Encouragement for the Race

Lessons from the Life of Count Zinzendorf
In the year 2000 there was the celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of a man whose ministry God has used, both in times past and even in the present. Nicholas Von Zinzendorf was the son of a government minister in Austria, who died when Nicholas was just a tiny baby. When he was only four years old his mother remarried, this time to the Minister of Defense of the nation.
Nicholas was a very diligent student. After graduating from the university he began to study theology in the University of Wittenberg, that duke Frederick of Saxon with the help of Luther had turned into the official school of the reformation. Upon completing another degree in Law, the young Count entered German government service in Dresden. There he came to know the Moravian community, where among their founding leaders figured the martyr John Huss. This contact with the Moravians helped to prepare von Zinzendorf for his ministry during a difficult time.
Even though a half century had passed since the signing of the treaty of Westphalia, which put an end the cruel Thirty-Year War, there still existed the problem of the people displaced for reason of religious violence. Nicholas decided to give help to those that fled persecution because of their manner of worshipping God. In Berthelsdorf Province, which belonged to him as a family inheritance, he established a place of religious refuge where whatever person could live and work without fear of religious or government persecution. It was named Herrnhut, meaning “under the Lord’s watch”. The Count resigned as a German government official and moved from Dresden to be in charge of the new community.
But in this new community there began to be many problems. Those who took refuge in Herrnhut were descendants of people of deep convictions that had survived due to their strong character. The different groups held strongly to their particular ideas and customs. Having found freedom once more they immediately tried to win their neighbors over to their way of thinking and living. Poor Nicholas had created a precinct replete with polemic and distrust, that was very difficult to manage. Von Zinzendorf worked hard to create community among these fighting groups. Through the years he labored to unite different Christian groups and to minimize division among Christians.
During one of his trips to Denmark, the Count found a group of Eskimos that had become Christians through the testimony of the Lutheran missionary, Hans Egede. Nicholas was greatly impacted by the missionary zeal of the Lutheran missionary. When he returned to Herrnhut, he organized a community to form small teams of people that were of the same doctrinal persuasion, and began to send them to places where he saw the need of preachers. Guyana, the Virgin Islands, South America, Africa, India and many other countries received the Gospel through the mission agency founded by Count Zinzendorf one hundred years before the great missionary movement of the Nineteenth Century. He sent each worker with a one-way ticket and the equivalent of ten U. S. Dollars, the sum that could cover their expenses while they established their new missionary field.
During the winter of 1735-1736, Moravian missionaries that had been commissioned to take the Gospel to indigenous people in North America, were camped out on the bow of the ship “Simmonds”. On the same vessel went two young chaplains by the name of John and Charles Wesley. The British Crown was sending them as ministers of the State Church to reach out to a settlement of the new colony. During the crossing of the Atlantic a sudden storm split the principal mast of the ship. John and Charles felt so much panic that they were unable to offer comfort to the other terrified passengers. This experience led them to see that they suffered from true spiritual poverty. In contrast, the group of the Moravian missionaries, crowded into a small space of the ship in order to defend themselves from the wind and water, comforted each other, sang hymns and gave help to the other passengers. Their example greatly impressed the badly frightened Wesley brothers. When John and Charles completed their two-year service and returned to England, they attended a Moravian Chapel where they both had a saving encounter with Christ, that not only transformed their lives, but was also the beginning of the great Wesleyan revival.
There are several important lessons that I can draw from the life of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf. Fundamental is the passion he had for Christ. Zinzendorf’s own words best express it: “I have but one passion. It is He, only He.” In another occasion he said: “I am, as ever, a poor sinner, a captive of eternal love, running by the side of His triumphal chariot, and I have no desire to be anything else as long as I live.” My prayer is that a like passion for the Savior will capture my heart.
Von Zinzendorf was very committed to the proclamation of the Gospel and to missionary advance in the world. Again the Count’s words illustrate that commitment: “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.” “I am destined to proclaim the message, unmindful of personal consequences to myself.” The deep desire of my heart is that my life will always be used for the advance of the Gospel in the world, and that I personally will seize every possible opportunity to give testimony of Christ to others.
The desire to unite Christian believers to live in harmony and to work together for the growth of the Kingdom of God was always important for Count Zinzendorf. I am working now with the purpose to help both individual believers and churches to come together and zealously work for the growth of the Kingdom of God. I ask the Lord to so use me until He takes me to be with Him.