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.
Emmanuel Reformed Church (2015)
To renew a Spanish worshiping community through communal practices of worship connected to art, dance, hospitality, and service.
First Congregational United Church of Christ of Rockford
To engage worshipers in a year of walking with Jesus by multisensory worship through the seasons of the church year and connections with worshipers' daily lives.
First Presbyterian Church of Redding
To develop intergenerational, indigenous worship by including the congregation in designing worship services for Advent and Holy Week that include music, visual arts and drama.
North Atlanta District of the AME Church
To provide workshops, retreats, and intergenerational worship experiences for pastors and worship leaders in order to transform the public worship of their churches.
Peletah Ministries
To elevate and strengthen the worship experience of young adults through the creative arts of music, dance, mime, and spoken word.
Raymond Village Community Church
To explore the meaning of worship by creating engaging community worship experiences that involve the creative gifts and talents of the congregation in art and prayer.
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.
Institute for Prison Ministries, Wheaton College
To develop and deliver culturally relevant drama and visual arts training for worship leaders in prison settings as a means of promoting a vivid awareness and heartfelt response to God.
Rainbow Mennonite Church
To provide music, worship, dance, and art opportunities to train young congregants for participation and leadership in worship.
University Congregational United Church of Christ
To enter a church-wide intergenerational exploration of the gospel through the arts of drama, song, dance, storytelling, and sculpture and to integrate these artistic forms in worship experiences through the seasons of the church year.
Kirkwood United Church of Christ
To facilitate a study of drama, art, music and dance that will immerse the congregation in the fullness of worship, ground them in their faith, strengthen them as a community and equip them in their calling to reach out to their community.
St Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church
To create worship that is formative rather than expressive by inviting the congregation and community to engage in multi-generational opportunities for learning, reflection and worshipful expression that includes liturgical dance, mime, step, drama and visual art.