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.

Select Category
Select Year
Select State/Province
Teacher-Scholar Visual Arts

Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology

Sr. Jeana Visel

To support deeper study and experience of Byzantine iconography and theology by creating a moveable iconostasis that will aid the community's growth in knowledge and appreciation of the theology and spiritual practices of iconography and broaden its experience of Eastern expressions of worship.

Teacher-Scholar
St. Meinrad, indiana
2021
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Preaching

University of Dallas

Carla Pezzia and Theodore James Whapham

To survey clergy and congregants regarding the state of homiletics in the Catholic church in order to support Catholic preachers in improving their homilies and leverage liturgical preaching to reconnect with disengaged congregants.   

Teacher-Scholar
Irving, texas
2021
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Leisure

University of Ottawa

Paul Heintzman

To investigate how Christian worship and leisure influence each other in order to better understand the relationship between them, so that Christian worship may be enhanced, and the leisure of Christians can also be enriched.

Teacher-Scholar
Ottawa, ontario
2021
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Cultural Engagement Public Witness

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

Demetrius K. Williams

To explore the cross of Christ in African American Christian experience as motivation for piety, political engagement, and social protest by researching spirituals, narratives, sermons, and other resources that highlight the importance of the cross of Christ for notions of freedom and the unity of humanity in the church's public witness.

Teacher-Scholar
Milwaukee, wisconsin
2021
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Historical

Wheaton College

Karen Johnson

To study Christians who have historically worshipped together across racial lines, using case studies to explore how thinking Christianly and historically about race’s effect on American worship might help churches foster reconciliation in the present.

Teacher-Scholar
Wheaton, illinois
2021
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Formation Intercultural

Azusa Pacific University

Alexander Jun

To study the experience of students of color in chapel programs at Christian colleges and universities, and to assess the influence of chapel worship practices on the stated goals of these institutions with regard to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Teacher-Scholar
Azusa, california
2020
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Hermeneutics Public Witness

Boston University School of Theology

Shively Smith

To identify the metaphors and images that shape the interpretation of Scripture within worshiping communities, and to assess the impact of these interpretive images on a community’s relationship to various “others” and socio-political realities.

Teacher-Scholar
Boston, massachusetts
2020
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Liturgy Worship Resources

College of St. Scholastica

Elizabeth Anderson

To survey the process of revising the calendar of commemorations in the Episcopal Church since 2003 and to offer a proposal for how calendar reform might proceed amidst a diversity of theological understandings and liturgical practices.

Teacher-Scholar
Duluth, minnesota
2020
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Accessibility Worship Practices

Columbia Theological Seminary

Rebecca Spurrier

To create a liturgical resource that responds to ableist images, narratives, and symbols that are common in Christian worship, drawing from insights in liturgical studies and disability studies.

Teacher-Scholar
Decatur, georgia
2020
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Congregational Life Formation

Concordia University

Rhoda Schuler

To analyze the field research data on the adult catechumenate in the Lutheran church and to offer workshops that help pastors and congregations envision an adult catechumenal model that could transform their congregations.

Teacher-Scholar
St. Paul, minnesota
2020
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Missional Youth

Fuller Youth Institute

Tyler Greenway

To investigate the perceptions of public worship practices among young people who do not regularly attend worship services, in order to provide insight to Christian worshiping communities as they seek to better understand the life narratives of this population.

Teacher-Scholar
Wayland, michigan
2020
Learn more
Teacher-Scholar Public Witness Sacraments

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Andrew Wymer and Kristen Daley Mosier

To engage the baptismal practices of diverse Christian communities in regions impacted by toxic water, and to construct a theoretical and practical vision of baptismal solidarity for the broader Church.

Teacher-Scholar
Evanston, illinois
2020
Learn more