A Lutheran pastor in Frankfurt, he noticed that his parishioners heard a great many sermons and no longer prayed. In 1675 he proposed household gatherings where lay people would read Scripture together and speak to one another, and he was accused of splitting the Church for it. He held that a Christian's goods are not his own.
In their own words
I have nothing of my own, but it is all my God's own, and I am only a steward appointed over it.
Pia Desideria, Frankfurt am Main, 1676, pp. 68-69; German « ich habe nichts eigens, sondern es seye alles meines GOttes eigen, Jch aber allein ein darüber bestellter haußhalter » (long s modernised), translated by the Manna team
The most distressing thing of all is that in many such preachers, their life and the absence of the fruits of faith show that they themselves lack faith.
Pia Desideria, Frankfurt am Main, 1676, p. 14; German « Sondern das allerbetrüblichste ist, daß von solchen vielen Predigern ihr leben und der mangel der glaubens früchten anzeiget, daß es ihnen selbst an dem glauben mangele » (long s modernised), translated by the Manna team