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 encourage preaching that uses liturgical texts and orients worshipers toward their mission in the world by developing a cohort program for preachers that includes training, practice, and reflection with congregants on the significance of preaching for witness and service in daily life.
Tyshawn Gardner
To equip congregations from any tradition or ethnic demographic to impact their communities through their spiritual and social witness by lifting up hermeneutical and homiletical insights from the African American preaching tradition.
Tyler Greenway
To equip preachers to intentionally design sermons that form congregants by investigating how preaching shapes Christian formation through a multi-method empirical study informed by the disciplines of both psychology and theology.
To strengthen preaching and equip Black women to proclaim the word with clarity, courage, and sustainability through cohorts that feature sermon labs, mentored feedback, testimony-shaped proclamation, and guided practices of listening and reflection.
To equip emerging preachers to proclaim the gospel in ways that are contextually relevant, spiritually sustaining, and oriented toward lived discipleship through cohort-based skill building, theological grounding, and peer learning.
To integrate homiletical training for associate ministers with communal practices of lament and testimony in order to promote a holistic liberatory worship experience that empowers both the pulpit and the pew.
To deepen engagement with Scripture across generations by integrating sermon preparation and reflection with at-home worship, training multiple ages in scripture proclamation, and strengthening the theological foundations for worship and congregational gathering practices.
To enrich ministries across the church by integrating practices of preaching, testimony, and prayer into weekly Bible studies, outreach ministries, and worshipers’ daily lives, leading to restoration and spiritual growth for those navigating reentry and life transition.
Eunjoo Kim
To develop a model for preaching in postmodern, postcolonial, and post-Christian contexts that will serve Christian worshiping communities by integrating psychological hermeneutics, cultural and cognitive psychology, and a theology of friendship.
To enrich worship life across generations and promote active participation in worship by strengthening worship leadership skills in the areas of liturgical dance, drama, preaching and teaching, and corporate prayer.
To form college students as worship leaders through a mentored cohort model that pairs students with practitioners in preaching, worship arts, and eucharistic baking in order to offer hospitality, faith flourishing, and renewed worship life.
Clair Mesick
To study New Testament texts on despair, suicide, and mental disorder (“madness”) in their historical and cultural contexts and to consult with experts in pastoral care and psychology to consider implications for the contemporary church context and to provide resources for preaching on these topics that do not demonize mental illness.
