August Hermann Francke

In 1687, the twenty-four-year-old August Hermann Francke (1663–1727) was preparing a sermon in Lüneburg on John 20:31 when he experienced a spiritual rebirth. At the time, he was still a young instructor at the University of Leipzig.

His pietist preaching got him pushed out twice, first in Leipzig and then in Erfurt. In January 1692, on the recommendation of Philipp Jakob Spener, he took up a post as professor of Greek and Oriental languages at the newly founded University of Halle. The chair carried no salary, so he supported himself as pastor of St George's in nearby Glaucha, until he finally transferred to a professorship in theology in 1698.

In the spring of 1695, he found four thalers and sixteen groschen in his parish alms box and used it to open a school for the poor. On 18 September 1698, the orphanage building's foundation stone was laid, with an electoral charter to back it. He had no money, but he was convinced that God answers prayer — and donations did indeed pour in from everywhere. Prayer is the key to Halle's story.

By the time Francke died in 1727, the “school city” had grown to more than 2,200 enrolled students (about a hundred of them resident orphans), 175 teachers, and 8 inspectors — roughly 3,000 people in all. Halle University's theology faculty had become the largest in Germany, training some six thousand church workers. The 1704 hymnal, the 1706 mission, the 1710 Bible society, and the Hallesche Berichte each grew large in their own right — but their roots all lie in these thirty-five years.

Church historians generally reckon Francke's death in 1727 as the high-water mark of Pietism. But the key of prayer was not buried with him: George Müller (1805–1898) was born again in Halle, and after reading Francke's biography he founded orphanages in Bristol on prayer alone, without appeals for funds; Hudson Taylor, following Müller's example, founded the China Inland Mission in 1865. The lineage of faith and prayer flowed all the way to China. Today, a fellowship of Chinese Christians gathers to pray in Francke's own city — and the God we call on is the very God who answered his prayers.