1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 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 engage in synodal listening processes to help young adults reconnect to Christian worship and faith formation and develop leadership skills, discernment, and confidence in sharing testimonies.
To equip university students to bear witness to God’s presence through personal storytelling in worship.
To strengthen worship leadership by implementing a leadership development project consisting of workshops, mentoring, and worship celebrations.
To foster worship that welcomes a diverse community by developing an inclusive-language hymnal that includes multiple languages, promotes faithful anti-racism, and reflects the concerns and style preferences of young people.
J. J. Wright
To learn how a musical dramatic proclamation of Christ’s Passion and resurrection awakens friendship, hope, and missionary imagination, and to translate lessons learned into pastoral habits that strengthen Christian worshiping communities.
Lisa D. Maugans Driver
To revitalize the practices of confession and forgiveness in worship by developing theological, instructional, and practical resources to encourage greater intentionality in individual and corporate confession.
To create a dinner church, led by student leaders who co-create the liturgy and liturgical arts, to be an alternative and collaborative worshiping community for young adults who are weary of traditional church spaces.
Jennifer Powell McNutt
To study the history of the French Huguenot Bible as an avenue for equipping the church with a fresh appreciation for the nature of scripture, its role in worship, and how scripture points to the living God and transforms the Christian life today.
To equip rural pastors and worship leaders by providing training and building networks for support and creative exchange.
To strengthen worship life by exploring how diverse worship traditions shape communion with God through Christ across cultures using the primary expressions of art and music.
To invite all ages into creative, participatory worship by facilitating experiential worship opportunities with a worship lab and a collective art project.
Amy McLaughlin-Sheasby
To explore the efficacy of preaching through the lens of affect theory to help preachers think carefully about the extralinguistic properties of proclamation and the ethical questions of the power of preaching.
