1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 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 equip worshipers to identify, develop, and use their spiritual gifts in worship through training, reflection, and active participation.
To create multisensory intergenerational worship experiences through retreats, worship services, community events, and worship labs that promote deeper spiritual connection and extend worship beyond the church walls.
To reclaim joy and play as expressions of faith in worship by inviting special guest preachers to lead services and by creating a lab for translating scripture into embodied practice.
To promote intergenerational faith formation, spiritual curiosity, and a sense of belonging within the church community by engaging worshipers in a multisensory worship lab experience.
To foster contemplative spirituality and to cultivate emerging leaders by equipping high school-aged Choral Scholars to lead Evensong services.
To more fully engage children in corporate worship and to uncover ways to make singing, worship rituals, and community life more inclusive of all ages.
To strengthen congregational participation, formation, and belonging by spending a year studying, designing, and practicing intergenerational worship.
To launch an intergenerational worship formation project pairing older mentors and students to learn and model prayer, worship, and scripture reading to foster deeper and lasting spiritual disciplines and a sustainable culture of vibrant faith expression.
To learn about and practice collaborative worship planning among clergy, musicians, youth, and lay leaders to strengthen leadership and deepen intergenerational engagement.
To ground the congregation in biblical and theological foundations of prayer by teaching on the theology and practice of prayer and by fostering opportunities for shared intergenerational group prayer experiences.
To invite all ages into creative, participatory worship by facilitating experiential worship opportunities with a worship lab and a collective art project.
To increase participation of laity across generations in planning and leading worship by strengthening the choir as a vehicle for leadership and formation.
