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.

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Worshiping Communities Music Trauma/Mental Health

Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church

To support worshipers with mental health challenges by promoting mental health awareness, training congregants to offer peer support, and encouraging mental well-being through music ministry.

Worshiping Communities
Omaha, nebraska
2025
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Worshiping Communities Sacraments

Anglican Diocese of Edmonton

To create new baptismal resources that educate and encourage new believers in ways that respond to the needs of diverse twenty-first-century Christian families.

Worshiping Communities
Edmonton, alberta
2025
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Teacher-Scholar Worship Resources

Ashland Theological Seminary

Amy David Abdallah

To explore how Christians think about, experience, and mark death, both physical and metaphorical, in order to help Christians acknowledge death more meaningfully in their personal, small-group, and corporate worship.

Teacher-Scholar
Ashland, ohio
2025
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Worshiping Communities Formation Visual Arts

Azusa Pacific University 

To foster a dynamic, participatory, and creative worship community where young adults can engage with God through visual arts, music, and worship leadership training.

Worshiping Communities
Azusa, california
2025
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Worshiping Communities Liturgy Sacraments

Bethel Community Presbyterian Church

To reimagine the practice of the Lord’s Supper—including designing table installations, creating contextualized liturgies, and hosting culturally specific "love feasts"—to represent the diversity of Christ's body and enrich the spirit of celebration surrounding communion.

Worshiping Communities
San Leandro, california
2025
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Worshiping Communities Justice Liturgy

Board of World Mission

To create liturgical and educational resources that equip Moravian clergy and lay leaders to guide worshipers in connecting their faith with social justice.

Worshiping Communities
Bethlehem, pennsylvania
2025
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Worshiping Communities Multicultural Music

Broadway United Methodist Church

To cultivate congregational commitments to justice and diversity by training worship leaders to incorporate music from various cultural traditions, commissioning new works, and collaborating with neighboring arts organizations.

Worshiping Communities
Indianapolis, indiana
2025
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Worshiping Communities Bilingual Education/Leadership

California Prestige University (formerly Presbyterian Theological Seminary in America)

To unite existing Korean-, English-, and Chinese-speaking Christian communities in worship by training leaders for new multilingual chapel services featuring rotating language leadership and real-time translation.

Worshiping Communities
Santa Fe Springs, california
2025
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Teacher-Scholar Preaching Scripture

Calvin University

Clair Mesick

To study New Testament texts on despair, suicide, and mental disorder (“madness”) in their historical and cultural contexts and to consult with experts in pastoral care and psychology to consider implications for the contemporary church context and to provide resources for preaching on these topics that do not demonize mental illness.

Teacher-Scholar
Grand Rapids, michigan
2025
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Teacher-Scholar Music

Calvin University

Forrest Wakeman

To encourage deeper appreciation of God’s redemptive pursuit of God’s people through preparing for (including learning the music and studying the text) a premier performance of a large-scale choral and orchestral work that sets Old Testament texts by the biblical prophets as a dialogue between God and God’s people. 

Teacher-Scholar
Grand Rapids, michigan
2025
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Teacher-Scholar Preaching

Catholic Theological Union

Edward Foley

To empower preachers to effectively engage with science in their sermons and homilies through a training program and the creation of digital resources. 

Teacher-Scholar
Chicago, illinois
2025
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Worshiping Communities Online Resources

Christ Church Cranbrook

To facilitate active worship by teaching congregants about embodied worship and developing worship activities available for communal and devotional use on an app.

Worshiping Communities
Bloomfield Hills, michigan
2025
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