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 form a hospitable communal worship space that welcomes worshipers’ whole selves and celebrates all of the Body of Christ in its diversity by engaging in music, arts, and storytelling.
To increase Biblical literacy and an awareness of the beauty of God by expressing scripture through art.
To enable deeper participation in scripture through drama, dance, and music as modes of proclamation.
To deepen worshipers’ practice of joy in a community marked by suffering by creating Psalm-influenced liturgical art together.
To renew a robust Communion practice by exploring the ways global, local, and congregational table practices deepen worshipers’ engagement with God and the world.
To facilitate the full participation in worship of persons with dementia by engaging with experts in inclusive worship in order to provide all worshipers with increased spiritual transformation and social connectedness.
To build relationships around the table by exploring a dinner church format and by reflecting on Scripture to create new songs that represent this expression of worship.
To engage multicultural worship as a means of reconciliation through immersion experiences that expand students’ awareness of God and will inform their leadership of multicultural worship on campus and at local churches.
To strengthen the role of testimony in worship by helping worshipers tell their stories through visual art, original song, and written narrative.
To implement outdoor worship services designed to extend a ministry of hospitality to the community.
To explore practices of worship that facilitate engagement across generations, particularly focused on breaking down barriers that keep the unaffiliated from engaging the church.
To teach worshipers to engage art as an act of worship and to engage in Christian art-making, in order to better participate in the liturgy with body, mind, and soul.
