1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 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 establish a children’s choir, strengthen the adult choir, and teach singing as a form of prayer in order to promote intergenerational participation in worship and faith formation.
To build relationships with the community through collaborative musicmaking, using the power of music to inspire and connect people across differences, deepen interpersonal connections, and attend to God’s Spirit in their midst.
To cultivate participatory worship across generations by lifting up music as a way to share scripture, prayers, and personal faith stories.
To foster intergenerational worship by providing opportunities for younger and older generations to learn, listen, and make music together in order to promote worship that supports the church’s mission to invite all generations into a growing life with Jesus.
To promote full and equitable participation, deepen practices of praise, and cultivate worship leadership among people with lived experiences of homelessness by establishing a community-led choir and dance ministry.
To support worshipers with mental health challenges by promoting mental health awareness, training congregants to offer peer support, and encouraging mental well-being through music ministry.
To provide training in the theology and practice of leading worship in order to help people grow in faith and leadership and find belonging and purpose.
To cultivate congregational commitments to justice and diversity by training worship leaders to incorporate music from various cultural traditions, commissioning new works, and collaborating with neighboring arts organizations.
Forrest Wakeman
To encourage deeper appreciation of God’s redemptive pursuit of God’s people through preparing for (including learning the music and studying the text) a premier performance of a large-scale choral and orchestral work that sets Old Testament texts by the biblical prophets as a dialogue between God and God’s people.
To promote reconciliation between Indigenous and settler Christians by co-creating worship songs through an ethical cross-cultural collaboration.
To connect generations and strengthen community by launching a community choir that will integrate spiritual formation with musical practice.
To live into a theology of singing as sacramental presence by reflecting on the history of communal singing, practicing embodied and paperless singing, developing new song leaders, and composing new songs.
