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.
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.
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.
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.
To invite people into the solemnity and joy of the eucharist by focusing on collaboratively created art.
To explore contextual methods of proclamation in a dinner and spirituality service that facilitates deeper participation of the community in worship.
Lis Valle-Ruiz
To study digitally mediated worship and preaching practices as it relates to the embodied experience, presence, and active participation from the perspectives of the worshipers.
To educate and empower lay leaders and congregations to understand and embrace the various worship cultures that are part of the Mennonite song tradition in North America.
