The Refugees of Herrnhut

In 1722, a ragged band of Moravian refugees stumbled onto the estate of Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf in Saxony. They had nothing but the clothes on their backs and the skills in their hands. Zinzendorf gave them land, and they built a village called Herrnhut — "the Lord's Watch."

What emerged was remarkable not for its uniformity but for its diversity. Christian David was a carpenter whose calloused hands framed every building. Anna Nitschmann, barely a teenager, possessed a gift for spiritual leadership that seasoned pastors envied. David Nitschmann organized mission teams with the precision of a military strategist. Johann Leonhard Dober, a potter by trade, felt a burning call to carry the gospel to enslaved people in the West Indies. Others composed hymns. Others prayed — and kept praying in unbroken shifts for over a hundred years.

No single person at Herrnhut could have accomplished what the community achieved together. The carpenter could not compose the hymns. The hymn writer could not organize the expeditions. The prayer warriors could not build the ships. Yet under one shared devotion to Christ, these wildly different gifts produced one of the most explosive missionary movements in church history.

Paul told the Corinthians that there are different gifts but the same Spirit, different kinds of service but the same Lord. Herrnhut proved it. The Spirit does not hand out identical toolkits. He builds a body — and every member matters.