The Moravian Church is a mission movement…sending God's people into the world.

In the 16th century when the Catholic Church began the Anti-reformation in Central Europe, the Unitas Fratrum became a pilgrim people, on the move, seeking those places where its unique expressions of a simple community of faith could be practiced freely. As the years moved on into the 17th century, and the Unitas Fratrum dwindled and dispersed, it never lost hope in its potential to once again bear fruit as a “hidden seed” for establishing God’s Kingdom. Eventually arriving as a pilgrim people at the dawn of the 18th century on the doorstep of Zinzendorf’s estates, “those Moravians” had become uniquely conditioned as only God could have prepared them to take a deep breath, pause briefly, then launch themselves outward, first into Europe in the Diaspora, then beyond, across the world as the first organized Protestant mission movement…sending themselves out to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They clearly understood this as God’s call on their community, on their lives…as their very reason for being a church.

Today the Board of World Mission serves the North American and Alaskan Moravian Churches in this primary task of serving God’s mission. The BWM has identified four primary areas under which any of its initiatives should fall: Proclaiming, Discipling, Serving, and Receiving. Establishing God’s Kingdom involves mission in each of these areas, and our Moravian constituency resonates in different ways with different emphases found within the four areas. The Board also believes that Ephesians 4:11-13 gives a clear sense of God’s call to use everyone’s gifts when joining God’s mission and witnessing to God’s Kingdom.

The Board of World Mission knows that as the North American and Alaskan Churches gain a greater sense of momentum moving into the 21st century, they will focus their energies, gather their resources, and boldly define themselves against the challenging context of a secular society which no longer gives the Church a central position in the public square.

A sense of movement begins in small ways, most especially in hearing the stories of the many Moravians who are going out their doors to proclaim the Gospel. The BWM’s website has been developed to help create this sense of movement by communicating what is happening and where it is happening.

We hope that the stories you find here will excite you as you realize that the Moravian Church is indeed once again becoming a mission movement —. What will excite us even more is when we find your story included here in the coming years as you have become one of the many people that the Moravian Church is sending forth!