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 discern the theological distinctiveness and ethnocultural diversity of the church’s music by providing tools to evaluate CCLI Top 100 praise music from an Anabaptist theological perspective.
To cultivate practices of embodied worship that reflect the diversity of the congregation and the surrounding community to deepen capacity for communal embodied worship.
To promote unity within diversity in Christian worship by providing safe and hospitable spaces for multilingual songwriting processes among diverse groups, leading to the incorporation of multilingual songs into existing liturgies.
To create a formation program on liturgy, theology, and musicianship that equips and encourages Spanish-speaking parish musicians and music ministers.
To welcome, represent, and empower people of color and young adults in liturgical and musical leadership by expanding celebrations of nine major feasts and fasts with diverse musical expression and development of thematic seasonal worship series with reflection guides.
To translate and publish a hymnal of bilingual Kreyol-English songs for use by new Haitian-Americans and neighboring church communities as a way to welcome and embrace one another through congregational song.
To explore the role of music in Orthodox theological education in the midst of significant cultural and demographic changes and to develop a multicultural chant handbook that reflects the theological vision and demographic of the community and will facilitate spiritual formation.
To create bilingual (Spanish/English) liturgies and music from and for Latino people, especially in the Lutheran tradition, that respect and honor the Latino cultures present in the congregation.
To enhance and build upon the nontraditional Jazz Vespers service to offer innovative and radical welcome for in-person and virtual attendees to experience healing and hope.
To cultivate and nurture intergenerational discipleship through creative arts and songwriting workshops that will result in artwork in the sanctuary and original songs that tell the redemptive story from Genesis to Revelation.
To develop a worship community resource and learning platform with theologically sound, justice-rooted resources for congregational singing, bolstered by in-person learning events and educational video projects connecting congregational song to strong discipleship.
To create liturgical resources for a multicultural, multilingual, and multigenerational congregation so this Asian-Canadian congregation can encounter the triune God through words and music.
