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.
Rebecca Slough
To explore how the spatial and visual dimensions of congregational worship shape diverse Anabaptist communities, in order to create resources that facilitate culturally-informed reflection on visual arts in worship and to curate visual art resources for use in Anabaptist worship.
Antonio Alonso
To tell the story of the theological significance of ordinary material objects and the theological convictions they express, in order to encourage deeper attentiveness to the diverse materials through which we worship God.
Beth Argot
To study the relationship between historical worship practices and arts and trauma healing practices in order to explore the potential for healing and increased wellbeing of worshipers within the context of public worship.
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.
John Ruth
To survey the present state of college and seminary instruction on the theology, history, and practice of contemporary praise and worship, and to engage scholars in conversation around recent and emerging scholarship on contemporary worship in order to create a podcast series and a curriculum guide for worship educators and church practitioners.
Maria Eugenia Fee
To establish and facilitate a series of arts-based leadership development workshops for pastors and church leaders in order to introduce them to the formational value of the arts in worship and invigorate arts-based worship practices in their faith communities.
John D. Roth
To foster ecumenical conversations about baptism by hosting seminars for pastors and lay leaders using a newly created accessible study guide on the recent groundbreaking report of the international Lutheran-Mennonite-Roman Catholic Trilateral Dialogue on Baptism.
Lindsey Hanson
To investigate emerging theological issues in worship with scholars and practitioners by reflecting on a cross-disciplinary collaboration of dance, architectural design, and film within a worship space, and empowering local ministry leaders and churches to discern theologically and imagine liturgically the characteristics of Christian worship in their own context by engaging curated online media.
Sarah Travis
To create and field-test a preaching and liturgical resource addressing reconciliation among Settler Canadians and Indigenous peoples for the Presbyterian Church in Canada, based on two Calls to Action from the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Christopher A. Stephenson
To develop a pneumatological perspective on baptism and the Lord's Supper that nurtures vibrant experiences of the Holy Spirit within traditional liturgical forms and practices, and to encourage substantial Pentecostal contributions to ecumenical dialogue on the sacraments.
John Vonder Bruegge
To produce new, collaborative translations of Jesus’ parables that both remain true to the Greek text and strive for a listenability in their oral presentation, and to gather those translations into a publication that equips worshiping communities to deliver the texts orally in worship.
David Pereyra
To gather diverse worshiping communities in online workshops and webinars in order to create a culture of inclusion by assessing inclusive thinking, helping communities develop strategies to increase their inclusivity, and gathering data to develop on online reference guide on accessibility that will empower faith leaders to use varied strategies of inclusion.
