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 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.
Shannan Baker
To pilot a contemporary worship training program focused on discovering the best educational methods for teaching contemporary worship, by engaging in workshops on technology, music, and theology.
Adam Perez
To assess the distribution and reception of popular worship songs and the relationship between the worship music industry and local worship practitioners, in order to equip practitioners with a deeper understanding of the forces that impact their worship song selections.
To train young worship leaders and strengthen congregational worship through developing an intergenerational mentorship program.
To encourage and equip choir members as worship leaders, not performers, by creating a network for choirs in Vancouver’s Chinese churches that will commission hymn anthems, share resources, and prepare choir members to strengthen the corporate ministry of congregational singing.
