1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
CICW has awarded Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grants for over 20 years to teacher-scholars and worshiping communities in 45+ states and provinces and across 40+ denominations and traditions—including Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, non-denominational, and other Protestant communities.
While worship styles and practices vary greatly across these traditions, the grant projects typically explore at least one of CICW’s ten core convictions related to worship. Explore the hundreds of projects we’ve funded across both streams of the program.
To develop best practices for engaging and uniting online and in-person worshipers in formative and participative worship.
To increase worshipers' awareness and experience of God's action in history and in the world by exploring the distinct gifts of the liturgical seasons of the Christian Year.
To create new expressions of worship that allow for freedom in experiencing God, by decolonizing inherited worship practices and experimenting with forms of worship that are free from patriarchal and white supremacist structures.
To reflect God's creativity in worship that is deeply scriptural and intentionally collaborative and hospitable and that continues from Sunday morning into the fabric of everyday life.
To explore artistry in the Bible and in Christian tradition in order to help worshipers experience art as worship and to give them opportunities to create visual art that invites worshipers into the Biblical story.
To foster connection among the members of a multi-site church by participating together in common at-home worship practices, a sermon series delivered by pastors from throughout the multi-site church, and Benedictine prayer practices.
To discover and express fresh dimensions of God by equipping worshipers to give testimony to experiences of God at work through personal storytelling and visual art.
To cultivate a common worship language and shared understanding of worship that facilitates a sense of community across generation and technology, and to use that language to connect worship with all of life.
To foster integration between worship and science by connecting worship practices with the mission to serve, protect and restore God's earth.
To reimagine worship as an act of justice by decolonizing the congregation's worship practices to ensure that each is engaged in a culturally appropriate way.
To integrate new communal practices into worship in order to more deeply connect worshipers to the body of Christ and to welcome others into such a community.
To explore the story of the shared neighborhood of seven churches in order to cultivate worship that is responsive to God's work in the churches' immediate context.
