1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2025 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 invite people into the biblical story and exploration of the seasons of the liturgical year by collaborating on a permanent artwork for worship.
To nourish the faith of worshipers by experiencing and reflecting on different ways of celebrating the Lord's Supper and reconnecting it to the preaching of the Word.
To engage all generations in the singing and study of hymns in order to increase worshipers' awareness of God in daily Christian living.
To increase worshipers' awareness of God by engaging worship through different pathways and through the various ways members of the community connect with God.
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.
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.
To promote a more meaningful encounter with God's word in the text and in worshipers' lives by engaging diverse artistic experiences of scripture in worship.
To collaboratively create original liturgy, hymnody, and art for worship that facilitates connection with God in all of life.
To listen to and reflect on students’ experience of worship and to experiment with music, visual art, and space in worship in order to deepen and diversify student leadership and participation.
To enrich the worship life of the congregation by bringing a variety of art forms together in monthly feast services that reflect the beauty and truth of the Triune God.
Benjamin Meagher
To study how the physical design and layout of a worship space influences the experience and reflects the religious identity of the congregation that worships there.
Lynn Japinga
To explore the history of policies and practices regarding divorce in the Reformed Church in America, and to study how these policies have shaped worship practices such as Scripture reading, public prayer, and preaching, and affected divorced people.
