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 educate the congregation about how to better welcome people of all abilities into the full worshipping life of the church.
To promote worship that engages the congregation and surrounding community through cultural stories that show how God forms the identity of God’s people.
To address questions of faith and tradition related to worship, to encourage a spirit of collaborative learning and inquiry, and to stimulate growth in understanding through questions that arise of out of experiences of all kinds of churchgoers.
To creatively tell the stories of all ages and develop a rhythm of worship in a new church community through conversations, Bible studies, shared meals and a congregational retreat.
To help persons of different ages and abilities grow in faith through worship and to encourage collaboration between pastors and worship leaders through a series of learning events.
To promote the full, conscious, active participation of all worshipers as a fully intergenerational community in a collaboration of pastors and laypersons from several congregations.
To develop intergenerational, indigenous worship by including the congregation in designing worship services for Advent and Holy Week that include music, visual arts and drama.
To develop intergenerational worship by connecting the seasons of worshipers' lives to the seasons of the Christian year through art, story-telling, music, and education.
To collaboratively plan multicultural worship services that present newly written biblically inspired psalms and multimedia experiences related to those psalms.
To articulate a shared theology of worship and understanding of the Lord's Supper in order to enrich worship participation and practices throughout the church year.
To implement an alternative worship service that includes an innovative and participative liturgy using musical styles from around the world that appeal to all ages.
To implement a study of the theology of worship that includes Scripture, Psalms, prayer and communion, and to apply this learning to planning worship events.
