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 integrate intergenerational relationships, imagination, and playfulness into worship life to promote faith formation that begins in and transcends the rituals of worship.
To connect older and younger generations in both church and neighborhood communities through creating virtual meeting places for online worshipers and by creating opportunities for intergenerational musical and artistic engagement.
To promote participatory intergenerational worship by creating a collaborative worship planning team and by hosting educational events about the theology of worship and the diversity of African American worship styles, including music and dance.
To connect different generations through partnered experiences of varied artistic and worship expressions to promote connection, spiritual health, and joy.
To encourage the integration of worship, Bible knowledge, and faith practices through the exploration of spiritual disciplines in multisensory and intergenerational workshops.
To engage youth and young adults by remembering and retelling stories of the Black church through development of a lectionary, worship guide, and Sunday School curriculum emphasizing the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
To center the sacraments in worship by collaboratively creating artwork for worship that contextualizes images of bread, wine, and water for each season of the church year.
To spiritually form worshipers of all ages by compiling stories told by children into books about worship, prayer, and scripture.
To enrich worship by incorporating multiple forms of art created by worshipers at intergenerational workshops focused on creating art as a form of prayer.
To strengthen intergenerational worship through the creation of a children’s choir, liturgical discipleship courses for children, and communal prayer projects that integrate people from different generations.
To implement a project that promotes all worshipers’ full, conscious, and active participation through theological reflection and educational experiences and to create opportunities for interactive intergenerational worship.
To deepen the congregation’s knowledge of worship as a lifestyle and the practice of a Biblical worship that includes people from different generations and with different abilities.
