.

Elderly would clean the church buildings and make clothes for the poor in other parts of Germany.

Deep study, prioritized discipleship, unity, faith, and trust in Christ led these men and women to do the unthinkable.

Herrnhut was a busy and industrious place. Spinning, weaving, carpentry, pottery, farming and missionary training went on unceasingly.

Each evening Zinzendorf selected a scripture to be the watchword for the next day. Often he wrote a hymn to accompany the word.

Saturdays and Sundays were whole days set aside just for prayer and worship, the shifts dissipated as people spent 8 or more hours together praying.

 Almost every day, each "band" (small group) met to exhort, reprove and pray for one another.

Single women and single men lived in separate buildings. There was an innate sense of the goodness of sexual purity until marriage and respect for each gender.

In a special home, the children of missionaries were cared for, just as equally, orphans from other towns would be brought in and be cared for as they were taught the Scriptures.

Truly Herrnhut became a remarkable experiment in Christian community as well as a major catalyst for Protestant missions, and we can learn a lot from them if only this simple truth…


Unity, Godliness, Prayer, Worship, and Missions are not only all possible… they are blessed and prospered and sustained by God.


The Herrnhut Moravians gave the Christian community many gifts, perhaps the largest gift though is an example, an example of what true love for our neighbor looks like and what God can and will do when a community take the call to “pray without ceasing” seriously.

This weekend as we gather with our families of faith for corporate worship, I hope that you remember something of the early Moravians, and let them inspire you to worship the risen Jesus Christ with passion and excitement.

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"The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if He be not there, one of die first tokens of His absence will be a slothfulness in prayer!" -Charles Spurgeon

"I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ." -Count Zinzendorf

"God does nothing except in answer to Prayer." -John Wesley

"The unity of Christendom is not a luxury, but a necessity. The World will go limping until Christ's prayer that all may be one is answered. We must have unity, not at all costs, but at all risks. A unified Church is the only offering we dare present to the coming Christ, for in it alone will He find room to dwell." -Charles Brent

"We will work simply and quietly. Even if we never see wonders with our own eyes or hear them with our ears, we are planting the kingdom of heaven into the nations and will look for the fruit which grows from it." -Count Zinzendorf

"Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a godly Christian weapon." -Martin Luther 

"There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer." -John Wooden 

"There can be no Christianity without community." -Count Zinzendorf 

"You have one business on earth – to save souls." -John Wesley 

"Prayer is the rope that pulls God and man together." -Billy Graham

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Nathan Bryant

is a pastor living in Phoenix, AZ. As a student at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri he majored in Biblical Leadership, New Testament Studies, and Missiology. Nathan has a combined passion for unity and discipleship in the global church.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our causes.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our boundaries.

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