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.
Susan Bigelow Reynolds
To study public, lay-led Way of the Cross (Via Crucis) rituals that engage contemporary social injustices in light of the cross, exploring how communities on the margins of church and society use public ritual to practice theological agency.
To invite worshipers into reflection on traditions of liturgical art that facilitates engagement with wonder and the beauty of God, culminating in the collaborative creation of paraments for the worship space.
To deepen, enrich, and connect the individual and corporate worship life of congregants by drawing on the devotional practices of the saints throughout history in aesthetically rich and cohesive worship experiences that have corresponding practices which engage the senses and foster embodied devotional practices at home.
David Keep
To deepen worshipers' theology and spiritual life by creating an online Advent calendar that features visual art and music, and by holding art interpretation events and panel discussions in which participants engage theological truths—particularly the incarnation—through the arts.
Kate Finley
To explore how public church practices, including sermons, corporate prayer, and other worship practices reflect various understandings and interpretations of mental disorders and to construct a practically applicable online resource that will enable congregations to be more inclusive of those who experience mental disorder and enriched by the unique perspectives they embody.
To implement a project that promotes all worshipers’ full, conscious, and active participation through theological reflection and educational experiences and to create opportunities for interactive intergenerational worship.
To deepen the congregation’s knowledge of worship as a lifestyle and the practice of a Biblical worship that includes people from different generations and with different abilities.
To create a children’s choir to include children in the church’s worship services and enhance the congregational worship experience.
To train church leaders to develop fully bilingual worship services, Bible studies, small group meetings, and church school.
To develop training workshops in the arts to educate the congregation on the meaning of integral worship and to develop practical workshops on music and singing for worship leaders to enhance bilingual public worship.
To educate the congregation on the twelve confessions of faith using the five senses in public worship services.
To develop a program to involve children and adolescents in public worship services and other ministry activities of the church aimed at reaching families with children in the neighborhood.
