One of the great stories in black history that goes untold is about the Moravian missionaries who, in the 1700s, sold themselves into slavery to come to America from Africa aboard slave ships and spread the gospel to their countrymen in the new world.

The story actually begins with the Christian hero Nikolaus Ludwig, count von Zinzendorf, who was born into one of Europe's most noble families in 1700 in Dresden, Germany.

When the Count's father died when he was an infant, he was sent to the castle of his grandmother, who was an influential member of the Pietist religious reform movement begun in Germany in the 17^th century as a protest against the secularization of the Lutheran Church.

Pietism stressed salvation through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, whereas Lutheranism had hardened into a scholastic system centered on following the denomination's self-made doctrines.

"Stories abound of (Zinzendorf's) deep faith during childhood," writes the Rev. John Jackman in an article I found posted to the website www.zinzendorf. com. "As a young man, he struggled with his desire to study for the ministry and the expectation that he would fulfill his hereditary role as a Count. As a teenager at Halle Academy, he and several other young nobles formed a secret society, 'The Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed.' The stated purpose of this order was that the members would use their position and influence to spread the Gospel. As an adult, Zinzendorf later re-activated this adolescent society, and many influential leaders of Europe ended up joining the group. A few included the King of Denmark, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Archbishop of Paris."

As Jackman recounts, Zinzendorf was participating in his Grand Tour (a rite of passage for young aristocrats), visiting an art museum in Dusseldorf, where he was deeply affected by a Domenico Feti painting entitled Ecce Homo, "Behold the Man."

It portrayed Christ on the Cross with the message, "This have I done for you—now what will you do for me?"

"The young count was profoundly moved and appears to have had an almost mystical experience while looking at the painting, feeling as if Christ Himself was speaking those words to his heart," writes Jackman. "He vowed that day to dedicate his life to service to Christ."

In 1722, shortly after Zinzendorf married a cousin and assumed his duties as a young noble in the court of King August the Strong, he was approached by a small band of Pietist Christians from Moravia, a region of the Czech Republic, who requested permission to live on his lands. These underground Believers were in search of refuge from Counter-Reformation suppression.

While Moravia had established a large empire and adopted Christianity in the 9^th century, the empire fell in the 10^th century, with the region conquered by the Magyars and then subsumed into the Holy Roman Empire.

Zinzendorf permitted the Moravians to settle on his estate in Saxony, upon which they then settled the town they called Herrnhut, or "the Lord's Watch."

Increasingly intrigued by the story of the Moravians, Zinzendorf, in 1727, came to spend all his time at his Herrnhut estate, working with the Moravians, who were experiencing a period of serious division that Zinzendorf's leadership was quickly able to help dispel.

"Largely due to (Zinzendorf's) leadership in daily Bible studies, the group came to formulate a unique document, known as the 'Brotherly Agreement,' which set forth basic tenets of Christian behavior," writes Jackman. "Residents of Herrnhut were required to sign a pledge to abide by these Biblical principals. There followed an intense and powerful experience of renewal, often described as the 'Moravian Pentecost.' This experience began the Moravian renewal, and led to the beginning of the Protestant World Mission movement."

It was when Zinzendorf attended the coronation of Christian VI in Copenhagen in 1731 that he met a converted slave from the West Indies whose tale of his people's plight so moved Zinzendorf that the Count brought him back home to Herrnhut.

As a result, two men from the Moravian movement were sent to the island of St. Thomas to live among the slaves and preach the gospel.

"This was the first organized Protestant mission work, and grew rapidly to Africa, America, Russia, and other parts of the world," writes Jackman. "By the end of Zinzendorf's life there were active missions from Greenland to South Africa, literally from one end of the earth to the other. Though the Baptist missionary William Carey is often referred to as the 'Father of Modern Missions,' he himself would credit Zinzendorf with that role, for he often referred to the model of the earlier Moravians in his journal."

In the space of 25 years, approximately 600 Moravian missionaries carried the gospel to the four corners of the world. Unbelievably, some of those converted in Africa then made the faith decision to sell themselves into slavery in order to voyage to the new world with the gospel.

As my pastor, Richard Jordan (Shorewood Bible Church, Rolling Meadows, Ill.) tells it, "They took the money they got from their own sale, put it into the missionary box and accompanied their countrymen to they-didn't-know-where to bring the gospel to the new world; to the slaves in the new world.

"And today you go across the southern and central part of our country, and down into the Caribbean, where the black slaves were brought to America, and you'll find the gospel all through that part of the world.

"I'm from Alabama and the gospel was there, not because white men took the gospel to them when they got here, but because Black Africans were willing to sell themselves into slavery to bring the gospel to their own people. There's the lineage and the heritage that you and I stand in.

"The next time you think you'd rather have a Lexus than a Chevy, think about some dear brother in Christ willing to sell his whole life, and take the price of his life, and put it in the mission box, and then accompany his people, and go through the living conditions, and the circumstances, and whatever else, so that Christ in him could accompany his people and minister to them."

Zinzendorf would later travel to America himself on a gospel mission and he is credited with founding the town of Bethlehem, Pa., where his daughter organized a school later to become Moravian College.

"His overwhelming interest in the colonies involved evangelizing the native Americans, and he traveled into the wilderness with Indian agent Conrad Weiser to meet with the chieftains of several tribes and clans," writes Jackman. "As far as we have been able to identify, he is the only European noble to have gone out to meet the native American leaders in this manner."

During the colonial period, the Moravians would start numerous churches and schools for the settlers and native Americans, then turn them over to whatever Protestant denomination they perceived to be the strongest in a given region.

Zinzendorf came to know John and Charles Wesley, both of whom had been converted through contact with the Moravians. The Wesleys later founded the Methodist Church and, according to Jackman, "retained warm affection for the Moravians throughout their lives."

On this tremendous record of the Moravian missionaries, my pastor summarizes, "These were Bible-believing dispensational people who understood the gospel, the grace of God and their identity in Christ. They may not have all the dispensational things we do, but they walked in the light they had, and we stand on their shoulders today.

"Remember that one person can have that kind of an impact, and you can be that one person, because the same Christ that was in them is in you and it's in me.

"If you want to make a difference in the world you live in, you make a difference by just being who God made you in Christ and letting that be what works in your life, giving yourself wholly over to it. Paul says, 'Present your bodies a living sacrifice.' "