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 intentionally engage the views of the full range of our racially and economically diverse congregation about the meaning and purpose of worship and to integrate their ideas, gifts, and perspectives into worship practices that feel authentic and hospitable to all.
To embody a connection between Christian liturgy and ethical living by implementing a hospitable, ecumenical, multicultural, and bilingual worship gathering for students, staff, and faculty that emphasizes the well-being of the planet and the healing of broken relationships, especially those with Indigenous peoples.
To create a safe place of healing for people seeking to reclaim their faith and its expression in their own cultural contexts by planning services that highlight a plethora of cultural expressions of worship and shaping the liturgy to encourage different cultural expressions of various faith practices.
To affirm the goodness of God’s creation of Asian American and Pacific Islander cultures through celebrating AAPI heritage in dinner church communion services, exposing AAPI invisibility on social media, and exploring scripture and theology through AAPI perspectives.
To center worship in the seminary’s curriculum by fostering symbiotic exchange between the worship program and other departments, with emphasis on worship as a central place of formation for the whole community.
To investigate how the legacy of white supremacy affects worship practices, to learn to better appreciate and include worship materials from other cultures without appropriating, and to learn how anti-racist practices are implemented by other churches leading the way in these efforts.
To promote unity and diversity in local Seventh Day Baptist congregations by gathering worship leaders to discern the transcultural, contextual, cross-cultural, and counter-culture nature of worship as they worship together in diverse ways.
To embrace diverse practices from around the world that give worshipers experiences of acting as host and as guest, in order to strengthen and broaden their understanding of biblical, cross-cultural, transcultural, and reciprocal hospitality.
To strengthen practices of congregational song by introducing a globally diverse diet of hymns and other congregational songs and by strengthening understanding of the contexts in which songs were created.
To create a consortium of young adults who will be trained and mentored to design and execute a monthly ecumenical, multicultural, and multigenerational worship gathering.
To foster unity among different African ethnic communities and awareness of varying worship needs and experiences by facilitating collaboration among worship leaders at African ethnic churches.
To promote deeper participation in worship by exploring the unique musical contributions of African-American Catholic parishes.
