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 learn about how the design of a worship space teaches, invites, inspires, and connects in order to foster versatile, multigenerational, mission-focused, biblical worship in a growing rural church.
To review and evaluate the Book of Ritual, a current denominational resource for worship, that will lead to revisions of content, language, theology and rubrics so that the resource will more accurately reflect the theological heritage of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CMEC), promote deeper understanding of, and meaning in, rituals, and include materials that will speak to the diversity of musical and liturgical concerns of the cultures and demographics within the CMEC.
To provide liturgical formation for musicians and others responsible for liturgical preparation to aid them in choosing appropriate liturgical music through participation in a Summer Camp.
To reflect on shared practices of prayer and service among pastors and church leaders and to provide for a series of on-site consultations to identify and strengthen pilot churches who are intentionally seeking to connect sacramental practices with mission and service commitments.
To train and form local liturgical leaders through a process of learning, and applying that learning by designing, implementing and evaluating a parish liturgy project and writing a theological reflection paper integrating what they learned with their story, the story of their parish communities and the story of God’s love for us.
To establish partnerships between visual artists and church congregations by engaging in the study and development of a theology of worship that includes the visual arts, offering workshops to link artists with the needs of congregations and creating residencies for artists to work with church members to develop art for worship.
To commission art and music suitable for services conducted within the home, to assist home-based churches in worship planning, and to write a series of articles to encourage home-based churches to reflect on their worship practices with respect to intentional liturgy.
To provide liturgical formation to musicians and others responsible for liturgy through a Summer Camp experience.
To offer a study week that focuses on both liturgical theology of elements of worship and multi-cultural liturgy for liturgical leaders in the Roman Catholic dioceses of the
To create a musical setting of the Eucharistic service which reflects the theological and musical aesthetic of the faith community, and to offer educational workshops to introduce the history and practice of liturgical singing.
To offer a two week intensive seminar on the liturgical prayer life of the church for parish liturgical leaders so that they connect corporate prayer with daily prayer and living. The seminar will include times of theological study and reflection, and practical sessions on developing liturgical skills.
To establish a series of workshops and discussions on the language of liturgy, and to encourage creativity in congregational song, movement and visual art.
