The Estate That Became a Movement

In 1722, a twenty-two-year-old German nobleman named Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf offered a corner of his family estate in Saxony as refuge for a small band of persecuted Moravian believers. His plan was modest — provide shelter, build a village, create a safe place to worship. He would construct something for God.

God had other ideas entirely.

What began as a handful of refugees on Zinzendorf's land at Herrnhut grew into a community that launched a continuous prayer vigil lasting over one hundred years. From that single estate, missionaries fanned out across the globe — to the Caribbean, to Greenland, to South Africa, to Native American settlements — decades before William Carey's famous missionary call. Zinzendorf wanted to build God a village. The Almighty built through Zinzendorf a movement that reshaped the history of the church.

This is the pattern of 2 Samuel 7. David looked at his cedar palace and felt convicted. He would build Yahweh a temple worthy of the Ark. But through the prophet Nathan, God reversed the equation: "I will make you a house." Not timber and stone, but a dynasty, a covenant, an eternal throne. David offered God a building project. God answered with an everlasting promise.

We come to God with our blueprints. He answers with a covenant. Our plans have deadlines. His have no end.