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 explore the practice of hospitality in worship through study, workshops and monthly worship events that will invite adults and youth in the community to participate in worship.
To involve congregants in small rural congregations in southern Oregon and northern California in an interdenominational, intergenerational process that explores relationships in worship and focuses on connecting them to daily life.
To begin a certification program that will equip children's choir leaders with the skills necessary for creative and purposeful integration of children in worship.
To create intergenerational worship services using music and the arts by engaging the congregation in a series of workshops and retreats with a focus on unity and music.
To create and train intergenerational worship planning teams of congregational members and ministry leaders in the planning of liturgies, music, mime, dance and visual arts to engage and unite worshipers of all ages with particular attention to social justice.
To explore the role of the arts, liturgical gifts and an understanding of space in worship through a series of learning events that will integrate chapel more deeply in the life of the seminary.
To engage the congregation's urban youth through workshops on hip hop, dance, and art that culminate with youth involvement in planning and leading worship.
To empower youth to study and plan liturgies with a particular emphasis on music, art and sacramental celebration in African American congregations.
To empower youth to plan and lead worship through study of and exposure to various forms of worship.
To strengthen campus worship leadership through leadership retreats, a regional conference that joins theoretical study with practice, training events, a worship-song composition workshop and the creation of worship visuals.
To enhance participation in the celebration of the sacraments and prayer services both in school and local parishes through providing music and liturgical training for children and youth, their teachers, music directors, principals and pastors.
To engage children in worship by teaching them about their worship tradition, about scripture embodied in the three year cycle of readings and about the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist.
