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 train worshipers in improvisational theater techniques in order to create a variety of worship experiences that facilitate intergenerational participation in worship.
To promote engagement with scripture and the Christian year in worship by reflecting on the life and teachings of Christ through stained glass art.
Richard Voelz
To create and field-test a workbook that will equip pastors to walk with adolescent preachers as they prepare to preach in public worship and other congregational contexts.
Marjorie Snipes
To examine a diverse range of Christian churches in the rural South and identify newly-emerging ecumenical practices, including shifts in ritual practice, educational activities, and cooperation in joint mission.
To pilot an interactive worship experience that fosters practices of justice, stewardship, and vocational exploration, and facilitates personal and communal encountering of God.
Ronald Rienstra
To write a book comprised of brief essays that explore the deep patterns in worship as well as in worship's constituent parts (ordo, scripture, sermon, song, prayer, action).
To foster unity among different African ethnic communities and awareness of varying worship needs and experiences by facilitating collaboration among worship leaders at African ethnic churches.
Monique M. Ingalls
To conduct ethnographic fieldwork of interethnic gospel choirs and to identity promising strategies for how worship music can build "convivial" interethnic congregational cultures.
To develop a program that will assist churches in becoming physically, culturally, and spiritually accessible to people with disabilities, in order to create worshiping communities that honor the gifts and full participation of each person.
To deeply form worshipers through the structure of the liturgy by collaboratively writing songs for the elements of the liturgy.
Lee Hardy
To study the connection between congregations' worship and mission activities, focusing on church-supported affordable housing in gentrifying urban neighborhoods.
To integrate engagement with God through the arts into worship by cultivating a community of artists who will serve in a variety of churches.
