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Visiting Copenhagen in 1731 to attend the coronation of King Christian VI, Zinzendorf met a converted slave from the West Indies, Anthony Ulrich. The man was looking for someone to go back to his homeland to preach the gospel to black slaves, including his sister and brother. Zinzendorf raced back to Herrnhut to find men to go; two immediately volunteered, becoming the first Moravian missionaries—and the first Protestant missionaries of the modern era, antedating William Carey (often called "the father of modern missions") by 60-some years.

Within two decades, Zinzendorf sent missionaries around the globe: to Greenland, Lapland, Georgia, Surinam, Africa's Guinea Coast, South Africa, Amsterdam's Jewish quarter, Algeria, the native North Americans, Ceylon, Romania, and Constantinople. In short order, more than 70 missionaries from a community of fewer than 600 answered the call.

By the time Zinzendorf died in 1760 in Herrnhut, the Moravians had sent out at least 226 missionaries.

Zinzendorf's influence is felt much wider than in the Moravian Church. His emphasis on the "religion of the heart" deeply influenced John Wesley. He is remembered today, as Karl Barth put it, as "perhaps the only genuine Christocentric of the modern age." Scholar George Forell put it more succinctly: Zinzendorf was "the noble Jesus freak."

Recommended Resources Buy the book containing this and many other profiles of Christians you should know. Buy the back issue: Christian History, Issue 1 Read Christian History, Issue 1, online: ChristianityTodayLibrary.com.

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