1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 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 sponsor two two-day conferences which will focus on worship in the Reformed tradition and create a context in which churches can discuss worship.
To host Worship and the Visual Arts, a conference to explore the theology of integrating visual arts with congregational worship, especially in the small church.
To collaborate with neighboring churches by sponsoring numerous sessions reflecting on global worship and the normativity of the multicultural church, implementing music, prayers and rituals of African, Central and South American and Asian Christians in worship, and extending hospitality to people from a variety of cultures.
To establish an Academy for Pastoral Musicians in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region which will nurture and form a deeper awareness of "pastoral" ministry through music that nurtures and deepens the Christian faith and life of those who participate in public worship in the Church.
To sponsor a conference, "Arts Ministry: Fostering the Creative life of God's People" that will expose participants to critical thinking about the church and the arts, present them with good models of arts ministry and provide a list of resources for arts ministries.
To present four workshops to help smaller congregations begin using worship programs involving the use of dramatic readings and skits, puppets with children, interactive and narrative styles of sermons and creative changes to worship environments such as banners and interactive orders of worship.
To develop a three-year Institute for Liturgy offering 10 courses which will equip participants to offer regional and congregational educational events regarding church liturgy.
To enhance the understanding and practice of worship on the college campus through 2 conferences and a series of monthly meetings to learn about and reflect on the principles of biblical worship.
To sponsor "A Community in Worship Project," a two-day community worship event, bringing together churches across denominational, racial and socioeconomic lines for teaching and learning regarding Christian worship.
To offer a Liturgy Summer Camp that will provide a basic understanding of liturgy for lay persons in Michigan and Ohio.
To renew interest in the use of the pipe organ in worship by conducting workshops for children and youth to introduce them to the organ, workshops for organists, offering a hymn festival and initiating a scholarship program for youth who wish to take organ lessons.
To develop The Jazz in Worship Project for creating new settings of congregational music that are fitting for Christian worship services and true to the jazz idiom.
