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 students and partner congregations in collaborative worship planning as a spiritual practice.
To equip lay leaders to shape liturgy for an outdoor service designed to extend a ministry of hospitality in the community.
To develop a missional theology of the table and create worship resources in order to better connect worship with a missional vocation.
To assist parishes to more fully embody the vision of Vatican II by training those who will form new Catholics for a life grounded in liturgical worship.
To provide training, internships, and experiences of liturgical music from various traditions and cultures to high school students with potential to be future liturgical pastoral ministers.
To connect two different churches that use the same site by bringing them into worship together on feast and fast days, using music as a bridge to promote wholeness and healing.
To train members of four churches to tell their stories of faith in order to strengthen each congregation’s local worship practices and deepen a shared identity in an ecumenical, multicultural alliance.
To promote active participation of all ages in worship through intergenerational activities throughout the liturgical calendar that tell the stories, customs and traditions of African American culture.
To focus on the seasons of the Christian year through worship, study, and art, in order to promote a greater sense of God’s presence in worship and daily life.
To provide training for clergy and lay parish leaders to enhance the planning of liturgy, especially in rural and missionary community parishes.
To explore ways to leverage the congregation's worship and missional priorities and promote a greater commitment to discipleship and service through studies and events related to worship and justice.
To gather a community around silence, contemplative prayer and meditation on Scripture and ancient Christian texts, in order to facilitate encounters with God's living presence in worship.
