1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2024 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 train leaders through study of the theology of baptism and to promote life together in a diverse community through designing and implementing vesper worship services.
To provide music, worship, dance, and art opportunities to train young congregants for participation and leadership in worship.
To develop innovative and informal worship services involving global music to connect with spiritual but not religious persons in the community.
To develop a community through bilingual worship that reaches out from the historic black community to the growing Latino community, and to learn each other's songs and worship traditions.
To connect a theology of worship and the arts with the mission of the church through a monthly series of ecumenical worship services partnering with local homeless shelters, hospitals, and nursing homes.
To offer workshops and monthly gatherings that will provide learning, reflection and renewal to nurture and develop leadership for pastors, music ministry leaders, musicians and laity of predominately African American churches.
To offer training for volunteer cantors in fifteen rural parishes and the musicians who work with them that will develop the musical skills, liturgical knowledge and spirituality needed to do their ministry well.
To initiate learning opportunities for students to encounter and dialogue with local worship leaders and church musicians by offering practicum courses and related choir events that will provide students with hands-on experience in worship leadership that includes faculty and peer feedback and frameworks for liturgical theological reflection.
To create an Hispanic Music Ministry Formation Program to engage musicians throughout the Archdiocese in a study of Hispanic music and the role of the music in each liturgical season that will inform the leaders to select and lead music that is liturgically appropriate.
To engage teachers, composers and hymn writers in a study of practices and repertories of congregational song in North America that includes a collaborative consultation, a year-long partnership with congregations across the country and a concluding event to give new insights into the patterns in place and imagine prophetic renewal of the church’s song and leadership.
To equip church musicians and worship leaders in a geographical area where church leaders often feel isolated by offering a day long gathering for training and discussion, book study groups sharing their learning throughout the year and a final gathering to celebrate what has been learned.
To examine how songs, prayers and sermons point worshipers to God through quarterly workshops which include historic hymns and catechisms to educate the congregation and leaders in other congregations.
