1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 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.
Jennifer Lord
To renew Protestant worshiping communities in keeping the church year, through study of and teaching about how an Orthodox parish understands and is spiritually grounded in the church year.
To foster racial healing through the practices of worship, pilgrimage, and reflection on the impact of racism on the church.
To strengthen ecumenical relationships and spiritual formation opportunities in a culturally and linguistically diverse student body through the development of a regular Taizé service on campus.
To help congregations and individual Christian worshipers grow in their understanding and practice of lament in the context of a diverse, collaborative community by equipping them with resources to weave lament into regular worship services and into a collaborative ecumenical Ash Wednesday service.
To learn about Black sacred music and its ecumenical history and future by facilitating lectures and the study of hymns by a number of congregations and a campus ministry.
To promote unity in the global church and the integration of worship with daily discipleship by equipping worship leaders and musicians with resources for communion that invite congregations into worship that remembers Christ’s sacrifice, deepens worshipers’ participation, and extends hospitality and peace beyond the sanctuary.
Jennifer Lord
To encourage renewed engagement with the sacrament of baptism among Protestant Christians by studying baptismal practices and theology in Orthodox Christianity, with special emphasis on confession of sins as part of baptismal living.
To engage students at Furman University in weekly student-led worship by equipping student leaders and developing ecumenical liturgical resources.
To host an ecumenical workshop series for rural churches in southwestern Ontario to acknowledge the unique challenges of rural communities, embrace a theology of abundance in naming the benefits of rural churches, and encourage one another.
Andrew Summerson
To bring together an ecumenical group of scholars to critically analyze early Christian liturgical poetry as prayer and pedagogy in order to give exposure to a significant and underdeveloped voice in contemporary Christianity.
John D. Roth
To foster ecumenical conversations about baptism by hosting seminars for pastors and lay leaders using a newly created accessible study guide on the recent groundbreaking report of the international Lutheran-Mennonite-Roman Catholic Trilateral Dialogue on Baptism.
Christopher A. Stephenson
To develop a pneumatological perspective on baptism and the Lord's Supper that nurtures vibrant experiences of the Holy Spirit within traditional liturgical forms and practices, and to encourage substantial Pentecostal contributions to ecumenical dialogue on the sacraments.
