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.
HyeRan Kim-Cragg and Mona Tokarek LaFosse
To train international graduate students experiencing the trauma of migration and immigration in practices of trauma-informed worship leading so they can implement the practices in their worshiping communities.
Marcia Clarke
To equip pastors and worship leaders to guide congregations in theologically grounded, Spirit-informed worship experiences through promoting critical scholarly reflection on Pentecostal/Charismatic worship and collaboration between pastor-practioners and scholars.
Joel Kiekintveld
To conduct a case study of how a church reimagined its worship model from attraction-based to member-led, in order to address the crisis of decline of church members and clergy by proposing a model of church rooted in the priesthood of believers.
Shannan Baker
To pilot a contemporary worship training program focused on discovering the best educational methods for teaching contemporary worship, by engaging in workshops on technology, music, and theology.
Steven Felix-Jager
To support church practitioners in their aesthetic, pastoral, and theological deliberations about congregational worship music by addressing multiple modes of discernment, with the goal of leading to deeper, more empathetic understanding of worship traditions.
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.
Robert Neil Cooke
To develop a theology of technology and social media that leads to the development of liturgical skills in the local church context and of ways to utilize technology and social media to strengthen the public activities of the church.
Brandon Crowley
To support and engage the public worship of African American congregations by creating a workbook that teaches pastors and local church leaders how to be more inclusive of Black women and LGBTQIA+ folx in their worship designs.
Melanie Ross
To research the worship music industry, Christian higher education, and congregational ministry, in order to explore the intersection of liturgy and economics, to provide a history of how worship became part of the commercial music and entertainment industry, and to understand the ways that congregations and Christian colleges that train future worship leaders have responded to this shift.
Jeremy Perigo
To investigate emerging issues in liturgical theology through podcast and video interviews with scholars and practitioners, in order to empower local ministry leaders and churches to discern theologically and imagine liturgically the characteristics of Christian worship in their own context.
Susan E. Hylen
To study the history of women's participation in church life in the early church with pastors and church leaders, discerning how historical claims do (and should) function in contemporary discussions.
Ed Willmington
To research six vocational competencies of well-formed worship leaders and develop a variety of resources to share insights related to the formation of worship leaders.
