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.
DurhamCares (2023)
To illuminate God’s beauty and brilliance in Durham’s public housing communities by offering liturgical arts learning events and collaborating with public housing residents to plan and host outdoor worship services.
FedUp Ministries
To expand an existing food truck ministry by offering accessible communal worship opportunities in parks, bus stations, and parking lots where meals are served.
Light of Hope Presbyterian Church (2020)
To explore contextual methods of proclamation in a dinner and spirituality service that facilitates deeper participation of the community in worship.
Fair-Park Baptist Church (Convergence)
To practice contemplative forms of worship as a way of engaging people with God in both counter-cultural and culturally contextual ways.
Mount Aery Baptist Church
To discover the vastness of God by engaging worship practices that connect mind, body, and spirit.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
To initiate a contemplative worship service that celebrates the stories of worshipers and to provide training and coaching in storytelling.
First Presbyterian Church of McMinnville
To discern God’s presence by exploring connections between corporate worship and responsiveness to God in daily life.
St John's Episcopal Church
To develop a missional theology and practice of worship that facilitates engagement with the community.
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Spiritual Services
To create a space for people affected by health crises to engage in worship practices that connect them to their worshiping communities .
St Andrew's Episcopal Church of Denver
To enrich a contemplative worship service and to explore issues of faith, worship, contemplative prayer and the arts.
St Matthew's Lutheran Church
To create participatory worship experiences utilizing visual, musical, and dramatic arts to promote a multisensory awareness of God' presence, especially for the deaf community.
Twelve: A Foundation for Small Group Ministry
To enrich home-based small group worship gatherings by developing resources of Christian music, symbolic objects and rituals, and creative worship practices.