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.
City Church of Compton
To cultivate in children an awareness of the beauty of God in worship while teaching them skills for leading worship through music, dance, and visual arts.
Community Congregational United Church of Christ
To equip laypersons to lead and participate in worship by helping them integrate their own experiences of God’s presence with the history, creeds, and practices of African-American churches.
Concordia Seminary
To draw adults into a life of Christian discipleship by studying four congregations with robust catechumenate programs in order to facilitate formational practices and patterns in the worship of other congregations.
DurhamCares
To unify churches who share a common neighborhood by implementing ecumenical and contextual worship that meets the needs of the community.
Knox Presbyterian Church (2018)
To identify, disciple, equip, and encourage a group of diverse worship leaders who can implement multicultural worship that reflects the diversity present in the congregation and community.
Luther College
To create a lectionary for undergraduate academic communities that integrates the academic and liturgical calendars in order to facilitate holistic spiritual formation in campus worship.
National Association of the Church of God
To facilitate a yearlong emphasis on worship and the arts in local congregations by hosting a series of national meetings that train local leaders in the theology and practice of formational liturgy.
New Life Church
To reflect the divine hospitality of the triune God in worship by equipping leaders to facilitate the active participation of all worshipers and by creating a space that aesthetically leads people into worship.
Rebirth Healing and Deliverance Ministries
To strengthen the community’s connection with God and with one another by deepening worshipers' practices of communal intercessory prayer.
Saint Mary's College
To explore the ways the liturgy facilitates hospitality as a Christian liturgical practice in order to be open and welcoming to all people.
Southeastern Iowa Synod-Free Indeed
To equip the members of a worshiping community within a prison for pastoral and musical leadership.
Bethlen Home of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America
To cultivate young Christian leaders to mature in a life-long faith by empowering them with the skills and knowledge to lead intergenerational worship.