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 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 support ecumenical peer learning cluster groups to consider how seminaries can form worship leaders.
To train worship leaders in opening worship to the leadership gifts of persons with disabilities through a conference and a year long process of learning with several congregations.
To form multigenerational, multicultural teams in which participants can explore how their gifts can be used in worship through music and the arts.
To explore the role of visual arts in making the Lord's Supper and Baptism more meaningful by giving attention to the church year in corporate worship and small group discussions.
To study and respond to the Psalms through prayer and jazz music in both corporate worship and small groups during the entire year.
To offer a series of retreats, consultations, and worship services aimed at bringing together worship leaders and musicians for collaboration and reflection in an urban, multicultural, emerging worship community.
To train youth and young adults from diverse backgrounds to lead worship and to strengthen unity in the congregation by encouraging and studying intergenerational worship.
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 engage the congregation in a process that explores the connections between theology, liturgy and life through a conference and ongoing class which will study aesthetic liturgical reasoning to better understand decisions about music, outreach, and space.
To encourage five congregations to integrate theatre arts into worship with both artistic excellence and biblical integrity through a conference on theater in worship and a year long mentoring program for worship leaders.
To instruct and strengthen core teams of lay leaders through a year-long mentorship to create written resources, visual arts, graphics and musical arrangements for worship.
