“What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?” (Psalm 116:12)
You may have noticed our congregation’s “watchword” at the bottom of this website’s welcome page and wondered, “What’s that all about?”
In Moravian usage a “watchword” is a verse from the Bible that highlights a particular aspect of the Christian faith.
The watchword begins its life as part of a pool of carefully selected biblical passages focusing on a broad range of topics such as faith, doubt, discipleship, forgiveness, love, comfort, resisting temptation, living together as a Christian community, etc. All passages are then placed in a basket, box, or bowl. One passage, selected at random, is then chosen to serve as the watchword for the day, week, month, or year. Believers are encouraged to ponder the significance of the text for their lives during that time frame. A benefit of this process is that random selection of the watchword helps prevent exclusive focus on passages of Scripture which support one’s own views or agenda.
I drew East Hills Moravian Church’s watchword for 2011 at our 8:30 a.m. worship service on January 9 from among the hundreds of others prepared for individual members of our congregation. Our watchword challenges each believer to consider how he or she will respond to what God is doing in his or her life.
More information on watchword and the related topic of Moravian Daily Texts can be found online here.