Upcoming Event
A Reformation Sunday worship service commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Accra Confession
October 27, 2024, 5:00 PM
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.
Abilene Christian University
Myles Werntz
Myles Werntz
To help worshiping communities learn about the moral life by connecting categories of moral reasoning to the ongoing practice of worship and discipleship as described in Psalm 23.
Teacher-Scholar
Abilene, texas
2024
Calvin University
Daniel Jesse
Daniel Jesse
To investigate how the lyrics and melodies of contemporary Christian music influence the way worshipers perceive and articulate their feelings in relation to their faith, with a particular focus on the way sadness is expressed in worship.
Worshiping Communities
Grand Rapids, michigan
2024
Denver Seminary (2024)
Michelle A. Stinson
Michelle A. Stinson
To create resources for exploring how “keeping time” with both liturgical and environmental/agrarian seasons can be a means of cultivating and fostering a biblical hope in uncertain times.
Teacher-Scholar
Littleton, colorado
2024
Dordt University
Kyle Dieleman
Kyle Dieleman
To encourage preachers through exploration fo historical and contemporary Advent preaching to consider how preaching can form people for a life in which pacing, expectations, and longings are recast in light of the kingdom of God.
Teacher-Scholar
Sioux Center, iowa
2024
Outreach Canada Ministry
Barry Whatley
Barry Whatley
To explore the vital role of poetic imagination and creative expression of poetry in enhancing spiritual formation and worship in the local church.
Teacher-Scholar
Delta, british columbia
2024
Point University
Jennifer Allen Craft
Jennifer Allen Craft
To help Christians recognize and confess how sin distorts our relationship to place and hinders our ability to love our neighbors, and to help the church develop artistic practices of placemaking that advance the kingdom of God by promoting justice, beauty, and connection.
Teacher-Scholar
West Point, georgia
2024
University of Alabama
Courtney O’Grady
Courtney O’Grady
To invite Catholic school practitioners (PK–12) to engage in self-study and group discussion as a means of reckoning with racism, ableism, and other injustices in American Catholic school practices, and then to reimagine Catholic schools as inclusive and justice-oriented worshiping communities.
Teacher-Scholar
Tuscaloosa, alabama
2024
University of Notre Dame Folk Choir (2024)
J. J. Wright
J. J. Wright
To create and workshop an original musico-dramatic composition and production of five scenes from resurrection accounts to enable undergraduate students in the Folk Choir to contemplate healing and forgiveness.
Teacher-Scholar
Notre Dame, indiana
2024
Denver Seminary
Michelle A. Stinson
Michelle A. Stinson
To explore the topic of time through biblical/theological, environmental, and agrarian reflections, probing how God’s care for creation as experienced in nature’s seasons and agriculture’s rhythms offers renewed hope as we emerge from an extended season of Covid-tide.
Teacher-Scholar
Littleton, colorado
2023
Trevecca Nazarene University
Vernon Whaley
Vernon Whaley
To strengthen the theological training and spiritual formation of worship leaders through the development of foundational courses for a worship leadership certificate program.
Teacher-Scholar
Nashville, tennessee
2023
Azusa Pacific University
Alexander Jun
Alexander Jun
To build on previous research in chapel programs at Christian colleges and universities by examining the role of chapel leaders in shaping chapel content and culture in order to demonstrate how chapel services shape the culture for diverse attendees.
Teacher-Scholar
Azusa, california
2022
Emory University Candler School of Theology
Khalia J. Williams
Khalia J. Williams
To explore the theological significance of liturgical dance in Christian worship and to discover and analyze the multiple ways that dance shapes spirituality in worship communities and in individuals.
Teacher-Scholar
Atlanta, georgia
2022