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 explore the role of music in Orthodox theological education in the midst of significant cultural and demographic changes and to develop a multicultural chant handbook that reflects the theological vision and demographic of the community and will facilitate spiritual formation.
To create bilingual (Spanish/English) liturgies and music from and for Latino people, especially in the Lutheran tradition, that respect and honor the Latino cultures present in the congregation.
To enhance and build upon the nontraditional Jazz Vespers service to offer innovative and radical welcome for in-person and virtual attendees to experience healing and hope.
To cultivate and nurture intergenerational discipleship through creative arts and songwriting workshops that will result in artwork in the sanctuary and original songs that tell the redemptive story from Genesis to Revelation.
To develop a worship community resource and learning platform with theologically sound, justice-rooted resources for congregational singing, bolstered by in-person learning events and educational video projects connecting congregational song to strong discipleship.
To create liturgical resources for a multicultural, multilingual, and multigenerational congregation so this Asian-Canadian congregation can encounter the triune God through words and music.
Jeffrey Allen Murdock
To encourage more inclusive and vibrant worship experiences for Christian communities by developing resources for Black sacred music programs about the historical and cultural influences on the genre, then equipping sacred music scholars and practitioners to diversify worship music selections, educate congregations, and perform Black sacred music in a variety of contexts.
J. J. Wright
To create and workshop an original musico-dramatic composition and production of five scenes from resurrection accounts to enable undergraduate students in the Folk Choir to contemplate healing and forgiveness.
Donté Ford
To uplift the hymnody of twentieth-century Holiness reformer and prolific hymn-writer Bishop Charles Price Jones, and to reinvigorate its use within and beyond the Black Church through crafting arrangements and featuring them at choral clinics, thus enriching the historical, cultural, and theological breadth of local church choir music and congregational song.
Donté Ford
To uplift the hymnody of twentieth-century Holiness reformer and prolific hymnwriter Bishop Charles Price Jones and to reinvigorate its use within and beyond the Black church by crafting arrangements and featuring them at choral clinics, thus enriching the historical, cultural, and theological breadth of local church choir music and congregational song.
To revitalize the worship experience in three congregations who share the same worship space by expanding the use of worship arts and musical forms so that all may engage in worship that is healthy, vital, and spiritually engaging.
Katie Graber
To help communities critically engage questions about why we sing diverse music and how we can do it justly by collaboratively creating a hymnal companion-style volume that aids North American communities as they sing songs from around the world.
