Radical CHURCH History (2)

The Moravians, who produced the hymn quoted in my last post, are a good illustration of what I am calling "Radical CHURCH History". They knew renewal in the Holy Spirit and did incredible missionary outreach, planting communities from Lapland to South Africa years before William Carey, the so-called 'Father of Modern Missions'. But for the Moravians, Church came first.

A motley crew were offered sanctuary and religious toleration on Count Nicholas Zinzendorf's estate in Germany. They couldn't agree, there was tension and rivalry - as I have no doubt there would be today if you threw together a random bunch of evangelical-charismatic Christians and told them to work it out! It nearly blew apart; Zinzendorf was sorely tempted to shut the thing down.

But in his heart he knew that CHURCH, the 'called-out ones' of Jesus, had to be the starting point. It was what Jesus had died for, after all. So Zinzendorf took some bold, practical steps.

We do well to note these steps. They are a world apart from today's notion that you have to start with anointed worship, seeker services, mums'n'tots groups and a youth program. But they were certainly radical - in their biblical conservatism.

He made a covenant with several brothers who shared his mind (1723).
They laid the foundation stone of a church building (1724).
They built a visible and distinctive residential community (1724).
He drew up a Church Constitution which set out the requirements of membership (1727).

Was this just Germanic efficiency? I fancy it was rather the actions of a covenant-committed core group standing by the road and looking, and asking for the ancient paths, where the good way is (Jeremiah 6:16).

The annals of the Moravian Church are quite clear that it was these concrete steps which brought an amazing change to the atmosphere and prepared the way for the much-publicised move of the Holy Spirit in a Communion service in 1728 which empowered the community for all that was to follow.