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 engage ten congregations in developing a tool that encourages each to move beyond speaking primarily about personal preferences in worship and to embrace deeper ways of speaking about each congregation’s unique strengths and callings.
To implement a mentoring program for worship pastors that focuses on developing liturgical and everyday worship practices to encourage creation care as a way of loving our neighbors and God our creator.
To promote the inclusion of minority worship leaders in chapel services through inviting diverse guest leaders and emphasizing the theological potential of minoritized worship expressions in seminary courses and in a colloquium.
To train young worship leaders and strengthen congregational worship through developing an intergenerational mentorship program.
Emmanuel Parish
To train worship leaders in the theology and practice of intergenerational and innovative worship (including African music and liturgy, dance, and visual arts) through developing opportunities for education, prayer, and collaborative planning of major festival services.
To support pastoral enrichment for second-generation Korean American pastors through piloting a cohort program that incorporates contextual formation, spiritual direction, pastoral rejuvenation, and funding for liturgical experimentation by cohort members.
To equip emerging BIPOC worship artist activists to shape their local ministries to develop a prophetic imagination that celebrates the goodness and beauty of the justice God seeks for our world.
To create a worship learning and vision group that will develop its theological understanding of worship and collaboratively imagine and implement new, culturally inclusive worship elements.
Eunice Hong
To gain a better understanding of Asian American women clergy’s experiences of congregational and worship leadership, exploring the kinds of resources that would support their flourishing.
To equip local church leaders to worship by letting “justice roll down” in their lives, by training cohort members to address structural racial disparities, and by developing a theological framework that highlights God’s desire for shalom and the advocacy for the oppressed found in scripture.
To equip Hawaiian youth to be Spirit-filled worship leaders through a program focused on what worship is, who we are as worshipers, and how to build musical and creative arts skills.
To help church leaders learn how to develop worship, discipleship, and missional practices that connect with congregants’ Monday-through-Saturday lives through skill mapping, a cohort program, and a three-day intensive.
