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 encourage meditation and spiritual disciplines that will help congregants center themselves on God and deepen practices of embodied engagement.
To create space for healing from loneliness and for development of community through creative worship practices, including concerts, community dinners, art exhibitions, and discussion groups.
Cory Hixon
To help church pastors and lay leaders strengthen their theology of work, specifically in STEM, to better serve congregants who work in these fields and to help them see their work as an act of worship.
To increase disability awareness and belonging in partner churches by providing resources and strategies for promoting the welcome and inclusion of Christians of all abilities in worshiping communities.
To engage congregants and the community in worship experiences outside of traditional Sunday services through workshops and small-group worship experiences that incorporate music and the visual and performing arts.
To cultivate holy curiosity about what God is doing in the world and in the lives of fellow congregants by connecting our story with God’s story through retreats, guest presenters, and the crafting of new liturgies.
To support Christian peacemakers by developing regular opportunities for virtual corporate worship and by sharing together in the joys and griefs of peacemaking through the practices of prayer and praise, celebration and lament.
To promote appreciation for the diversity of gifts in the congregation and empower worshipers to live out their faith within and beyond the walls of the church by introducing visual arts, liturgical dance, and a choral program within worship services.
Rhoda Schuler
To analyze the field research data on the adult catechumenate in the Lutheran church and to offer workshops that help pastors and congregations envision an adult catechumenal model that could transform their congregations.
Lynn Japinga
To explore the history of policies and practices regarding divorce in the Reformed Church in America, and to study how these policies have shaped worship practices such as Scripture reading, public prayer, and preaching, and affected divorced people.
Travis West
To encourage deeper engagement with scripture in worship and congregational life by developing a curriculum for teaching Hebrew language and culture in the local church.
