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 promote worship that engages the congregation and surrounding community through cultural stories that show how God forms the identity of God’s people.
To provide training for clergy and lay parish leaders to enhance the planning of liturgy, especially in rural and missionary community parishes.
To bring together different demographics of language, ethnicity, and tradition on campus in worship and to share in fellowship and discipleship activities.
To invite people into the biblical story in worship and encourage them to expand their imagination of God through the art they encounter in the worship space.
To address questions of faith and tradition related to worship, to encourage a spirit of collaborative learning and inquiry, and to stimulate growth in understanding through questions that arise of out of experiences of all kinds of churchgoers.
To explore ways to leverage the congregation's worship and missional priorities and promote a greater commitment to discipleship and service through studies and events related to worship and justice.
To creatively tell the stories of all ages and develop a rhythm of worship in a new church community through conversations, Bible studies, shared meals and a congregational retreat.
To help persons of different ages and abilities grow in faith through worship and to encourage collaboration between pastors and worship leaders through a series of learning events.
To train leaders in teaching techniques and motivational activities for the enlivening of singing in congregations that will help transform worshipers into effective disciples.
To gather a community around silence, contemplative prayer and meditation on Scripture and ancient Christian texts, in order to facilitate encounters with God's living presence in worship.
To empower members of three local congregations to engage in spiritual formation through practicing and sharing artistic works of song, prayer, and Scripture.
To promote the full, conscious, active participation of all worshipers as a fully intergenerational community in a collaboration of pastors and laypersons from several congregations.
